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I need some geek advise.

agentRC4

agentRC4

TRIBE Member
I have a Dell 5100 laptop and it appears that my DVD/CDR drive is shot. Under the devise manager I get this message:

Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)

The device has power and whatnot, so if the drive is shot is it cheaper to get an external drive and hook up through USB? or get another internal put in?

From what I seen the external maybe the way to go. I don't take the laptop out of my place so transport isn't going to be a problem.

So would hooking an external CD/DVD drive to my laptop decrease performance of that drive? Can it be done?

any thoughts would be great.
 
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Sinister Shadow

TRIBE Member
Well either way I don't think you're looking at any "major" cost here. You can get an external or internal drive for around $100.

You've said that portability isn't an issue. In that case I'd go with an external drive. Why? Because you can use with another computer if you need to. It will exist beyond the lifetime of the current laptop (in theory).

Is an external drive slower? More expensive? Generally, yes. Will you notice? Likely not. 8X 16X... really doesn't matter unless you're burning 10+ dvd's at a time.

Really this is personal preference. On the other side of that coin is the fact that though the drive is shot, it may go further than that. So you might buy an internal drive only to find it doesn't work either.

Since you don't transport the laptop I'd wonder why you have it instead of a desktop which would be cheaper and more powerful to run. But that's a different ball of wax.

cds
 
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Flashy_McFlash

Well-Known TRIBEr
You can throw together an external DVD burner for way less than a hundred bucks.

DVD Burner - $35
Enclosure - $15-20

Presto. I have one, and I notice no difference in performance whatsoever. Actually my external is faster, but that's just because the drive is faster.

Tiger/Factory Direct or Canada Computers will have everything you need. It's a very very simple setup.
 
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Sinister Shadow

TRIBE Member
^^
Your estimate is extremely optimistic. The cheapest DVD writer on tigerdirect is $52. With enclosure, shipping and tax that'll come very close to $100.

I had also assumed the person would buy an enclosed drive (and was not to technical). The cheapest external drive (pre-assembled) is $98.

You can find an internal dvd drive for a laptop for about the same (at least online).

cds
 
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Flashy_McFlash

Well-Known TRIBEr
Sinister Shadow said:
^^
Your estimate is extremely optimistic. The cheapest DVD writer on tigerdirect is $52. With enclosure, shipping and tax that'll come very close to $100.

I had also assumed the person would buy an enclosed drive (and was not to technical). The cheapest external drive (pre-assembled) is $98.

You can find an internal dvd drive for a laptop for about the same (at least online).

cds
Click to expand...

Last time I was in the bricks/mortar TD store, they had a $35 model...Factorydirect still has one:

http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/product_spec.php?pcode=BQ0800

I'm the furthest thing from a 'techy' guy and assembling the drive + enclosure was literally plug and play, took me about 20 mins.

But we're arguing over what would end up being a $10-20 difference anyways :)
 
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