How hard is it to install an internal DVD burner?.......?

Question

I have a Dell Dimension 4600, nice system. It has a DVD "player" on the top bay of the tower...(right above the CD rom/burner).

How hard is it REALLY....to take it out...and put in a DVD RECORDER (need to make some home movies).

Is this a big job? My skill level/experience: ZERO.

Advice?

Also: Good brand, burn rates?? I'm lost. I just wanna play "Speilberg" and make some home movies. HELP!


Thank you!

Answer 1

First, you must consider whether you need an internal burner.

If you have one (or more) free USB 2.0 ports (you should have these if you've purchased your computer within the last 2 years) or a FireWire port, you can use an external burner, which for home movies is overkill, and is much easier to install. These now cost only marginally more.

If you are heartset on the internal burner, you might have a space problem, if you have two CD drives, then one will have to go (this is true of most COMERCIAL built computers).

I think if you are savvy enough to film video, transfer the footage to your computer and edit it then this should be challenging (in an educational, school research report kind of way), but simple.

To break it down it works like this:

1. Open case (possibly the hardest part).

2. Spend a few minutes admiring the internal workings of a PC.

3. Some of it will start to make sense.

4, Find the cluster or wide-flat 'ribbon cables'.

5. Trace each one to where it goes.

6. One should go to both the CD burner and DVD drive (hear th top of the case, probably next to the metal box with multi-colloered wires a connectors, which is you P(ower) S(upply) U(nit), PSU for geeks and nerds.

7. Shimmy out the ribbon cable and the white power plug next to it (usually translucent white, occasionally black, this has four holes that plug into four pins in the drive, called a Molex connector) keep the cables handy, you'll need them for the new drive.

8. Find the four screws holding the drive in, and remove them, keep them handy, although the new drive should give you both a new ribbond cable and screws don't use the new cable, and if you can use the old screws..........................

Alternativley since you have a Dell, there may be a goofy @rs "tooless" system that you will have to figure out (probably a lever realeasing the cage (metal or plastic bok that attaches to both the drives and the computer case).

Hint: remove the cables first.

9. Slide the old drive out through the front.

10, Slide the new one in through the front.

11, Screw in or do the opposite of how you got the old drive out, the new drive, don't overtighten (ie once it is firm and won't rattle, stop).

12. Plug the ribbon cable and Molex back into the drive, they may be in different locations than the old drive and also may be upside-down, (unless you put the drive in upside-downm,--check!-- this is fine).

13. Restart the computer and see if it recognizes the drive. Do this by:

Start-> My Computer -> One should say DVD Burner (and probably the brand name, type [ie +/- rw] and the drive letter of the old drive).

14. Hopefully it worked, if not, make sure everything is pluuged in correctly. And then restart again.

--If it doesn't work run it into your local Best Buy Geek Squad or local PC shop, tell them what you did and they'll fix it (for a small fee).

Note: Some stores will give you a discount to buy both the drive and installation, consider this.

The following are good drives (in my opinion):

Plextor
Sony
LiteOn
Pioneer
NEC
Memorex (kinda ok)

Stay away from:
HP
Mad Dog
Polaroid

Buy a "+/- RW (Re-\Wwriteable)

Answer 2

As far as good brands of DVD drives, read some reviews on the web; NEC, Plextor, and other companies make some good drives. You might as well get one that handles both DVD-R and DVD+R discs, and also Dual Layer discs, at 16x burn speeds. They're relatively inexpensive at sites like Newegg.com, usually going in the $35 to $40 range.
To install the drive, it's relatively easy....go to the device manager in your pc, locate the present DVD drive, and choose "uninstall" to get rid of the old drive's drivers, etc. Then turn the pc off using the normal shutdown procedure, and then unplug the power cord from the back of the case. Open the case, and, as the previous answerer stated, it's just a matter of removing the power connector and the IDE ribbon cable from the old drive. Then, using (usually) a Phillips Screwdriver, carefully remove the mounting screws that are holding the drive solidly into the bay. Once the old drive is removed, also take a look at the other slot on the old DVD drive...there may be a set of three different pin settings on the back, called "Jumper Select"; one for "Master", one for "Slave", and one for "Cable Select". After looking at the old drive setting, use a small tool like a mini screwdriver to pry up the jumper piece on the new drive (if needed), and place it in the same choice as it is on the old drive.
Once you've gotten all that done and the new drive secured in the bay with the Phillips screws and the power and ribbon cables securely plugged back into the new drive, put the case cover(s) back on, plug in the power cord, and start up the pc. If all works out well, Windows will "find" the new DVD drive as new hardware, and automatically load the new drivers for it, and then you're good to go. Good luck.

Answer 3

Dell usually puts their drives in rails. They make it as easy and tool free as possible. They usually have green thingies on them. Any green inside your computer are things that can be easily replaced and moved. For the optical drives you usually just press a green thing or glide a green thing and pop out the drive. I suggest taking the CD Burner off and keeping the dvd rom. DVD Burners also burns CDs so no point in keeping the CD Burner. Plus once you start making your DVDs. You can just copy DVD to DVD. I think the rest of the process of installing this has been covered in your previous posts.

For brands, I suggest getting Lite-On. They were actually the ones that produced alot of the burners that are built with computers, and Sony actually used them (I'm not sure if they still are using them). Anyway, techs find them really good. And they are usually the ones that aren't picky with the brand of blank DVDs you buy.

If you need anymore help on how to do this, you can email me at [e-mail].

About the external DVD Drive one of your posts suggested: They are expensive and bulky, plus you need another power outlet to make it run. If you have the willingness to install the internal one, please do so.

Answer 4

It's really pretty simple. You probably don't even need to take out the DVD Rom, there should be an empty space. But you just open up your computer and slide it in, put a screw in each side to keep it from falling out, plug it in and put the cover back on. There will be two different sets of wires to plug in..one is the power and one is for data, make sure that you don't bend any of the pins when you plug it in....oh, and before you go inside the computer shut it down and unplug it...you are supposed to ground yourself to the computer to keep static electricity from blowng out your computer but I have never grounded myself and I have never blown one out. After you install the burner when you reboot your computer it should notice new hardware and automatically install the drivers for it. If it dosen't then you will need to go to Control Panel and open Add Hardware and let Windows find the right driver and install it and you should be in business!

Answer 5

Open the case and study the configuration of the first one before u makes any replacement. Them u screw the other from the base and replace with the new one. Easy as that.
P.S. Make sure the system is turn off and the power cord is plug out before u start, also read the instruction sheet that u got with your new drive.

Answer 6

It as simple as disconnecting to cables from the back of the cd burner, unscrewing it from the side, and popping it out from the front. Do the reverse when you put the DVD burner back in. Easy!! :)

Answer 7

very easy to install it will take you longer to load the drivers than install the dvd rom lite-on is a good brand you want a double layer 16 X,

Answer 8

Chances are good it just requires the removal of one screw from the bottom of the laptop. You then just slide out the old drive, and slide in a new one. Got an exact model number of your laptop handy?

Answer 9

open the case look at how the other one is hooked up you will realize how simple it is. just two cables the power and the 40 pin ribbon

Answer 10

there are many web sites that offer step by step instructions on how to install items into your computer, most even have pictures

http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/installing_cd_recorder.htm
this being just one example