I recently bought a used CD drive for my daughters laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505 bought 2006). She had broken the tray on the original some time ago and I needed to reinstall the operating SYSTEM (bad virus). The CD drive I bought was the same model as originally in the computer (Lite-on SOSW-852S). The replacement drive worked long enough to get the OS installed and updated and I was adding applications when the drive failed. It just squeaked REPEATEDLY when a disk was inserted and would not read. I located and installed the latest Lite-on driver from the Internet, but it didn't help. To finish the install, I borrowed a CD drive from my son's laptop, which worked. I contacted the supplier who sold me the drive, gave them the story and they sent me a second used drive, same model. This drive also worked at first. I was able to install several PROGRAMS, play a DVD, burn a CD and burn a DVD. My DAUGHTER was then burning a collection of music CDs when this second drive failed in exactly the same way as the first.
Before I go back to the supplier to tell them that a second drive has failed, I'd like to know: Is possible that my daughter's laptop is killing these drives, or have I just had bad luck? What is more likely? Also, is there anything else I can do to trouble shoot the drive? I have a fresh OS install (XP), all MS updates, and the latest Lite-on driver.
Would appreciate any GUIDANCE you can offer! I'd say bad luck, or bad model.
Especially, since it was a used one.