DVD Drive Upgrade

[iZarch]

Hi everybody,

I have Sony S480 and my notebook drive is “UJ-832D”, several days ago it got fail on heavy DVD writing job. I think the optical part of drive is crashed.
Thus I’m trying to find new one to replace it. The Sony service center told me that they can replace it and the new drive cost about 200$.
But I found better drive for my notebook. This model: “SONY DW-Q58A INTERNAL SLIMLINE DVD+RW DRIVE”
I think its better to upgrade my drive instead of replace.
And the benefits comes with “SONY DW-Q58A” is lower price (about 80$) and higher writing speed.
But there is a problem with face panel. I’m not sure that my current drive face panel will adapt new drive?

Dose anyone has done this job successfully on Sony s series?
Any idea?

[SideSwipe]

wat do u mean? doesnt the new drive have a face panel as well? as long as the dimensions are right it should fit fine

[John Ratsey]

The UJ-832D is an ultra-slim 9.5mm (3/8") thick drive. Most notebook optical drives (including the DW-Q58A) are 12.5mm (1/2") thick.

Sony NEC include an ultraslim burner in their new Optiarc range.

In my experience (which doesn't include Sony notebooks) the face panels all use standard mountings. The challenge is to unhook the fascia off the old burner without breaking anything.

John

[iZarch]

Originally Posted by SideSwipe

wat do u mean? doesnt the new drive have a face panel as well? as long as the dimensions are right it should fit fine

ok man!
i'm trying to visualize it for you!
see here:

this is “SONY DW-Q58A”, i mean the new drive.
you can see the face panel of drive is flat:



and “UJ-832D” my current drive.
you can see the face panel of drive is not flat, it is curved:


closer look of “UJ-832D”:
see left side of picture.

[iZarch]

Originally Posted by John Ratsey

The UJ-832D is an ultra-slim 9.5mm (3/8") thick drive. Most notebook optical drives (including the DW-Q58A) are 12.5mm (1/2") thick.

Sony NEC include an ultraslim burner in their new Optiarc range.

In my experience (which doesn't include Sony notebooks) the face panels all use standard mountings. The challenge is to unhook the fascia off the old burner without breaking anything.

John

thx man for info.
i made mistake regarding DW-Q58A. its thicker!
NEC AD-7913A is here:
http://www.chip.de/preisvergleich/85...-AD-7913A.html
for 94 euro!

but again i'm not sure if the old face panel is adaptable with nec?
any idea?

[John Ratsey]

Originally Posted by iZarch

but again i'm not sure if the old face panel is adaptable with nec?
any idea?

The test would be to try to remove the face plate from the UJ-832D. I attach a photo of a standard slim ODD face plate showing the hooks where it clips onto the ODD. I would expect the super-slim ODD to have a similar arrangement.

Your alternative could be to look for an ultra-slim slot loading ODD and accept a vertical front with a slot in it.

One check you should make before buying a new ODD is to look in Device Manager, ATA / ATAPI devices and see if there is one device on the secondary IDE channel running at UDMA 2 and no other device on this channel (see the attached for comparison). If the ODD has this IDE channel for itself then you have no problem because it doesn't matter whether it comes pre-set to master or slave in the firmware. However, if the ODD is the slave device on the primary IDE channel then you will need an ODD which is set to be slave.

John

[iZarch]

Originally Posted by John Ratsey

The test would be to try to remove the face plate from the UJ-832D. I attach a photo of a standard slim ODD face plate showing the hooks where it clips onto the ODD. I would expect the super-slim ODD to have a similar arrangement.

Your alternative could be to look for an ultra-slim slot loading ODD and accept a vertical front with a slot in it.

One check you should make before buying a new ODD is to look in Device Manager, ATA / ATAPI devices and see if there is one device on the secondary IDE channel running at UDMA 2 and no other device on this channel (see the attached for comparison). If the ODD has this IDE channel for itself then you have no problem because it doesn't matter whether it comes pre-set to master or slave in the firmware. However, if the ODD is the slave device on the primary IDE channel then you will need an ODD which is set to be slave.

John

Thx a lot john,
I compared the face panel that you attached, with mine. The eject button is not fit!
And I attached photo of “IDE channel properties” of my notebook. I think it don’t support UDMA2. So what can I do now? and what that mean in the picture?

[John Ratsey]

1. The photo I posted was of the face plate for a standard slim (12.5mm) ODD. The ssuper-slim ODD may have a different layout but I would expect the face place to be held on by some similar hooks. The computer assemblers like standardisation between components. This document describes the standard dimensions (but I can't see what looks like a standard 9.5mm bezel) and shows the standard hooks. This Intel document shows how everything is put together.

2. It looks like the ODD is the slave device (=Device 1, primary = Device 0) on the primary IDE channel. Check if that is running as UDMA 2. If I am correct, then you will need to find a replacement which operates as slave. Or maybe you need Cable Select or Inverse Cable Select. Unfortunately, this is going past the end of my experience on this subject.

John

[SideSwipe]

maybe u can find a replaccement drive on ebay?

otherwise it may be hard finding a drive like that unless u look for another laptop with the same design and try that

[iZarch]

Originally Posted by John Ratsey

1. The photo I posted was of the face plate for a standard slim (12.5mm) ODD. The ssuper-slim ODD may have a different layout but I would expect the face place to be held on by some similar hooks. The computer assemblers like standardisation between components. This document describes the standard dimensions (but I can't see what looks like a standard 9.5mm bezel) and shows the standard hooks. This Intel document shows how everything is put together.

2. It looks like the ODD is the slave device (=Device 1, primary = Device 0) on the primary IDE channel. Check if that is running as UDMA 2. If I am correct, then you will need to find a replacement which operates as slave. Or maybe you need Cable Select or Inverse Cable Select. Unfortunately, this is going past the end of my experience on this subject.

John

Thank you very very much for your realy useful information john.

I find UDMA2 on primary IDE channel; also I find another primary IDE channel that is UDMA5.

I read links that you have posted.
But generally I have a question:
Is it really worth to upgrade my ODD? Is upgraded ODD able to boot my notebook without change bios?

I really get confused! I thought that upgrading drive is easy as upgrading ram!

However I ran Nero info tool and attached a photo, would you please tell me what it says?