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Better Optical Drive for Compal 56?

post #1 of 6
3/20/05 at 3:20am
Thread Starter 
I recently bought a Compal 56 and have been pleased with it overall. The one thing I'm not so wild about is the optical drive. It's a Toshiba combo DVD/CD-RW drive. I had thought I'd be getting a Panasonic, but I ended up with the Toshiba. Does anyone know if there's any other brand/model of DVD/CD-RW drive compatible with the Compal 56?

The Toshiba is fine for loading software and playing audio CDs, but it's a pretty slow CD burner, and it doesn't seem to like Verbatim or Ritek disks. (That's all I have at the moment.)

In a similar vein, I've been trying to find out if the capabilities of internal optical drives for laptops will remain about where they are now or if any R&D is being done to improve speed and reading & writing quality. Anyone know anything about that? (I realize I can always get an external device if I really need it when traveling.)

Thanks for any info!
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post #2 of 6
3/20/05 at 4:17am
Ack! Crappy Toshiba strikes again!
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post #3 of 6
3/20/05 at 2:10pm
The official Compal-sanctioned 8x DVD burners for the CL56 recently became available, though not widespread yet.

RJTech has them. Coboc claimed to but didn't really (They were marking the 4x burner as 8x). I haven't seen any other place offering them, though I'm sure there are.
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post #4 of 6
3/20/05 at 4:47pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, Guspaz. It looks like you have the exact configuration I do except for the optical drive. I have a combo DVD/CD-RW drive. I don't think I need a DVD burner but would be willing to get one if it were a better drive than what I have now. I was just reading Wu-Tang's thread from about 5 months ago reagarding optical drive mods for this laptop. Very interesting.

Guspaz, did you install your own CPU, RAM, etc.? I've been thinking once Intel lowers the prices on the Dothans (supposedly they're going to do this over the summer), I might upgrade my CPU to a 2.0GHz, but I'm not sure how easy/difficult it is to get to the CPU, etc.

It looks like some folks have dissassembled (and reassembled) their CL56s, so I'll have to review those threads as well.

With the Alviso/Sonoma platform here, this CL56 may seem outdated, but I really like this laptop.
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post #5 of 6
3/20/05 at 5:10pm
same boat here, toshiba sucks ass and im stuck with it!
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post #6 of 6
3/20/05 at 5:20pm
I actually have the DVD/CD-RW drive too. I'm looking for a DVD burner, and am waiting before I can get it some place in Canada.

I didn't originally build it myself, though I have removed and reinstalled the CPU, and I did a memory upgrade myself.

If you do the upgrade yourself, there is one screw inside that is a torx. I don't remember the size. Might have been T6, but it might not. It's not actually that hard to do, I'd be most worried about the actual installation of the CPU; reports are that it has to be just right or it won't work. Also, it's quite easy to dent the screw that is used in the CPU socket. It is soft metal.
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