Posted: 4/26/2009 2:18:20 PM EDT
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I have a Toshiba satellite laptop and it works great but recently the DVD/CD player quit working.
It's a drawer on the right side of the laptop. When you pressed the button on the drawer a light would illuminate on the drawer and it would pop open. Now it does nothing at all. No light no action. Any thoughts on a cause or a price to repair it ? Also, how hard is it to open the unit and do it myself ? Is there a site that shows you how ? |
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There is a screw on the bottom of it more than likely. Take that out and it pops out. Just get an external one. You will see a small hole on the face of the dvd player. Put a paper clip in there and it will open the door. Clean it and see if that helps. May just need a tap to be reseated as well. |
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Quoted:
There is a screw on the bottom of it more than likely. Take that out and it pops out. Just get an external one. You will see a small hole on the face of the dvd player. Put a paper clip in there and it will open the door. Clean it and see if that helps. May just need a tap to be reseated as well. I used a paper clip to open it manually but it seems like it's not getting power. Last week I turned it over and removed every screw I could find but the bottom case still didn't want to come off. It was still attached near the LCD screen and I didn't want to pry at it. |
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Unless you know somebody I wouldn't repair it. I have been furious at my parents for the stuff they've paid for, how much they paid, and the fact that a lot of times the electronics store in-house don't know WTF they're doing and fail to fix it properly. It's really not hard stuff. I am certainly far from an IT professional but I can spot a burnt out power supply connector or reinstall an OS. Laptops are trickier than desktops but certainly shouldn't be a problem if you've built an AR. I would start with a walkthrough of how I would address the problem but I'm sure it would just get me pwnd by someone who is a pro and has a better way to deal with it. My point's just that unless you're dealing with some fancy-pants stuff, most components can be found pretty cheap and DIY'd on the install - certainly not worth the $200 "diagnostic" fees I've seen just to tell you have to pay parts plus labor at $100 an hour to swap out a drive that you can get for $99 on newegg.
If you're lazy or in a time crunch an external is a good option too, as mentioned above. |
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Fix it yourself. I've had 2 laptops break and fixed each for less than $30 when repair places or mfr. wanted $450. There is a Toshiba repair guy that documents disassembly instructions on his website. Just Google your model number. (You might also try laptoprepair101.com) This is an easy fix. Finding the part might be the hardest part. |
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Pell Technology
They are here in Tampa, prices are ok, and they do good work. |
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Dude, you're gonna kill me. My wife had a Toshiba Satellite laptop. Just last week she broke the screen on it from picking it up all the time by the screen. I bought her a new laptop. Before throwing the Toshiba away, I removed the memory, DVD player, and hard drive. After I removed the DVD player, I decided I'd never need the DVD player as a spare so I chunked it in the trash with the notebook.
BTW...the DVD player is easy to remove. There is one screw on the bottom of the laptop that you remove, and the DVD player just pulls out. It will uplug the connections as it pulls out, so it may take a little force to unplug it. Like someone else mentioned, if you don't need an internal DVD player, I'd just buy an external USB DVD drive. That'll probably be the cheapest route. Here's a bunch here at NewEgg: Link |
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That's about the easiest repair ever in the history of time. Look at the manual that came with your laptop, and you'll find instructions for removing the drive. It should come out either with one screw, or a a small semi-hidden button. Once you remove the drive, just get the model number off of the drive and search ebay for that model number. You'll probably be back in business for less than $50. |
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Just go on eBay. Remove the SINGLE screw holding it in place, tilt laptop, drop out old drive. Remove old adapter from old drive, install on back of new drive, reinsert.
DVD drive fixed. Over 90% of the DVD drives I've worked on in the past 6 years have one screw holding them in. It's an easy fix. Your computer ain't made of glass, just do it yourself. And that dude charging $20/hr? He's a steal. Friends who send people who piss me off assholes with attitudes get charged $100 to reload Windows, $150 for replacing the power jack on a laptop. Friends get by with a fifth of crown 
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Disassembly guide: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/toshiba-satellite-p105/take-apart-1.htm You can do the whole switch in 20 minutes. Optical drives on EBay: http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=Toshiba+satellite+P105+dvd+drive&_sacat=See-All-Categories |