It's not pretty, but I have a solution to the SuperDrive problem. It was an issue with the power adapter. I purchased a replacement adapter, but the input plug was the wrong size. I cut off the plug from the previous adapter and spliced it together with the new one. The SuperDrive works like a charm. I wonder how many more of these have failed and the whole drives have been thrown out as a result?

http://s172.photobucket.com/user/mac1984user/media/4739A651-4F39-46E9-8032-FAF27E2DC281_zpsalfzdbae.jpg.html