October 3, 2002
Hello All,
It has been a while since I added any significant content to this site :(. The inactivity is mainly due to lack of material to write about. That changed about a month ago.
I decided I wanted to replace the DVD drive in my FX210 with a combo DVD/CD-RW drive. After doing a lot of searching I found a drive on Ebay for a reasonable amount of money. The drive was supposed to be for a Dell Inspiron but I figured that it would probably work in my FX210. The drive I ended up purchasing was a Toshiba SD-R2102 DVD/CD-RW drive. This drive is an 8x8x24x8 drive and it works great. I also purchased a copy of Roxio Easy CD Creator version 5 to go with it.
Charles at IthinkComputers Inc has informed me that he can get the following combo DVD/CD-RW drives;
- Teac DW28E93 (8x8x24x8)
- Teac DW224E93 (24x10x24x8)
- Toshiba SD-R2212 (16x10x24x8)
So if you want new drives give him a call (866-484-4650) or drop him an e-mail and tell him that I sent you :)
Once you have your new DVD/CD-RW drive you are going to need to install it. The installation procedure, to replace the standard DVD or CD-ROM drive with a combo DVD/CD-RW drive, is detailed in the rest of this page.
The disassembly of the FX210 laptop to get to the DVD drive is identical to the steps necessary to replace the processor or replace the hard drive. So that you don't have to jump back and forth between the two pages I will detail the initial disassembly again.
. Be Careful
Equipment Needed.
1 Very Small Phillips head screw driver
1 New DVD/CD-RW optical drive.
Step 1
Make sure you have everything important backed up.
Step 2
Unplug the laptop from the AC adapter and take out the batteries.
Step 3
Place the laptop on a table and open the laptop and tilt the display all the way back. Place a newspaper or something over the top of the display so you don't scratch or scuff it.
Step 4
The first thing that has to be done is removal of the panel that has the speakers and powerbutton on it. This panel is secured by 1 little screw on the left hand side of the panel. Remove the screw and then slide the panel to the right. With the panel slid to the right you can then carefully lay it on the display.
Step 5
Now you need to remove the keyboard. There is 1 little screw securing the keyboard. This screw is located above the F6 key. Remove the screw. Lift the keyboard by the top, where the Function keys are, and slide it out towards the top of the laptop. Lay the keyboard on top of the panel that is all ready on top of the display.
Step 6
The Heat Sink/Fan combination is now accessible as well as the hard drive and DVD drive.
Step 7
There is only one (1) screw securing the DVD drive to the laptop chassis. However, before undoing the screw I recommend peeling the copper ground strip in the upper right corner of the DVD drive off. Be careful you don't want to damage this ground strip too badly because you will want to put it back on when the new drive is installed.
Step 8
Disconnect the IDE cable from the drive. The IDE cable is shown in the upper left corner of the following picture. To disconnect the cable careful pull the connector back from the drive.
Step 9
Remove the single screw securing the drive to the laptop chassis.
Step 10.
Simply slide the DVD drive out of the chassis.
Step 11.
Before you install the new DVD/CD-RW drive you need to remove the, L shaped, mounting bracket from the old drive so that you can install the mounting bracket on the new drive. The mounting bracket is held in place by four (4) screws, two (2) at the back and two (2) more on the side. Once the bracket has been removed from the old drive install it on the new drive.
Step 12
The faceplate on the new DVD/CD-RW drive may not match up very well with the Sony laptop. Because my original DVD drive and new DVD/CD-RW drive were both Toshiba drives I was able to remove the faceplate from the original DVD drive and install it on the new DVD/CD-RW drive. I don't know if this will work with the Teac DVD/CD-RW drives but I bet it will.
Step 13
The new DVD/CD-RW drive is ready to be installed back into the laptop. Slide the new drive into the laptop.
Step 14.
Attach the IDE connector to the new drive. To attach the connector carefully push the connector on to the drive. Make sure it is fully seated.
Step 15
Align the mounting bracket hole with the screw hole on the laptop chassis and insert and tighten the drive mounting screw.
Step 16
Re-install the copper ground strip between the drive and the laptop chassis.
Step 17
Replace the Keyboard and Powerbutton strip. The laptop should now be fully assembled and ready to go again.
Step 18
Boot the laptop and go into Device Manager and see if Windows recognizes the new DVD/CD-RW drive. The new drive should appear under the DVD/CD-ROM entry.
Provided that you can see the drive in Device Manager you are ready to go. Under WinXP you can use the built in CD-RW support and begin using the drive right away. Under Win2K or WinME you will need to install the Roxio Easy CD Creator software, Nero or some other CD-RW software utility to use the CD-RW or CD-R features of the drive.
As always if anyone has any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me at bhite@rocketmail.com.
Good Luck.
Brad
