Matsushita DVD Drive

Hello guys.

I hope you guys can give me some advice on what Multi Drive I can use with my laptop. The problem is, my currant drive is on its last legs. It won’t recognize DVD –R or CD-RW anymore and it is making a lot of noise, It’s a Matsushita UJ-815 A. What do you recomend for a replacement.

My laptop in an Advent 7032. Thanks guys in advise

 

Is it a slim drive? a 9.5mm or a 12.5mm?
If its a slim drive there is a slim chance of swapping it
Otherwise you can get a nec or a pioneer

 

This is a very common problem for this kind of drive. Try searching the forums for Matshita, Matsushita or Matsh!ta, especially the Toshiba forum as there are a lot of A100s out there with the same drive and the same problems.

You might well have to replace it. If you do I'd research getting a better brand such as LG. Hopefully it will fit, but unfortunately there isn't a lot of info on this forum about advent laptops.

Good luck!

 

You might also wana check on cdfreaks. They deal with cd/dvd stuffs

 

Is it a slot loaded drive or a typical drawer type.

According to your model number, it is a slot loading drive ant it's dimension is:

128.0(W)×12.7(H)×129.0(D)mm
(Depth dimension includes Bezel)

If you can use a drawer type drive, check out Nec's ND6500 and it's newer models.

Nec drives are well supported with third party firmwares

The following website is a good place to talk about changing your notebook DVD Drive

http://www.cdfreaks.com/

 

well I have the matsushita 850 and i like it a lot. Its possible you may need to stick with the same brand and kind because the adaptor to your notebook came with the orignal manufacturers drive.
An lg replacement drive is not goin to come with that adapter. You might have to rig it.

 

Thank you for your advice guys. I had a look around and it seems that a replacement “Matsushita” would be a bad move. So, am I right in thinking that I can use any slim laptop multi drive in my model of laptop? I spoke to Panasonic and they said it would cost me more money for me to send them the drive than it would be to buy a new one. So guys what would you recommend for a replacement.

 

If you read my post above, I suggested a Nec ND-6500. A NEC ND-6650A is a more recent model.

I did the swap in my Voodoo Envy M855 (Mitac 8350) to replace a defective Panasonic (Matsushita) UJ811 with a Nec ND-6650A and every thing as been working fine.

As for the adaptor that stamar is talking about, it is usually fastened with screws in the back of the drive. You simply need to remove it from your defective drive and install on the new one.

You might also go and visit the website i have mentioned about in my previous message. It did help me with a little problem I had when I first powered up the notebook with the new drive. The configuration of the drive was as SLAVE instead of MASTER on the second IDE channel.

On Desktop drives this is not a big problem as they have jumpers to configure them but on Notebook drives, this is done in the firmware if the drive.

You can flash the drive witth a "Reverse Drive Select" firmware or do a little soldering to correct this issue. I did the soldering method on mine as a former Electronic Tech, I still have all the tools.

You need to choose a drive with good third party firmware support as most Notebook Drive Manufacturer supplies their firmware only to Notebook Manufacturers.

Here is a site with plenty of third party firmwares for the NEC ND-6650A

http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/NEC-ND-6650A/

Nec Also has a more recent ND-6750A

I also swapped a CD-Rom Writer/DVD Rom Reader out of a Dell Latitude C400 and still needed to reverse the drive Select with a little soldering to Use a NEC ND-6500A.

Best of luck

frenchnew