Studio XPS 1640 add Blue Ray

I bought my 1640 refurbished and it had eveything I wanted except for Blue Ray. So to rectify this I went on a search for a Blue Ray that would fit - Dell wanted $389 for a refurb- I found a a tear down picture and zoomed in to get the part number BC-5600S. I confirmed this with the service manual.
I found one on Ebay for $130 so I ordered it. Some of the other players out there have an eject button - the BC-5600S does not have a eject button.
Has any one done this upgrade and could offer some tips or advise?
Or am I going to be the guy that needs to do that for you?
This will be my weekend project.
Thanks for any help or ideas.

 

i see you also have an xps 13, when you get the drive would you be able to tell me if it would fit in the 13? I wanted blu-ray, but that wasn't an option when i configured.

 

Ok its done. I now have an aftermarket Blue Ray drive up and running. Awesome and only $130. Now I have an extra CD/DVD burner - I will buy a external enclosure for $16 and have a $70 slim external CD/DVD Buner I can sell or use for a netbook.
Took about 1 hr - you need to take 30 screws out.
1.Remove plate
2.Remove (slide inward) back plastic sleeves
3.Remove 14 screws from body
4.Remove 2 screws from top of palmrest
5.Carefully lift off palmrest and disconnect the 2 ribbon connectors.
6.Take 1 screw of the bottom and 3 screws of the top of the CD/DVD rom
7.Lift drive out and remove connector and tiny brackets on the CD/DVD drive
8.Attach the brackets to the BD Drive . Reconnect the connector. Attach the drive with the four screws
9.Reverse the rest of the disassembly operations.
10.Boot up and download the latest firmware for the Blue Ray drive from Dell.
11.Reboot and install the latest upgrade for Power DVD
Tested OK with Blue Ray Movies, DVD Movies, Burn DVD-R, Burn CD-R.
I am thinking on taking on my XPS 13 next.

 

Haha, nice work on that, really cool.

I wish I could mess with notebooks as easily as I can with desktops.

How does it fit in the 1640 system/casing?

 

Perfectly! It is exactly the same dimensions as the CD/DVD. It literally dropped into place. It is the same drive part number as referenced in the service manual and tear down photos so I knew this should work before I started.

 

DJY i wanna do this upgrade too ! ... can you please tell me where u got ur drive from ? also ... my DVD drive failed and i dont have it with me i have send it to my brother in india ... is there is a way i can buy the regular DVDRW for XPS 1640 ?

 

do you know the part no. for the blu ray rw?