Samsung NP700G7C-S01UK optical drive no longer recognizes DVDs

I bought a Samsung NP700G7C-S01UK about 11 months ago, as some of you will know from previous threads. The DVD/Blu-Ray drive in the laptop is a Samsung TS-LB23D.

Unfortunately the DVD drive is no longer working properly. It will read CDs (music or data), but not DVDs. If a DVD of any kind (movies, recordable, rewriteable, double-layer...) is in the drive, the computer thinks there's nothing there. The drive mechanism has no obvious physical damage, however.

The same discs work fine in an external optical drive attached by USB.

I know it's not a Windows problem because the same thing happens in a fresh installation to a new partition. Likewise the laptop is unable to boot from a DVD, outside of any OS.

Does anyone in the UK have any experience of this particular problem, and experience of Samsung's warranty service? I am weighing up whether it's worth approaching the retailer or the manufacturer, or just buying a replacement drive and fitting it myself. Of course the latter would be more costly but it would also be faster and less disruptive.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

I've had to have several optical drives replaced under warranty in the past 10 years. They are probably the least reliable component, perhaps because they are a miracle of optics but subject to a lot of dust and mechanical wear. Assuming that you have done the basic maintenance of cleaning the lens with a soft brush then I suggest you ask for warranty service. I believe the CD and DVD functions use different lasers so it's possible that one is sick but the other is OK.

John

 

Thanks John. Yes, I cleaned the lenses carefully with a soft cloth. To be honest the mechanism looks in immaculate condition so I'm surprised by this problem. :-s

May I ask how you found Samsung's warranty service? How fast was it? Do they insist on doing a factory restore of the hard drive during servicing?

 

I have a recent experience with the warranty service: My X3B went for a replacement battery (a known problem) a couple of months ago. The process went smoothly although there was a wait for a battery to come into stock.

Step 1 is to contact Samsung technical support and get them to agree that warranty service is needed. I can't think of a reason why a corruption in Windows would enable CD but not DVD reading. If your computer came with a bootable Windows DVD then you could try booting off it (having disabled Fast Boot in Easy Settings / BIOS). Pressing F10 at the BIOS screen should bring up a boot device menu. If you can select the DVD but it then won't boot that should be enough evidence to get Samsung to agree. Samsung will then assign you to a service centre.

Step 2 is that the service centre (Digicare in my case) will send a box with a courier (DPD in my case with SMS alert about the timing). Put the computer plus PSU in the box while the courier waits.

In my case I put back the original SSD (I have my own bigger one), but it came back exactly as it went. However, it is prudent to make a backup of everything (Samsung Recovery Solution might do this, if not then I recommend Acronis True Image) before you send it in. If you haven't got a backup system in place then now is the time to implement it. If you can make a backup full image of the system then you can restore to the factory image so there's no personal data on the disc in the knowledge that you can restore your own image when the computer comes back.

John

 

Thanks for that helpful info.

I can confirm that the laptop won't read any bootable DVDs if I try to boot from one of them. The DVD part of the optical drive is definitely kaput. It's a shame, because in other respects the laptop has been very robust.

I do have a backup, but I guess my main concern is the palaver of sending the laptop away and waiting for its return. I'll try contacting Digicare directly (I've been in touch with them before about spares) and see what their estimated turnaround would be, as well as the cost of buying a replacement optical drive.

If I have anything eventful and interesting to report, I'll post back here.

 

I expect notebook reliability statistics will improve as more get shipped without optical drives.

If the part is in stock (and optical drives should be) then there should be a very quick turnaround and back to you in 3 days, possibly less. My battery replacement took longer because X3B batteries had been discontinued.

John

 

Well, the plot thickens. I looked into the costs of getting a replacement drive, outside of warranty.

The exact replacement costs a cool £86 from Samsung's official service centre.

An alternative model, which appears to be identical apart from the face plate, was listed by a few online retailers for around £36. Unfortunately it's out of stock and apparently discontinued!

One retailer that I spoke to suggested that a replacement model (hopefully at the same price point) was likely to be released very soon. Currently the most similar drive costs over £50.

All this brings me to the matter of the optical drive face plate! How interchangable are these? After grappling with the inconceivably stubborn plastic clips that hold the face plate onto the drive, I was able to remove it.

The plate, which follows the curve of the laptop, attaches to the drive with two clips, one horizontal (on the left in the image below) and one vertical (on the right).


Would any other drive be able to take this face plate? Or perhaps just any other Samsung drive?

A search online suggested that many face plates are attached with screws, so maybe these clips are unusual. Still, I would be surprised if the entire drive were custom-built to take this face plate; surely the whole point of the face plate is that it means Samsung doesn't need to manufacture a bespoke drive for the laptop.

Any ideas or experience you can share?

 

I've swapped a few drives and face plates during the past 10 years and found the face plates to be interchangeable. They have all used plastic clips of the type you have encountered. Notebook manufacturers want to be able to use the bare drives from different sources and clip on the face plate to suit the computer. Similarly, the bare drives use a limited range of standard sizes (basically different thicknesses).

John

 

Interesting, thanks - I found a YouTube video in which the clips looked easy-peasy to handle! The ones on my faceplate seemed to have been squeezed into place by the devil himself.

I'll have a look for other brands that might make a suitable replacement for the drive...

 

So here's what I did.

I bought a Samsung SN-506BB which cost around £50. This is a Blu-Ray writer, rather than just a reader as supplied with the laptop, so I don't feel too bad about spending the money as it's an upgrade.

The face plate of the replacement drive was easy to remove and to replace with the one from the original drive.

I guess the reason why the clips on the original drive face plate were quite so insanely stiff was because they are made of the same plastic as the rest of the laptop case. Honestly though - I am still recovering from the fraught experience of winkling it away from the original drive!!

Normally I would be the first person to recommend claiming for repair under warranty or consumer rights, but in this instance I felt that I would rather save the time than be without the laptop, since I need it for work.

Anyhow so far I can recommend the SN-506BB - it seems to spin up faster and more quietly than the previous drive.

 

Thanks for the update. I agree that if you have upgraded to a BD burner then the DIY approach makes sense and avoids the hassle of warranty replacement of the defective drive (since Samsung don't normally allow the user to do the swap). A couple of years back I had an unreliable burner in my Dell E6410. Dell sent me a new one and told me to dispose of the old one.

John