DVDwriter on a toshiba satellite pro 4600?

n Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:45:08 GMT, Barry Watzman < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
wrote:

:>It's mostly a matter of finding a compatible DVD burner drive WHICH MAY
:>NOT EXIST. The issue isn't electrical -- IDE notebook DVD burners
:>obviously do exist -- the issues are mechanical -- mounting, connectors
:>and bezel (plastic front piece). I was able to covert a 2805 from DVD
:>only to "combo" drive (DVD read/CD-RW burn), and I'd like to upgrade my
:>1415 in the same way that you want to upgrade tyour 4600, but I have not
:>done a search of available drives to see if there is one that would
:>work. In fact, sometimes the only way to find out is to try it, and
:>that can get very expensive very quickly.
:>
:>
:>Alex Schwarzer wrote:
:>
:>> Hi out there,
:>>
:>> my toshiba lappy satpro 4600 is a little bit of old and just came with a cd
:>> reader. I'd love to upgrade to a dvd writer. any ideas how to accomplish
:>> this? no newer bios than from 2002 available, though. Regards, alex
:>>
:>>

Another thing to watch for is the fact that typically most laptop optical
drives do not have master/slave jumpers. I recently purchased the NEC
ND-6500A 8x DVD +-/DL drive for use in a Toshiba 5205. I found out it is
"hardwired" by NEC as a master device. I also found out that my 5205 and
most other Toshibas will only work with an optical drive that is wired for
cable select. Needless to say it was not recognized by my 5205 or by a
number of other Toshiba models I was able to test it in. However, I found
out that if you short pins 45 & 47 on the ide connector together that
changes the setting of the drive to cable select (CS). Unfortunately in
most cases this means modifying the pcb inside the optical drive or
modifying the system board in the laptop. In both cases this will most
likely void any warranty. Also, in both cases the pins you have to bridge
are surface mount soldered to their respective pcb and extremely close
together. There is a third possibility if you're lucky like I was. On my
5205 there is a "paddle board" between the drive and the system board
connector as part of the select bay carrier. It was no problem at all to
bridge the 2 pins on the paddle board connector. As a result I've now got
the NEC ND-6500A working successfully in my Toshiba 5205 in the select bay
adapter.

My experience was that on a Toshiba with a select bay for an optical drive
you will most likely have the paddle board to work with. On the other hand,
if your optical drive is not in a select bay, in most cases it will likely
connect directly to the system board. There are a few exceptions but the
only way to be sure is to remove the drive and see if it uses a paddle board
or not. I was told the reason for Toshiba using cable select on all their
drives is that they can use the same exact drive with different faceplates
in many different models. They don't have to worry if the drive is in the
slave position behind a hard drive on IDE0 or in the master position either
connected directly to the system board or in a select bay on IDE1.

Check out this URL and scroll down the page to see a picture of a modified
paddle board.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tm.asp?m=84345&mpage=5

Of course if you can find a drive that is hardwired as cable select then it
should work with just about any Toshiba. Unfortunately this