CDRW Upgrade ?

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War-Raven

Member
May 3, 2014
5
0
United States
  • #1
    I have one of the new Alienware 18 laptops .... you know ... the New New ones that Dell ruined....:mad:

    When I called and had it built for me ... the lady told me that the CDRW wouldn't fit because of the video cards ... I thought that was very strange because I have 2 other X18 laptops and they all had CDR drives .... ???
    Anyways I went ahead with he order.
    After about a month with the laptop I thought I would open her up and see what was on the inside of these new beasts ... I didn't like what I found .......
    First of all ... the Battery is now completely integrated and bolted down ... NO good *(
    the other thing that I found was the space where the CD/DVD drive was supposed to go, had a hard drive filling the space instead .. ?? WTF ??
    SOooooo .. apparently the video cards had nothing to do with the fact that the CD drive wouldn't fit .. it was the hard drive configuration ....

    Anyways .....
    Dell Customer Support is Horrible as usual ... I spent 2 hours on the phone yesterday trying to get a CDRW drive for my laptop ... after talking with 6 different departments I finally spoke with someone that said he thought he could help me ... Ha ha .. he wasn't sure ...
    Then after talking with him for 30 more mins ... he said that dell didn't have any CDRWs in stock and that he would have to call me when they came in ... *( again ... WTF Dell !!!

    Soooo ... My question is this ...
    will this one Fit ??
    http://www.tiny-buys.com/cd-dvd-rw-drive-burner/dell-alienware-18.html
    And if so ... how hard is it to install ?? are there videos somewhere to help ?
     
    W

    War-Raven

    Member
    May 3, 2014
    5
    0
    United States
  • #4
    OK ... I have finally tracked down all the parts to install the CDRW ...
    Drimmled out the CDRW bay hole and repainted the side where I accidentally scratched it .. *(

    I am only missing 1 final piece to the puzzle .... the stupid cable to hook it up ...
    I tried to use a cable that I had hooked up to the hard drive in that bay but it doesn't fit the CDRW ..
    it looks like a mini SATA connection ... but as you know you cant use just any cable to hook it up to the motherboard.
    The MB has a very small connector and i don't know what it is called.
    Called DELL looking for the cable and as usual DELL are sorry excuses for a computer manufacture and don't have any idea what cable or how to help me ... *(

    any help here guys would be great ....
    I am sooooo close to getting this buttoned up ... its frustrating to be missing such a small thing.

    The 1st picture is of the difference between the size of the SATA on the original hard drive and the CDRW that I want to install.
    CDRW connector is much smaller ... *(
    the 2nd pic is of the connector on the MB.


    20140715_152006.jpg20140716_100430.jpg
     
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