Hatrack River Forum: Laptop hardware problem... woe is (no longer) me.

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Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :

I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 that I bought nearly two years ago. It's still nice, but getting a bit long in the tooth. Today it developed a problem.

My CDRW/DVD-ROM drive on my laptop has been a little difficult, mechanically, of late. Today I think it finally broke. I had a CD in the drive. When I took it out and tried to close the drive, it made a grinding noise. I tried to open it, both with the button on the front and by right-clicking the drive icon in the "My Computer" file and directing it to open. Nothing worked. So I stuck a pin in the little hole and hit the catch. It opened, but it came out half an inch and got stuck. I put a knife in there to see if I could figure out what it was stuck on and immediately got the Blue Screen of Death, telling me that it had detected hardware problems and had shut down Windows and dumped the memory. I restarted it, and it worked fine. I opened the drive again with the catch. This time I was able to pull the drive all the way open, but as soon as I did, back came the BSOD.

My computer seems to be working okay, but I daren't open the drive again. My questions are as follows:

-Can I safely use the computer if I leave the drive alone?

-Is this something that can be fixed?

-Would it be worth the money?

-Would it be possible for me to order a new drive and replace it myself with the simple tools I have at home, or would it require professional help?

-If I can do it myself, how do I find a compatible drive?

It's still a nice computer, and I hate to buy a new one just because of one component, but I'm quite attached to my combo drive, and I'd hate to try to make do without.

Any help would be greatly helped and the giver of the help would be worshipped by me. [Hail]

[ December 31, 2004, 07:50 PM: Message edited by: Speed ]

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

OK so I'm not an expert and you shouldn't take my advice to the bank but it sounds like:

-Can I safely use the computer if I leave the drive alone?

-Would it be possible for me to order a new drive and replace it myself with the simple tools I have at home, or would it require professional help?

Would both work, the CD drive (the full thing, not just the slot that pops open) should be removable with a philips head screwdriver (and grounding yourself is a good idea too) or at least that level of tools. And I don't know how monetarily worth it is to you, you should check Dell's website for prices on a replacment drive (not that you should necessarily buy it from them since you can probably find cheaper elsewhere but it would be a quick and easy way to determine price range, I'm guessing 250 for a new good one, but I haven't looked at these things in a couple of years so I don't actually know).

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Oh, and if you're on warrenty, Dell is very good about that, so call them up and get them to deal with it. If you're not on warrenty then ... forget it.

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :

Oh, yeah. No warranty. Thanks for the tip... I'm currently following your advice and checking the Dell site to see if I can find the part. [Big Grin]

[edit: this is just about the only thing I can't find there. [Frown]

]

[ December 24, 2004, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: Speed ]

Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :

Okay, I've looked everywhere I can think of. Dell doesn't have anything. Mwave doesn't have anything. Tigerdirect doesn't have anything. But I did find this. Does anyone know if this would work? The price seems reasonable, but I don't know for sure. I don't see any trouble replacing it myself, but I've never done it before so I could be wrong. Anyone know if this would be a good deal, or if I should be looking anywhere else, or if I should just give it up altogether?

edit: I found this as well. How does that look?

Again, many thanks. [Smile]

[ December 24, 2004, 01:21 AM: Message edited by: Speed ]

Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :

I will be up on to SLC on Monday, possibly Sunday. Someone gave me a really old computer. Want me to take out the CDrom? It is really old, probably 4X or slower. [Dont Know]

EDIT:

It propably wouldn't fit in a laptop..my bad. [Razz]

[ December 24, 2004, 01:19 AM: Message edited by: lem ]

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Considering that you're talking about a laptop, you can probably swap out the CDRW/DVD drive fairly easily. It's as simple as flicking the catch on the underside of your laptop. However, before you do that, you either need to power off the laptop or stop the device in the systray. My Dell laptop (Inspiron 4500) allows me to do this. I can swap in a floppy drive or another battery.

Also. With CD drive removed from laptop, it'll have a part number on a label on the drive. Contact Dell with the part number and get a price on it.

CD/DVD drives from other models/other brands are generally not compatible. Different shapes, sizes, connections, and all the rest of it.

Good luck!

Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :

Thanks, Quid. I tried what you suggested. There were all manner of numbers on the part, but I entered one of them into Google, and I returned with this. Sounds like a pretty nice deal. It doesn't mention my computer specifically, but it does seem to be the same thing. Is that likely what I'm looking for?

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Well, yeah, it sounds like you scored. Cool.

I would suggest, however, before buying, that you see if they have a better picture of the product. Make sure it looks the same. Either that, or check on their return/refund policy in case it isn't the same and you don't figure that out until you get it. Although I found their return policy here.

As long as you're comfortable with their return policy, it sounds like it's worth checking out. [Smile]

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

Yes.

Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :

Quick update: Dell was selling the part for much less than I expected, so I ordered it from them to prevent any incompatibility issues. When I got home from my trip today it was here. It took about five minutes to swap out the drives, and I didn't even have to install any new drivers. Works perfectly. In fact, it works much better than my old drive has been working for quite a long time. And $100 [new drive] < $1,200 [new laptop], so I'm elated.

[Hail]

Hobbes

quidscribis
[Hail]

lem

Tom

Thanks, one and all, for your help.

[Hat]

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Excellent! Glad it worked out so well! [Party]