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    Need help: Replacing dead optical drive on Samsung X20

    Discussion in 'Samsung' started by yoseph90, May 3, 2009.

  1. yoseph90

    yoseph90 Notebook Consultant

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    I decided to get a replacement optical drive for my samsung x20 today, after the internal Toshiba-Samsung DVD+R/RW (TS-L632) couldn't read DVDs anymore :(

    As soon as I got home, I disassembled the laptop, took the old drive out, put the new one in, reassembled, and pressed the power button... to my horror, "No operating system detected" appeared on the screen :eek: . I went to the BIOS, and apparently my harddisk was gone :confused:

    Then it occurred to me that the new drive was causing the problem, so I took the laptop apart and unplugged the little devil.. and now the computer boots perfectly fine.

    Could someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong here?
    This is my first time replacing a notebook optical drive, so any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks in advance
     
    yoseph90, May 3, 2009
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  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    I think that is a master / slave problem.

    I suspect that the HDD and ODD share one IDE channel on the X20 with the HDD as master and the ODD set to be slave. You can confirm this by replacing your old ODD and then looking at the IDE channels under IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers in Device Manager. You new optical drive is most probably a master (most are). What make / model is it?

    The master / slave capability is set in the firmware. You may be able to find a firmware version for your new ODD which will set it to slave. However, it would need to be available either in the form of a ISO file which you can turn into a bootable CD or you temporarily put the new optical drive in another notebook in order to flash the firmware.

    John

    PS: Let's continue this in your other thread. No cross posting, please.
     
    John Ratsey, May 3, 2009
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