Replacing a CD/DVD drive in laptop

[AMD K9]

My sisters old HP Pavilion ze notebook the drive wouldn't read disks and I needed to wipe the drive due to her acquiring several hundred viruses on 3 different laptop drives. I had to temporarily buy a external DVD drive just to install fresh copies of XP and Win 7 on her 2 drives, but I think a permament CD drive fix will be next. Not sure how.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Check ebay and other parts vender sites for your sisters same model of laptop and scrap a working drive from it. Or you may find a thrid party vender who has them for sell. Then you have the fun task of figuring out how to remove the old one and install the new one.

Unless its one that the drive can pop out without tearing the unit apart. Then its an easy swap. But rather then trying to replace the drive i would look into replaceing the laptop compleatly. Least she has time to save for it or put it on her christmas wish list.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Check ebay and other parts vender sites for your sisters same model of laptop and scrap a working drive from it. Or you may find a thrid party vender who has them for sell. Then you have the fun task of figuring out how to remove the old one and install the new one.

Unless its one that the drive can pop out without tearing the unit apart. Then its an easy swap. But rather then trying to replace the drive i would look into replaceing the laptop compleatly. Least she has time to save for it or put it on her christmas wish list.

I thought laptop drives were pretty standard. I could very well be wrong, but I thought all you had to do was get a SFF drive, then reuse any custom fitted parts from the old drive.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Check ebay and other parts vender sites for your sisters same model of laptop and scrap a working drive from it. Or you may find a thrid party vender who has them for sell. Then you have the fun task of figuring out how to remove the old one and install the new one.

Unless its one that the drive can pop out without tearing the unit apart. Then its an easy swap. But rather then trying to replace the drive i would look into replaceing the laptop compleatly. Least she has time to save for it or put it on her christmas wish list.

I thought laptop drives were pretty standard. I could very well be wrong, but I thought all you had to do was get a SFF drive, then reuse any custom fitted parts from the old drive.

most newer drives are standard atapi.

the bezels sometimes arent interchangeable on some older machines, but on most newer oem ones, they source drives from more than 1 company so the bezels are exchangeable.

 

[AMD K9]

So is it common knowledge if the drive comes out without taking the whole laptop apart like removing the keyboard (however that is done I have no idea)?

 

[corkyg]

And that is probably the #1 reason I stick with the Lenovo T series - the Ultrabay! Push a button, pop alever out and pull the drive from the laptop. Too easy.

I have a HP lappie as well - but have no clue as to how to remove the optical drive and replace it.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: AMD K9
So is it common knowledge if the drive comes out without taking the whole laptop apart like removing the keyboard (however that is done I have no idea)?

I don't have huge experience working on laptops, but the ones I've done have come out by removing a couple of screws from the bottom of the unit. No major disassembly was needed.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: corkyg
And that is probably the #1 reason I stick with the Lenovo T series - the Ultrabay! Push a button, pop alever out and pull the drive from the laptop. Too easy.

I have a HP lappie as well - but have no clue as to how to remove the optical drive and replace it.

ultrabay actually has a proprietary controller, so you actulaly have to buy a real ultrabay drive.


which makes it suck sinceu they are more expensive than generic drives on ebay.

 

[corkyg]

ultrabay actually has a proprietary controller, so you actulaly have to buy a real ultrabay drive. which makes it suck sinceu they are more expensive than generic drives on ebay.

Well, my Ultrabay is standard SATA. I don't think it is a different controller for the optical than for any SATA gard drive. I normally keep a 2nd HDD there and use of the optical is an exception rather than the rule. I don't consider a higher price tage as necessarily a negative. Sometimes better value beats cheap.

 

[addoraa]

Not sure which ze model your working on but I did find a pdf for a ze4900 http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00374392.pdf that shows how to replace the optical drive. Basically the keyboard has to be removed then there a 2 screws that hold the optical drive in place. Page 113 of the pdf or 5-25 of the document.

 

[hans007]

Well, my Ultrabay is standard SATA. I don't think it is a different controller for the optical than for any SATA gard drive. I normally keep a 2nd HDD there and use of the optical is an exception rather than the rule. I don't consider a higher price tage as necessarily a negative. Sometimes better value beats cheap.

ah. yeah the older pata ultra bays did not use a normal laptop atapi connector even after you removed the "caddy".

that is the one thing i know for sure.