Welp, my iBook combo drive finally went and died on me, so now it's in the shop at Fry's. There are two things that this situation has presented to me. The first is that I'm kind of saddened by the workmanship of Apple on the iBook if the CDRW/DVD combo drive has given out in just 6 months -- I bought the thing in February. I do think it's a heat related issue and that the drive gets too much heat when it is used heavily. I can't complain too loudly though because Sony is the one that manufactures that drive! (If you want to know, I'm a stock holder in Apple and an employee of Sony.)
The second thing is that, as much as I used to complain about Fry's, I'm kind of impressed with them right now. The last performance guarantee I had was for my Samsung phone and they replaced that right away. I got a performance guarantee for my iBook and they are taking care of everything for free. I'm impressed.
I hope I get my iBook back soon. They said that if it does have to go back to Apple for repairs, it'll take six to eight weeks -- but another good thing about that performance guarantee is that I'll have the option of getting a loaner unit for the time being. Nice.