As the title says really, I have an advent laptop with the 50 pin connector. My original internal (a Philips SDVD8820) became very slow at writing, taking 40 mins to burn audio when it used to be 4! so I thought i'd replace it.
I have taken the brackets off the old drive and attached them to the replacement (Lite On SOSC-2483K) drive.

Now the laptop starts to boot but freezes @ bios screen. However, it will still boot to XP with no problems without a rom drive, or with the old philips fitted.

Is the drive faulty, incompatible?

Any help appreciated

Thanks in advance

Is the new drive's ribbon cable installed backwards?

It doesnt seem to have a ribbon cable I can get to. It is an enclosed drive, the 50 pin connector goes straight into the back of it, no adaptors.

If the drive has been installed for a while the prob. could be in the box that the drive is in. Apparently this is a bit beyond you and I can't blame you for caution. There has to be a short ribbon cable inside tho, no other way for the system to communicate with the drive.
Another thought, just occured, DO NOT under any circumstances open the drive itself, there's nothing in it you can repair & you'll void warranty however expressed and/or implied.

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