I did a cotton q-tip with alcohol. The laser is clean, I think the laser strength is off though. either that it failed. The disc does not spin as at. It injects the cartridge, then it ejects it after like 3 seconds. I might be able to take the top off and insert without a disc and see if the laser comes on. If it doesn't (which at those times the laser was visible to the naked eye) I could tell if the laser works or not. I think it might be out of focus. I had an issue with a CD-RW drive that I tweaked a button that tuned the laser (either strength or adjusted the focus) and it worked. I have done it on laptop optical drives. I just need to play with it.

I do have a CD-ROM that works though. I obviously want to fix the AppleCD SC drive mechanism first. Failing that I can replace it with a CD-ROM from like a centris 610 or something which has a caddy load. Either that, or a caddy-load CD-RW drive which I know they have.

Eisenfaust, I will be calling you tomorrow to hash out what we will do next. I owe you a beer for borrowing the equipment. I say it's Crescent Moon time!