CD/DVD-RW optical drive
Most modern laptops are equipped with a CD/DVD-RW drive also known as an optical disc drive which allows it to read and write data from or to a CD/DVD disc. All laptop CD/DVD drives are shaped the same but they all have different face plates also know as front bezels. On the picture above you can see three different laptop CD/DVD drives with different face plates/front bezels.
When you are replacing a failed CD/DVD drive, you have to make sure that the face plate from the old drive will fit your new drive.
On the picture below you can see two different types of connectors found in modern CD/DVD optical disc drives. One drive has a SATA connector and the other one has an older slim ATAPI connector.
An optical disc drive with a SATA connector is not interchangeable with an optical disc drive with a slim ATAPI connector and vice versa. In other words, if your laptop motherboard comes with a SATA connector for the optical drive, you can only use CD/DVD drives with SATA connectors.
On the next picture I compare a SATA connector used in laptop hard drives with a SATA connector used in CD/DVD drives. As you see, these two connectors are a little bit different. The data connector (right connector) is shaped similarly for both drives, but the power connector (left connector) is shaped differently.
By the way, you can connect a 2.5″ laptop SATA hard drive to a desktop computer using same cables as you use for a regular 3.5″ desktop hard drive.
In order to connect a Slimline SATA optical CD/DVD drive to a desktop computer, you’ll have to purchase the Slimline SATA Cable.
If you are replacing the CD/DVD disc drive in your laptop with a new one, make sure your new drive is compatible with the laptop. The best way to find a new optical disc drive is searching by the manufacturer’s part number found on the old drive.
When you install an optical drive which is not compatible with your laptop, it will not be recognized by the BIOS or you’ll get an IDE #1 ERROR on start up.
HOW TO REMOVE CD/DVD DISC DRIVE
In most laptops, the CD/DVD disc drive is secured by one or two screws on the bottom of the laptops. Remove these screws and pull the optical disc drive from the laptop.
On some other models, the optical drive is secured by one or two screws located under the keyboard. If that’s the case, you’ll have to remove the keyboard first. After that remove those screws and pull the drive from the laptop.
Laptop parts | Repair Man | 
December 26, 2008 3:01 pm
April 11th, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Sushant what the repair explained in this tutorial above is that you ca no-t convert a ATAPI drive to a USB or SATA drive, the only option you have is 1) find another laptop that can support this drive that would be “upgraded” if you replaced the drive the other option you have is to use this drive externally for say, a netbook- for this you will need to purchase a ATAPI to USB converter though, the good news is that it will work on a-ll ATAPI drives and would be useful again and again.
Greg, I done Dell for 7 years, Dell uses the same size ATAPI on the older Dells that used that technology. What you’re seeing is probably the converter board Dell inserts behind the drive. If you were to take the Drive fully out of the enclosure that it’s in you’d see that The port looks just like the Slimline ATAPI port pictured above (IF it’s indeed ATAPI and not SATA)
Nick,
hehe ) once you’ve removed all the screwed from under the the laptop that are in the area of the optical drive pull the tray slightly (not hard) and see if it pulls away all in 1 piece from the computer. Good luck.
Acers are usually not difficult computers to service, I’ve rarely seen a Laptop with a tray loading cd/dvd drive that required more than 2 screws removed before it is possible to slide that drive out of the computer. All I can suggest to you without looking at the drive is to remove all the screws in the surrounding area of the optical drive and then use a straightened paper clip and release the drive lock (pop the tray open, by sticking the paper clip in the tiny hole in front)(the other way you can do it it power the computer up from the off state and press the eject button and to pop the try out before windows starts loading then quickly power off the computer
April 11th, 2012 at 1:46 am
i’ve acer aspire 5536g, DVD Drive have three points upon which a DVD can revolve. its 2 points have breaked ….. please suggest something proper
January 29th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
im having atapi connector dvd rom and i want to convert it to sata or usb so is it possible to convert that particular drive
as it no more use in that particlar laptop
waiting for the reply
November 2nd, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Greg,
I cannot tell without looking at the drive you are using. Different laptop might use different DVD drives.
November 2nd, 2011 at 4:26 pm
@ Nick,
I don’t have instructions for this model, but if you cannot find correct screws on the bottom, most likely the are located under the keyboard.
On some laptops it’s necessary to remove the keyboard in order to remove the DVD drive.
October 25th, 2011 at 9:37 am
I would be very grateful if anybody could advice me how to replace DVD RW drive in Acer Aspire 3660. Can’t find anything on the internet and after checking all the screws on the bottom came to realise that none are responsible for holding unit in place. PC World employee didn’t have a clue either. Is there a way to crack this “mysterious” model as DVD RW drive is on its last legs?
Many thanks
October 18th, 2011 at 7:57 am
I was just wondering if the Dell Laptop DVD drivew are different than the ones in the pictures as they do not match the connectors on my Dell Latitude! Do you have an USB enclosure for the Dell Latitudes?
THanks!
September 28th, 2011 at 9:10 am
Well I have a gateway p172s with a TS-T632A optical drive. It has always had trouble with recognizing blank media, I can find no new firmware nor drivers for it. It now does not see any media. Is there a good replacement for this drive, it has the slimline connector and is a slot loader.
Thanks for any help.
Mike Grant.
August 17th, 2011 at 4:34 am
Hi, i’ve the DVD burner from my Sony Vaio. It stopped working after i burned the DVD, and there was some slight clicking sound when it happened, after that moment, the drive doesn’t recognise any of the optical disks. I’ve went through other sources also, read that optical calibration is necessary. So i’m looking forward to how to calibrate the potentiometers in that drive, cause there is very small spaces. For those of desktop ones its easy to calibrate while the disk is reading, but its hard to do for the laptop ones. Plz, reply soon on my query. Thanks in advance.
August 1st, 2011 at 3:23 am
hi i have a laptop with a cd dvd/rw. with atapi connector. it happened that my writer got faulty. and when i searched, i found out the problem too. there is a strip or say ribbon cable below the tray, it was long and it actually got stuck in b/w the tray n base n it developed crack.
So i opened my drive fully n found out that this cable can be changed.
now the question is where can i get this cable??? or i will have to search for another faulty writer to replace it with.
July 28th, 2011 at 11:05 am
Hi,
I was wondering if you can help me. I have just borrowed a neoware laptop on which, unfortunately, I can not find an optical disk drive. I was just wondering if it was hidden or if there was anything you could reccomend for me to do.
Many thanks.
June 19th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
i have inserted very old cd trying 2 make a copy when i eject only the half part of the cd came out..i haven’t opened my laptop yet. im just checking what ican see from outside it seems the dvd writer is clear i tried to insert another cd and it’s working i checked the place where the incident happened i can’t see the other half of the old cd..i was worrying maybe it goes to the sensitive part of the laptop..pleAse help me..ill be happy if i could hear from you..BIG thank’s! please send or post me a reply
May 18th, 2011 at 2:53 am
Hi again,
you are right about how often I need to burn one DVD. Not every day, but when you are traveling it is not so handy to care additional external DVD burner with power supply.
I have one additional question:
Regarding cable select or slave option. I thought that this can be easily changed with a jumper on the burner. Right or?
Thanks again for help.
Regards,
Roland
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:08 am
Roland,
Sorry, cannot help you with this one.
Most likely the new DVD drive will fit physically but I’m not sure if it will work. It depends on the original DVD drive configuration (is it configured as CableSelect or Slave?).
If the original DVD drive still works, I would suggest buying an external USB DVD drive. How often you have to burn DVDs? Probably not every day.
Just buy an external DVD burner and use it when you need it.
April 28th, 2011 at 3:54 am
Hi,
Thanks in advance for help.
, but I don’t know if it will fit into my laptop. The last solution is to by Teac DV-W28E – I hope this will fit and work without problems since it comes from the same manufacturer as the original one and it has ATAPI connector.
So, I have 6 years old Fujitsu Siemens Laptop E8020 with a CD-RW/DVD combo drive (it can not burn DVDs). I want to buy a CD/DVD-RW drive for it. Old CD-RW/DVD drive is Teac DW-224E-CF5. On the Internet site (http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/product/optical/dw-224ec.html) only DW-224E-C can be seen, but I think it’s the same product.
So, I want to buy a PHILIPS SDVD8821H or SAMSUNG TS-L632 or SONY AD-7560A. All of them are DVD-RW burner with IDE/ATAPI connector, I hope
Thanks for answer.
Regards.
March 10th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
I would like to buy a new internal copact CD/DVD for laptop Pkard Bell Easy Note model:MZ35. It is ATA conector. Please, tell me how much with all cost for have in few days in Bucharest and if I do not disturb I would like to pay with cash money when it’s delivered in my hands.
Thank you and with your permision,
Best regards.
Michael
January 28th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Tom Frahs,
I’m not sure about the part number but you can find a new replacement DVD burner for your ThinkPad R40 notebook here.
January 25th, 2011 at 7:55 am
I have a IBM R40 and would like to install a cd bunner the part # I have now is a 08k9645 do you know what the part # is fgor a bunner I can use thank you, Tom
December 20th, 2010 at 5:13 am
You provide an excellent repair guide advice, but no recommendation list on where to find the spares when disaster strikes. I’m looking for a sony vaio vgn-s4xp replacement DVD writer for example. I’m sure many of your readers would welcome such a list. Best Regards.
December 7th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
wan,
Sounds like a problem with the motherboard board to me.
I guess you’ll have to use an external USB optical drive instead.
Probably the laptop not worth replacing the motherboard.
November 20th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
hye,
my laptop compaq presario v300 won’t detect dvd drive neither in window or bios. is that mean i’ve got the problem with motherboard??? I’ve tried many time by remove dvd drive and replace with a new dvd drive which is can be detect in another laptop, but the result still same. lately my head feel dizzy thinking of this problem. Can someone tell me what exactly problem do i faced??
sorry for my poor english..
October 19th, 2010 at 6:28 am
thx for the explaining KEEP IT UP……
October 11th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
I don’t think you can connect the desktop drive directly to the laptop connector, but I think you can find an external USB enclosure for the desktop drive.
You install the desktop drive into the enclosure and after that connect to the laptop USB port.
October 10th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
if your laptop cd drive failed, is it possible to connect an old desktop cd drive, it is 40 prong sticking out, and the laptop is slim atapi like in picture.
August 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 pm
vasanth,
Yes, you can. You can purchase an external USB enclosure for notebook DVD drives.
Remove the drive, install it into the enclosure and you have an external DVD drive.
You can buy it here: external USB enclosures for laptop DVD drives.
Make sure to select the right type, it’s either IDE or SATA.