Need laptop CD-RW/DVD slim combo

[samurai]

I'm interested in getting a new CD-RW/DVD combo for my Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop (note that Dell never sold a CD-RW for this laptop). Right now, I have a CD-ROM/DVD combo and an external CD-RW. But, I would like to take my CD burning on the road!

Does anyone have recommedations for this drive? I have looked into a Lite-On LSC-24081(M) which is 24x/12x/24x on CDs and 8x on DVD reads. This sounds pretty good, but I'm wondering if I have other/better options for this internal laptop drive?

I'm also wondering if anyone has recommendations for places to purchase these slim combo drives? It seems that most/all are sold through OEMS and not retail. I was able to find ONE place through Google that sold the above drive retail. But only ONE place?!?! Wow!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[cfitz]

There's a guy on ebay who sells these types of things, but doesn't have anything listed for the 7500:

http://www.stores.ebay.com/1dollaraucti ... index.html

You might want to write him an email.

In general these things are probably too tightly tied to the physical internals of the laptops to make for much of an aftermarket.

cfitz

[KCK]

First, let me say that I also own I7K, but six months ago for my Latitude C840 I opted for an external CD-RW drive; a wise decision in view of many problems reported on DellTalk for Dell's 24/10/24 drives.

The specifications for LSC-24081(M) look good, except that I don't understand why certain items (e.g., Mt. Rainier) are optional. Also the fact that the latest firmware is dated 2003-01-03 looks more encouraging than what Dell provides (e.g., for LG drives).

You should of course check whether LSC-24081(M) will fit in your bay; you could compare its dimensions to those given by Dell for your current DVD-ROM drive.

To get feedback from other users, I would advise you to post your question also on the Dell Community Forum

http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforu ... d=inspiron

The fact that internal laptop CD-RW drives are sold mostly by OEMs is not suprising; apparently few customers are willing to risk other sources.

EDIT: You may wish to contact another laptop user involved in

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl= ... 6start%3D0

[samurai]

From what I've seen, the internal slim drives, CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, or combos, are all the same size -- except the problem usually comes in the form of the plastic bezel in the front. Most manufacturers put on their own adapters, brackets, and ATAPI interface card, but all of these can simply be removed without any problems. These brackets and the interface card positioning is to accommodate the positioning of the drive in the laptop. However, the base drive is all the same. As an example, I took my Compaq laptop's CD-RW/DVD drive (Teac-manufactured) and stripped it down and put it in my Dell laptop (which originally had a Toshiba-manufactured CD-ROM/DVD drive in it) without any problems except the front bezel. (I removed the bezel, along with numerous other parts for the experiment.) The drive worked just fine. And, it should be noted that these computers were about 3 years apart in age!

Thanks for the feedback!

[KCK]

Yes, but the front plastic bezels would better be discussed on the Dell Forum, except that it seems to be down at the moment!

How about the "optional" Mt. Rainier?