M4400 DVD drive

When I purchased my m4400 I accidentally overlooked the DVD drive and was sent a standard DVD Rom instead of a DVD RW drive. It seams that after market drives will not fit into the M4400. Is there anyplace I can purchase a DVD RW drive without paying dell $115 for one? Thank you

 

Can you still return it? If yes, call Dell and tell them you will return it unless they allow you to swap it.

 

If you can't return/exchange the DVD drive... the module is actually just a barebones slim optical with a catch on the side. If you can find a slim DVDRW drive, you should be able to just pop the catch and bezel off the old drive and attach it to the new drive. Not sure if buying a bare drive will be THAT much cheaper than Dell's option, though.

 

They said I could return the laptop but I really don't want to because I can not afford to go without it for several weeks. Dell has been really unhelpful with what should be a simple problem.

In addition I have several Autodesk licenses that are married to the laptops mac address and it would be a pain to switch them to the new laptop.

I tried to install a standard lite on dvd burner but it was to thick and there is no place to install the dell catch. Is there a specific model after market drive that people have had success with?

 

You need to find a 9.5mm thick optical drive with SATA connector.

Two models used by Dell are the PLDS DU-8A2S and the UJ-862A, but I think there are one or two others. The Dell release mechanism should fit these burners - they are a standard shape and size.

John

 

Might the Hitachi GSA-U*N series work? They are also 9.5mm thick, and seem to be a bit cheaper on ebay. Apparently HP and lenovo use them.

Oh, and the prices for slimline drives in general seem ridiculous when compared to standard desktop ones at less than 30 dollars.

 

If the interface is SATA then they should be OK. BTW, I thought the GSA series were LG. Perhaps its another of these joint production lines.

Also, another compatible burner used by Dell is the TS-U633A (that's Toshiba-Samsung).

John