How repairable are Optical Drives?

I made a thread somewhere around here about my Acer's DVD-RW drive not burning anything other than CD-Rs. So I took the laptop to my local repair shop, and they seemed to think that it was irreparable, and that the whole drive needed to be replaced, which would cost £90 plus labour of £45.

I was a little unsure about if it was completely necessary to replace the drive, as the problem I was experiencing seems to indicate something that I have read a bit about before.

What I read about was in a guide on how to fix a Gamecube's disc laser when it gave out disc read errors. Basically you needed to tighten the potentiometer I think it was, so that the beam would be more focused and brighter, and would bounce back clearly off the disc.

I thought this could be an explanation of the laptop's problem, as I think that the reason why it can only read CD-Rs not -RWs is because CD-RWs do not reflect light back as brightly as CD-Rs, due to the weird material which changes properties to make lighter or darker patches. I seem to remember this being why some stereos do not play CD-RWs - because their beam is only bright enough to read classic CDs, and not strong enough for CD-RWs.


So basically what I am asking is, if it is possible to fix this on a Gamecube or similar, is it actually possible on a laptop? Is my suggestion for a problem accurate, or am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks.

 

Optical disk drives are one of the least durable and reliable notebook components. Replacement is probably easier than repair unless there is something simple such as cleaning the lens.

What model is your Acer's ODD (Device Manager will give a model number).? Also, is the ODD on the secondary IDE channel (also, Device Manager - look for a device running at UDMA Mode 2)? First check for any firmware updates.

Assuming that your ODD is a standard 1/2" high "slimline" ODD then you should be able to do a DIY replacement with a new model. Either of this or this will cost you about half of £90 (personally I would get the Liteon).

Swapping the ODD is a 5 minute job once you know how. There is usually a screw or two holding it in (either on the bottom of the computer or under the keyboard) then it is a matter of moving the fixing bracket and bezel over to the replacement ODD. The only possible problem is whether the ODD is set to master or slave in firmware and this is not an issue of the ODD is the only device on the secondary IDE channel.

John