I currently own a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop. A while back the DVD RW started to fail, (up to 20 mins to transfer a 700MB file), anyway even though it was just out of warranty I contacted Dell who agreed to replace the drive, unfortunately the one they sent as a replacement was little better, (takes about 17 mins to transfer the same file!!).
Long story short I need to buy a new DVD RW for the Inspiron 9400 laptop but do not want to pay the £100 for a crap replacement. Does anyone know the names of other reliable drives that I can get at a reasonable price?
Dvd drives for laptops will fail alot quicker than those for desktops. They just can't handle the same amout of work. I would suggest you look for an external burner. It will last much longer and minimize the wear and tear on your burner.
I have an Acer laptop whose dvd/rw drive failed. Since my warranty expired, I knew I would have to pay alot to have Acer replace it. A friend of mine works on laptops and was able to replace mine with a dvd/rw from an identical Acer laptop he was sending back. I now use an external burner for the majority of what I burn, and use the internal one sparingly.
I use my main desktop for the majority of burning, but I watch a lot of stuff and listen to music on the laptop. I tend to transfer more files than burn so the burner element won't get a lot of use. I had thought about an external drive but I figured it would be too much hassle so decided to stick with the internal.
I used to use my laptop alot in addition to my desktop, till it failed on me. The drive always sounded a little off when I first got it, but after alot of burns (more than I care to admit) it failed. I have an external burner that is usb powered, so the only plug in the wall is the laptops. DOne great so far, 6 months and counting, and not a coaster in the bunch!
Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't know if your model uses ide or sata connections. A friend of mine swapped out the drives for me...only cost me $150us. Fairly cheap compared taking it to a shop and having them do it for me.
There are a few on here who work on computers and laptops. They may be able to help you out more than I can.
Originally posted by rtm27: I used to use my laptop alot in addition to my desktop, till it failed on me. The drive always sounded a little off when I first got it, but after alot of burns (more than I care to admit) it failed. I have an external burner that is usb powered, so the only plug in the wall is the laptops. DOne great so far, 6 months and counting, and not a coaster in the bunch!
Would you mined sharing what brand/model external your using? I'm in the same situation, with an acer with to many burns on it. Tried one from I/O magic- (Only thing available locally) and it only burned about 4 disc before it started creating coasters. Thank you for your time.
I'm using an LG 8x external burner with lightscribe. I got mine from newegg.com. Here is the link, tho when I bought mine, it was about $20 cheaper, as being a new item back in february.
