Laptop CD drive adaptors?

[paperfist]

Hello,

I have a Gateway laptop with a Phillips CD drive in it. I needed to replace it so I ordered one off of newegg thinking they were all the same. The one in the Gateway uses just a flat ribbon style cable with contacts on the end and has a little hinged 'door' that swings down to hold the cable in place.

The Phillips drive I received uses a cable that is a lot like IDE only smaller and having contacts on the sides. The pin layouts seem to be the same but physically there is an obvious difference between the flat style and the block style.

Do any of you know of an adapter I could use and where I could buy one from? Or do I have to return it for another drive all together? If I do have to return it what exactly is the interface I am looking for?

Thanks for the time

 

[heymrdj]

Return it and get the proper drive. If you can't figure out which one to get, give us the model name on your laptop and maby we can figure it out for you.

 

[MichaelD]

I can't definitely say that there are no adaptors for your desired application; but I highly doubt it.

Many laptops and most servers use a standard 1/2 height optical drive. It's a standard, just like a normal size IDE hard drive or 2.5" laptop hard drive. Any brand will fit in any machine that uses that standard.

But with laptops, it's a different story. Many laptop manufacturers use proprietary hardware in their laptops. They do stupid things like move the connection block to one side or the other. This is done so you must buy the replacement part from them. Unfortunately. :roll:

That said, I'm sure Gateway isn't the only brand that uses that exact style of drive. Do some research online. You can probably find a source for the drives and they'll have a compatibility matrix listed that will show what makes and models "this" particular optical drive will fit.

Good luck.

 

[paperfist]

Thanks guys

I kind of figured it was proprietary at this point since I couldn't find a whole lot of info out about the style of connector. I just wish I knew what the name for this connector was.

It's a Gateway mx6920. I looked through the tech specs on their website and they used many different models of drives; stuff from Lite-on, Phillips, Toshiba, etc and that's why I ordered another Phillips.

 

[Old Hippie]

I didn't see a Phillips drive on their list.

 

[paperfist]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
I didn't see a Phillips drive on their list.

You're right... I said that by mistake, Phillips was listed as the drive manufacture under Device Manager. Perhaps it was listed wrong? The drive itself doesn't have any names on it either.