How easy it to change the CD-Rom in my PC?

Question

Could I replace it with another dvd/cd writer combo

Answer 1

yes it's verry easy , 2 screws , ide cable, power cable.

Answer 2

The answer is subjective to your skill level. For me it is really easy and just involves deciding whether I want to play with a screw driver today or not.

In all cases I would say it is not a difficult task but as always with opening up your computers case it involves some risks and usually voids the warranty, for good reason.

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!!!Disclaimer!!!
I am not now, nor have I ever been a computer hardware installation expert or professional. I am a hobbyist who is willing to share my experience. Please do not take my word as absolute or the whole or correct story. Just trying to help.
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Questions to ask first are:

1: what type of case do you have? ATX, MATX etc. some of these cases only work with laptop style drives for instance and the cheep 51/2 optical drive wont fit.

2: do you have space for the upgrade? in this case it sounds like you want to do an outright replacement so it should be fine. ATX case types have standard power supplies so not much to worry about with replacement. If you were adding that could be a problem if you power suply did not have enough wattage.

3: do you feel comfortable with risking the rest of your computer? Even if you know when to be gentle and when to be firm with the connections etc, even if you have good handling practises with electronic components it is possable to make errors. The advantage to having a professional do it is that they have done it so many times it is harder for them to make an error. That said I have never paid anyone to replace a drive for me.


BTW: essentially a CD-ROM, CD Burner, DVD-ROM, and DVD Burner are all the same thing when talking about putting them into your case and connecting to your motherboard.

***back up your computer before playing with it***

***Unplug your computer before opening it***

Usually for drive replacement with an ATX case you open both side panels with a star screwdriver and locate you old CD-ROM. You should notice a flat ribbon cable coming out of the back as well as a power cable with four wires. The ribbon cable will be connected to your mother boards IDE conector or in some cases a IDE expanssen card in a PCI slot. The power cable should go directly to your power supply but it may also be a split cable designed to power two drives. Sometimes you will also see an thin round audio cable going directly to the motherboard or sound card. This last is used to send audio directly from the drive to your audio device. I personally stopped using them a while ago because I never play audio form the drive I usually copy it to disk first. This might be a consideration for DVD playback if it was a digital audio signal, some are. With a striate up drive swap you should just have to unplug the 2 or 3 cables fro the back of your current drive. Remove the four screws holding the drive into the rack and then slide it out the front of the case. When it is out look on the back for the master/slave/cs jumper setting. This is IMPORTANT! Unless you know what you are doing it is absolutely necessary that your new replacement drive be set to the same jumper setting. do not assume that both drives will have the jumper in the same place to do the same thing. Each drive should have a key stamped into the metal telling you where the jumper has to be to set the drive to the correct master/slave/cs state. After setting the jumper on your new drive simply revers the prior steps. Slip the drive into the front of your case. Screw it in, preferably with he new screws that came with it as they might be just slightly different in size. Connect the ribbon cable gently, making sure that the ribbon is the correct way around. You should notice a notch out of the connector socket on the drive and a bump on the cables connector. Match the two. Next connect the power and then close up your case.

NOTE: like I said before, a CD-ROM, CD Burner, DVD-ROM, and DVD Burner are essentially same thing. Your operating system, be it a Windows, Mac or Linux will recognize all flavours as an optical drive unless other software is installed. I have been out of the Mac world for some time so I do not know what comes standard with them. I hope to #@%% you are not Linux user asking this question. As regards Windows 95/98/nt/2000 all need third party software to burn CD's and play/burn DVD. Windows XP includes CD burning software with he standard install but still will not burn or recognize a DVD burner as anything other than a generic optical drive. Ha vent seen Vista yet but I hope to #@%% they have included all the necessary software for DVD burning etc.

Answer 3

definite, all you should do is purchase a DVD stress and set up it. today a DVD burner may nicely be had for only $40. in basic terms ensure that you do get the right variety of connection. seem on the interface on the old stress and purchase a DVD version. IDE is lengthy and has 40 pins. SATA is way smaller and has purely some conductive strips.

Answer 4

It is a very easy process. On a scale 1 to 5, I would say 1

Answer 5

It is fairly easy if you know a little bit about computers. You have to open the case and unhook the old one. Assuming your computer is fairly new, you probably won't have to take any screws out..it will probably just have rails that you will need to transfer to the new drive. Then just slide the new one into the same drive bay as the old one and plug everything into it as the old one was.

Answer 6

very easy, just swap em out. OR install the dvd/cd and have both but just make sure you make one of the the slave. (look at the jumpers in the back of the drives)

Answer 7

Yes as long as you system meets the device specs. It is really simple 2 or 3 cables. Power, communictaion with motherboard and maybe a sound cable. Also might have to configure little jumper but simple to do (master, slave, cable select).

Answer 8

As long as it's compatible you can change it out. It's very very easy. You'll need to open your case/tower then unscrew and unplug your old one. Then plug and screw in the new one.