a quick question

If the drive does have + then it is a DVD+R drive. I believe that the drive is hot swapable you can take it out and check. Since you ordered it with the belief that it was a - R you can always call and complain and have them send you the proper drive. If mine comes with a DVD+R I'm going to complain since I want a -R drive.

Oops! (on their part)

That sucks Hope you get it straightened out!

Edit:
I just looked at AW's configuration page for the A51m and it lists DVD+RW on the site. Hopefully your paperwork lists the drive as DVD-RW or you might be stuck w/ the drive.

I still can't understand why people are complaining. + drives are 10 times better than - drives. However, if you are looking for cheap DVD's then - is better. If you're looking for compatiblity and the future industry standard, then + is the way to go. Ether way, here's a site that some of you with your DVDR+- drives might find helpfull: www.dvdrhelp.com

I have the -RW

I have the - RW and would be willing to trade for the +RW
I have a bunch of +rw disks that i use with my desktop I you can take a pic of the side of your laptop I will take one of mine than we can compare and make sure the two drives are differnet I would love to have the same media for both computers!
Unfortunatly some on would have to be with out a dvd-rom for a few days I don't mind i have one shared on the network I can use but I am going to a lan party in 2 weeks and definatly need it by then! Private messge me if anyone is interested!

here is the pic of the logo on the DVD-RW if your s looks like this it is -RW

Well I called about this whole DVD+R debacle and this is what I found out. The DVD burners being sent out with the new laptops are indeed +R's. My receipt like alot of other peoples specifically states -R. Now I had just bought a couple of hundred -R's prior to the military deployment I'm going on and was highly upset that alienware had done this change without me knowing. I was told that the only burners that alienware ever carried was the +R. Of course I told him that plenty of people own a -R and that I converse with a few of them. He then does a check and comes back and said that they stopped carrying them and now only carry the +R. So I tell him I paid almost $4000 for a laptop with that specific burner in mind. He offers a $50 gift certificate. I said that doesnt even begin to compensate for the 200 DVD-R's I had bought. So he checks something else and comes back with this. When AW gets a -R in they will send me one then I have to send them the +R. He also said I would be sent $75 worth of certificates to help ease my pain. He also told me by phone and sent an email stating that I was on phase 9. Well guess what I called tonight and I'm on phase 5. He asked who told me I was on phase 9 and I said you did. He sure did a lot of side stepping and backtracking on his words. That dude in my mind totally lied to me just to shut me up and make me happy. Baaaad customer service. I would have been satisfied if the phase 9 was true. Now do I believe him about the -R being shipped to me when they come in? I don't think so! Sorry about the rant just had to get it out there.

Ok, what is the difference between the dvd-rw and the dvd+rw?

is there a price difference at retail stores for DVD-RW and DVD+RW?

Who makes the DVD+/-R's

Who makes these two drives if any one can pull out your dvd drive and let us know the manufactuer of it may be we can find som price comparisons. I would but I'm at work presently.