Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Question about an old Toshiba notebook

Jul 8, 2004 12:23PM PDT

I have a seven year old Toshiba Satellite 4015CDT. It is not my main computer but it still runs great. I would like to upgrade the CD Rom to a CD-RW and I seem to recall that it was an option when I bought it long ago. Toshiba does not have any informaiton about upgrades aside from memory and hard drives. So after much research and nosing around I have found that the original CD rom is a Teac CD-224E and I have found a Teac CD-W-224E on Ebay. Does anyone know if they are interchangeable? Can I pop this in without any hassles?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re: Question about an old Toshiba notebook
Jul 8, 2004 8:51PM PDT

The answer may never be found. For such, I fit an external USB CDRW and that works.

Bob

- Collapse -
Re: Question about an old Toshiba notebook
Jul 9, 2004 1:15AM PDT
- Collapse -
Do try it.
Jul 9, 2004 1:21AM PDT

The truth is that only a few years ago the laptop makers started using CD drives (CDRW, DVD, etc...) that were not proprietary. If it all lines it, it usually just works.

No one, including me will tell you that it will work.

Bob

- Collapse -
Re: Do try it.
Jul 9, 2004 1:41AM PDT

Thanks again Bob. I'm not really looking for anyone's blessing. I've been researching this pretty extensively and I wanted an objective and more experienced opinion in case I was missing something. (For example a DVD drive might have the same specs but not work with video card installed on the notebook.)

- Collapse -
Re: Do try it.
Jul 26, 2004 12:45PM PDT

Well I installed the CD-RW this weekend and it works like a dream. The black bezel makes it look a bit odd but the drive slipped right in without a hitch. I spent $110.97 (plus shipping)on EBay for the CD-RW, a 20GB HD and 128 MB memory card. Now it feels like I have a brand new notebook. Thanks for the help Bob.

- Collapse -
That's a happy ending.
Jul 26, 2004 1:06PM PDT

Having a CDRW is great in a laptop.

If you don't have CDRW software, try this one I use quite often...

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ It's free, nonags, no hidden spyware, etc...

Bob