CD/DVD Drive Has Died

Posted by: Mr Paws on 27 November 2013

Hi Chaps, my DVD drive has stopped working so I'm after buying a replacement. I've never replaced such a device before so maybe I could get a separate drive but I want to get the best quality drive that will give me high quality rips.

There are loads on Amazon etc but I'm not too sure which one to buy?

My PC is an old eMachines PC( 2006) running Windows XP,SP2 .

Thanks in advance.

Posted on: 28 November 2013 by jfritzen

I use this one: Samsung Ultrabook-DVD SE-218BB/RSSS.

Positive: fast ripping (I have seen up to 20x speed)
Negative: for some reason XLD pre gap detection takes ages, so I had to disable the detection in XLD.

Posted on: 29 November 2013 by Mr Paws

Hi thanks for your reply.

Would that drive be good with Windows XP ?

Posted on: 30 November 2013 by jfritzen

Originally Posted by Mr Paws:

Hi thanks for your reply.

Would that drive be good with Windows XP ?

I think it should, although I use it with a Mac.

Posted on: 01 December 2013 by Mr Paws

I managed to remove the DVD drive and open it up.

I then removed the cover and managed to clean the Laser Diode Lens and refitted the drive. It started working again but like before it started to speed up and slow down and not ripping some tracks especially near the end of a cd.

I can can actually buy a second hand drive off eBay but I'm a bit nervous buying second hand but I'm sure I'll get hold of an IDE internal drive fairly cheap. If not then I'll get an external drive.

Many Thanks to all.

Posted on: 01 December 2013 by Johnhgy

New drives are quite cheap no need to bother with second hand.

john