Member Avatar for djkcx

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

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mechbas

Dani AI

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A few focused checks that isolate whether the replacement unit or the laptop is at fault, and that stay safe for warranty-covered gear.

As has seen and as hinted, the symptom points to a hardware/handshake problem rather than Windows — do the basics first, with power removed: take out AC and battery, hold the power button 20–30 seconds to discharge, then reseat the drive firmly. Inspect the metal bracket and screws for contact with the exposed PCB on the drive; a grounding/short from a slightly-misplaced screw or bracket commonly freezes POST. Try fitting the drive without the bracket or add a small piece of insulating tape over the board contacts and retest.

Verify physical compatibility without guessing. Confirm the drive’s slimline interface and thickness match the bay (some slim drives look similar but differ electrically or mechanically). If the BIOS won’t negotiate with the drive, boot the machine with the original drive or no drive, enter BIOS setup, disable optical as a boot device (or lower its priority) and test again — this can reveal whether the firmware negotiation is what hangs POST.

Isolate the unit: test the replacement drive in another laptop or via an external USB adapter/enclosure that supports slimline laptop drives. If the drive works externally or in another machine, the laptop is likely incompatible or the bay has damage. If it also hangs other systems, return or RMA the drive.

If all else fails, updating the laptop BIOS (follow vendor instructions carefully) can resolve ATAPI compatibility issues, but only attempt this while the system is stable. Do not open the optical drive internals — as advised, that voids warranty and is not repairable. If the drive repeatedly causes POST freezes after these checks, request an exchange from the seller for a confirmed-compatible unit.

Member Avatar for mechbas

Is the new drive's ribbon cable installed backwards?

Member Avatar for djkcx

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.

Member Avatar for mechbas

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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