TSSTcorp dvd+-rw sn-208bb: utter crap or software problem?

I've read on several pages that this drive is prone to fail. I have it in a Vostro 3560 and it has been rarely used, but now then I need to burn data from my laptop, it will only produce coasters, with high quality media and normal media, using ImgBurn, NeroLite, CD Burner XP and several other freeware programs.

Since I have Windows 7 and the drive is faulty there, someone suggested using a USB Linux boot and test the drive there using Brasero.

I did, using Linux Mint, and I got a partially burned dvd (you can see the burned "groove") which gave me hope, but it was taking forever, supposedly burning at 1X so I stopped it because this is not a real test. I need to know if my drive burns at 8X or not.

Now, two questions:

1) since i have never used a USB linux boot before, was it expected that the burning process took that long? I suppose that since everything was being processed within the USB, it was normal, but THAT SLOW? I could listen how the laser "skipped" and/or stopped and continued, so it wouldn't surprise me that the damn laser or the whole drive is faulty. What really bothers me is that I used it almost NEVER and now it won't burn, and reading is not that good either.

So thinking about upgrading or, better yet, replacing (cause I'd hate to get a new drive of the same model, seeing how this one behaved):

2) I would love to swap my DVD-RW for a BD-ROM (part number CT40N), but the faceplate worries me. Are they easily swapped, for instance, if I buy the correct replacment BD model?

Thanks.

 

The face plates are standard as far as to how they latch onto a drive. The latches are however plastic, fragile and they tend to have a grip of death on the drive. They will take time and care to remove, but once it's removed, snapping it in place on the new drive is easy. The drive itself is ridiculously easy to swap.

 

Absolutely, I have already swapped my LCD from an HD to a FHD one, that won't be a problem, thankfully. Just remove a screw and voilá.

Maybe not my case, since the Vostro 3560 has a magnesium faceplate which might make it even trickier, and the BD-ROM drives I've found online don't have it.

I'll analize it to findout how easy or not it might be.

 

Kinda hard to see on the picture, but the latches themselves seem pretty standard the shape of the plate is less standard though, but should fit any standard drive.

 

I think I'll take the risk. Last night I made another coaster within Linux Mint eventhough the burning simulation ran from 3.2x to 5.6x, the actual burning never went above 1.0x and at one point the damn drive began to click endlessly.

I've had enough with it. Once I replace it with the BD-ROM, I promise you I'm going to vent all my frustrations against it.