Optical drive is dead, out of warranty, what would you do?

My optical drive is dead, stopped reading discs all together. I started noticing signs of this a couple of weeks ago. Since my T410 is out of warranty, I have to replace it.
Lenovo wants $170 for a new one. Ebay is out of the question (I closed my account there a couple years back, wont go back to them). What would you do?
I guess I could get an external. Anyone have any recommendations? It was inevitable, I've had my thinkpad for 15 months now, and have used the hell out of it. I'm surprised the ODD lasted this long.
And I did try a lense cleaner just in case, no effect. I think it's the motor anyway. Best way to describe it, I put in a disc, any disc, and it just goes "ziiiiip, click click... ziiiiiip click click" endlessly.

 

The cheapest way to get it fixed is probably eBay. You can buy a dead T410 (or a model with a compatible Ultrabay) for very little money and just swap the drive out. Beyond that, getting an external is probably the only way to go. I don't have any experience with external drives of any kind, so I can't give a recommendation. Though, may I ask what you used your ODD for enough to break it? I rarely even touch the ODD on my computers with the exception of reformatting and some software installation.

 

Ebay is by far the cheapest for stuff like this. No point getting bent over by Lenovo for something as mundane as the optical drive.

IBM LENOVO T400 &T410 DVD+/-RW SATA UJ892 | eBay

 

well, if you won't use ebay then try marketplace forum.thinkpads.com, they probably have someone with a spare used/refurb drive they can sell you.

They can usually be bought for around 40 to 80 USD for a used one.

Or just use an external usb drive.

 

Hmm, thinking it would be cheaper to go the external route, also gives you an opportunity to install a second hard drive in that slot and get yourself a nice SSD.

 

IBM Lenovo ThinkPad T410 | Brand New IBM Lenovo ThinkPad T410 CD DVD RW Drive Burner

 

@kirayamato26; I've watched more DVDs than I can count in the last 15 months, including installing tons of games, operating systems, burning discs, reading discs...

@everyone else, thanks. I'll look at the marketplace, and perhaps I will just get an external in the meantime.

Edit: Thanks for the link vinuneuro, but I know all Lenovo branded products come with a one year warranty through Lenovo. They say it has only 6 months, that makes me weary. I've never heard of mydrives.com. Thank you though, I think I'll stick with newegg/amazon/lenovo in this case.

 

Warranty is only six months, but you could buy three of those for the same price as one from Lenovo. Best bet for you then is to put a WTB thread at thinkpads.com for T61/T400/T410 dvd-drive since they all use the same part.

 

Good point, thanks.

 

Same happened to me on my old macbook pro. Bought an external for 30 bux (samsung). Funny thing is that the motherboard burnt out a month after i bought a disk drive. Better luck for you i hope

 

just so roger doesn't look for the wrong part, the T61 still used IDE connectors on the bay devices.   SATA wasn't available until the 200/400/500/700 systems.

 

Thanks for the correction.

 

If you don't use the optical drove often, the external would be the cheapest solution. Ebay is your best bet if you use it often, but make sure you choose a reputable store who has a lot of good reviews.

 

I have an external blu-ray burner I can use in the meantime. I just never liked to use it for movies or anything but burning and reading blu-ray discs, so as to not wear it out.
I found a couple of cheap external dvd drives at newegg. Thanks for the replies guys.