Laptop DVD/CD Given Up The Ghost

kah22

My laptops internal DVD/CD has given up the ghost: it won't read anything put into it. I've tried a few things to get it to work but to no avail. I'm now looking at buying an external DVD/CD drive. My question today is - What Do I Need?

Before anyone says how long is a piece of string I should say that I seldom use the DVD drive, I'll use it occasionally to transfer material onto my ipod or to watch a DVD or play a CD. I've as many programs on the laptop as I want, so I'm not really after a high end player so any recommendations.

Looking at ebay they seem to be available from about £13. I was in my local computer shop yesterday and their cheapest one was £27 so there does seem to be a wide price margin.

What do I really need and any recommendations?

Kevin

googler

Why do you need an external drive? Why not just replace the internal one with a like-for-like replacement?

Most laptops, undo a couple of screws and the drive slides out. Pop the new one in, and replace the screws, and you're done. Perhaps then install some software that came with it.

kah22

googler wrote: »

Why do you need an external drive? Why not just replace the internal one with a like-for-like replacement?

Thanks for the suggestion. Have to be honest never thought of that, then maybe that is because of my DIY skills, or lack there-off

But no a good idea. I've a Dell Inspirion 1764

Kevin

closed

which operating system? What type of discs have you tried, in windows explorer or itunes?

It could be itunes related - Delete upper/lower filters, then reboot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2372

OGR

According to the Dell documentation for the 1764 it is a very simple operation to replace on that model..

Remove the battery (see Removing the Battery).

Remove the screw that secures the optical drive to the computer base.

Slide the optical drive out of the optical drive bay.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1764/en/sm/optical.htm#wp1179928

Click the link to optical drive.

kah22

closed wrote: »

which operating system? What type of discs have you tried, in windows explorer or itunes?

It could be itunes related - Delete upper/lower filters, then reboot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2372

Windows 7 Home

How would itunes affect the DVD player.

As a by the way the drive goes chug, chug, chug when you attempt to put either a data, cd or dvd. That's why I'm thinking the drive may be broken.

Thanks OGR for your link maybe I could go down that road (and get my nephew to do the fiddly bit ) How much would a new internal drive cost?

Figment

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=Inspiron+1764+dvd+drive&_sacat=0&_odkw=Inspiron%E2%84%A2+1764+dvd+drive&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

closed

itunes installs it's own drivers, and changes settings, which can stop dvd/cd's working in device manager.