My 8 yr old ibook OS 10.3.9 is mostly used as a DVD player now. My library is now adding a thicker security sticker to their DVDs. These are getting stuck in the ibook slot drive.
So I planned to use a HP dvd557s. The ibook doesn't recognize it. HP do not make a Mac OS driver.

Is there a 3rd party driver that would work ?

TIA

Try downloading the old PPC version of VLC media player and use it rather than Apple's media player.

You'll find it here:
VideoLAN - Download official VLC media player for Mac OS X

BTW: You just may have noticed that PPC compatible software isn't really being developed these days.

Borrowed a Samsung ( 2 USB cables - manufactured 2010) plug and play.

Never did get the HP to operate

So I extend the life of my 8 year old ibook.

I got a Samsung SE-S084F/RSBS Slim External DVD Writer last Sept. '11 as a replacement for a fellow's kaput "Combo" in his original MacBook and it worked very well and with way more features for $30.00. Not quite as convenient, but it worked well.

And BTW: your "8 yr old ibook OS 10.3.9" can be upgraded to use Mac OS 10.4.11 for the G3 models and 10.5.8 for the G4 models, and a 8 year old iBook should be a G4 model.

A lot of OS improvements included from the 10.3.9 version.