Thinkpads Forum

Well, my frustration with the poor placement of the DVD eject button on my T420 has finally driven me to find a workaround. And, like all good hacks, this one involved a Dremel tool.

First step was to purchase a replacement drive. I wanted something cheap (so that I could replace it if I screwed up) and slot-loading (since that's kinda the point...) I found the TSSTcorp TS-T633A which is available on eBay for about $20. It's a standard slot-loading DVD burner with a SATA interface and reliable multi-platform software support (unlike the garbage OptiArc drive that I had in the machine.)

Once I got the drive, I tried to plug it in. Slight problem there. The faceplate is square, not notched, and the T420's design only allows for a notched one. No problem. A bit of tracing, some quick Dremel work, and I've got a notched faceplate.

Ok, so one more problem: the bezel's got an extra flange on the top. Well... this is a quick 'n dirty mod, so let's try some force... Ah. Turn out it wedges itself in there perfectly if you just push hard enough.

Now it's not perfect -- the top flange of the bay overhangs the drive a bit, and the bottom corner is beveled such that there's a bit that sticks out (see pictures below) -- but it's not bad. The top overhang is actually a pretty useful feature, as it stops one from accidentally hitting the eject button.

The end result? My T420's now got a slot-loading DVD burner, and I don't have to worry about popping out the tray every time I pick up the notebook carelessly. Pretty good for $20!

Pictures? Oh, fine. I suppose I could take some.



(Sorry about the low resolution. The camera isn't my BlackBerry strongest feature.)

well that's a dandy little idea...   bravo!

did you install both the plastic retaining clip on the side and the rear "nub" that prevents it from going into EIDE systems?

erik wrote:well that's a dandy little idea...   bravo!

did you install both the plastic retaining clip on the side and the rear "nub" that prevents it from going into EIDE systems?

Nope. I didn't have a spare. That might explain why it sits a little far back...

I can try removing the one from the existing drive and seeing if I can attach it.

I think i may follow this hack.

Is there any issues with mounting and the device-eject mechanism under the laptop? I didnt think standard drives would be stock-comparable with ultrabay.

blackomegax wrote:I think i may follow this hack.

Is there any issues with mounting and the device-eject mechanism under the laptop?

Nope. You'll need a bit more force to get the drive out, since the bezel will wedge it in there pretty good (assuming you applied enough force to get the top edge even), but eject works fine.

I've since moved the back plastic "nub" from the stock drive. That helped place it a bit better, but other than that I didn't do anything special to the new drive.

I didnt think standard drives would be stock-comparable with ultrabay.

Yep. The UltraBay takes standard 9.5 or 12.7mm drives. I'm not sure when IBM started using the common drive design, but ThinkPads have used standard PATA/SATA drives at least since the T40, and probably earlier. (Sorry for the approximation -- there's a gap in my ThinkPad assembly knowledge between the triple digit models and the T40 since I've owned very, very few of those machines.) Some of the details aren't identical (the bezel, some plastic bits here and there), but the general form factor is the industry-standard one.

ThinkRob wrote:Nope. I didn't have a spare. That might explain why it sits a little far back...

I can try removing the one from the existing drive and seeing if I can attach it.

it will work due to being a standard bolt pattern.

don't expect it to move very far.   the flange is only about 1mm thick.   at best it will take up any fore/aft play in the drive and allow the lock to properly hold the drive.

erik wrote: don't expect it to move very far.   the flange is only about 1mm thick.   at best it will take up any fore/aft play in the drive and allow the lock to properly hold the drive.

Yeah, I know the back screw holes are standard.

It did indeed move it forward a little -- about 1 mm as you said. Locking worked fine before, but I suppose it's better this way. Thanks for the tip!

Just a quick update: one week in and it's still working great! It's nice not having to worry about accidentally popping out the tray, and I'm definitely liking the fact that the burner actually works consistently with Xfburn (the previous one would burn coasters whenever it felt like it.)

Way back I wanted to upgrade CD-ROM of my X31 for a combo drive. I got a combo from a dead Samsung laptop and swapped genuine IBM CD-ROM with this combo drive – it fitted perfectly into IBM Ultrabay CD-ROM casing – everything was in place – as if the combo drive was made for IBM. It was recognised by the system – I could burn CDs and watch DVD movies. Half a year later I needed to reinstall XP – and it just wouldn’t load from the drive. Took me a while to realise that while the drive worked in Windows it couldn’t serve as a bootable drive. Apparently problem is with Master/Slave allocation on the drives. There is a solution but it involved soldering… I would suggest to try to boot from this drive to see if it is fully compatible with T420

X32 wrote: Apparently problem is with Master/Slave allocation on the drives. There is a solution but it involved soldering… I would suggest to try to boot from this drive to see if it is fully compatible with T420

It's SATA. It boots great.