dvd drive grinding noise

merkat106

Geek
Member
One of my HP laptops, HP Pavilion dv9650us, went off warranty about two months ago. I was using the machine to help fix another computer's problem when I noticed that its dvd-drive is making loud grinding noises and is slowing down the computer whenever I would access the drive. I suspect that the drive is about to die. :(

I am not sure how long the drive has been doing this since the laptop is being used primarily by another family member.

I purchased an extended warranty through Office Depot, but that family member cannot afford for that computer to be sent off for an unknown amount of time so I am actively considering replacing the drive myself.

I am looking at drives on amazon.com and unsure if a 'universal laptop slimline drive' will fit. Are the drives fairly universal between manufactorers? The current drive is an HD-DVD drive so I was hoping to upgrade to a blu-ray drive. Is it possible?

FYI: These kind of internal laptop dvd drives are not available from newegg or even frys. I'd rather not buy directly through hp.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom mATX
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X2 5600+ Brisbane 2.9Ghz (dual core)
    Motherboard
    Asus M3N78-VM Green
    Memory
    Kingston 8 GB DDR2 PC-6400
    Graphics Card(s)
    PNY NVIDIA GeForce 9400GT 512MB PCIe
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 22", Samsung 24"
    Hard Drives
    WD RE3 320GB (WD3202ABYS), Samsung SPINPOINT F1 640GB (HD642JJ)
    External Drives: WD MyBook Essentials 500GB, WD 120GB, an old Maxtor 80GB. Portables: Simpletech 160GB, WD Passport 250GB.
    PSU
    Corsair 620W modular
    Case
    CoolerMaster Elite 341 mATX
    Cooling
    Thermaltake TR2-R1
    Keyboard
    HP Elite Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Laser & Logitech Marble
    Internet Speed
    Cable
    Other Info
    Printers: HP Photosmart C7280, Oki-Data 3400n, HP Officejet 4300
www.span.com Found a few laptop BD-Roms there. Panasonic makes the UJ-220 for laptops as well. They are a bit pricey. :( I would google something like 'Notebook Internal Blu-Ray' and see what pops up for you.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    C2D E6550 2.3GHz
    Motherboard
    nForce 680i LT SLI
    Memory
    4GB DDR2
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8600 GT XXX
    Hard Drives
    2 80GB
    RAID 0
    Keyboard
    MS Wireless Comfort Keyboard 4000
    Mouse
    MS Wireless Laser Mouse 5000
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