W7J DVD drive disappeared

Hi,

The DVD drive of my Asus W7J is no longer visible in Windows and Linux.
It is also not visible in the bios (the hard drive is visible),
but I don't remember if the dvd drive was listed before by the bios.
The drive is, of course, physically still present. If I enter a CD or DVD
it spins up as normal, so hardware wise things seem to be (nearly) ok.
It seems that there is only one flat cable connecting the DVD drive
to the mainboard, from what I can see by just opening the tray.
So I guess the problem would not just be a loose connector,
since the drive still gets power.

Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be?

Thanks,

Berk

 

First thing to check is, if you insert a bootable DVD (or any disk for that matter) and press ESC at the ASUS splashscreen. If you see the ODD listed as a possible boot device, then the hardware may be OK. Otherwise, it probably isn't.

The fact that it is gone in Windows as well as Linux, does point to a hardware problem. The above would be an extra confirmation. If it works at boot, then it's a bit more complicated.

 

I had already tried that and it didn't work.
Now I pressed esc for the pop-up menu
and only the hard drive appears in the menu.

I have almost never used the DVD drive, so would think
it did not fail because of wear.
My only guess would be that a connector came loose
due to shaking during transport (which I also don't do often).
I would like to open my laptop, but there are very many
screws and the whole bottom cover has to come off.
I don't know how complicated it would be to put it back
together again.
I opened up the hard drive bay, but from there one can
not see the dvd drive.

Berk

 

You will find a link to a disassembly guide for the W7 in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=122632#disassembly

Be aware that removing any heatsinks will void any warranty you have left.

I suggest you try reconnecting the cables, since it may be that. It definitely looks like a hardware issue from your testing.

 

Removing the ODD turned out to be very easy,
you just need to remove 4 screws.
I have taken the drive out and put it back in many times
and about 1 in 4 times the bios finds the ODD,
but it is not really functional. Booting from it gives
at nasty error at some point and windows does not
recognize it. So I guess it is some kind of bad contact.
Unfortunately my can of contact spray is empty,
so I have to go out and buy a new one.
Also I wanted to open the ODD, to see if the connectors
inside are loose. But my screwdriver is slightly to large
and one of the three screws does not come out. It is
slightly damaged, but I hope not too much, then you are
really "screwed".

Bedankt voor de informatie,

Berk

 

Alternatively, you can just buy a new ODD and be done with this issue. ~50 EUR. Make sure the bezel and fascia screw locations, as well as eject button location, are the same in the old and new ODD.

 

That depends on if the problem is really in the ODD,
or if it is in the connector of the ODD with the laptop
or between the connector in the laptop and the motherboard.

 

Yes, you are right.

Did your 2year warranty expire? If not, you could also send it to ASUS and let them worry about it.

 

Yesterday I bought contact spray and a proper screwdriver.
The contact spray did not seem to help, opening up the ODD
and pressing on the connectors neither.
But after opening and pressing a second time the ODD
works perfectly again.

Thanks again for the information.

 

rofl.

Yet another example of the tried-and-true electronics axim..... sometimes things just work (or not) and no one can explain it nor has any idea why.

I'm glad it's back for you, berk.

 

That does sound like the dying drive to me. It may work for a bit then revert back to being dead. you can easily replace the drive. only thing you need to check is that the replacement will take the faceplate. If the current drive is a mat****a brand starting with letters "uj" then i would keep it in the same brand.

 

Do you mean that it is difficult to match the face plate from Matsh!ta to another brand? Because that's what happened to me, now I'm running with the default faceplate on the M6BNe. It's pretty anyway it's difficult to make that laptop look ugly.

On the other hand, Matsh!ta ODDs have a pretty bad reputation of quality, they are difficult to find (at least in Europe), and the brand may be the "primary reason" for which they go bad relatively often on ASUS notebooks.