Thinkpads Forum

hi, I bought a 600x (PIII 500 mhz) a couple of weeks ago locally.

I asked the store for a combo drive and they swapped the existing CD for the Ujda720, which plays CDs fine but has a bad video and audio stutter with DVDs (using PowerDVD 5). However with a different plain DVD drive (don't know the model, sorry) the 600x plays DVDs perfectly.

Does anyone know if I can get this combo drive to work with the 600x. One lead seems to be

http://www.ibm.com/Search/?q=migr-41020

But this isn't supported for the 600x (not to mention I don't own a floppy drive)

Also I found a 'driver' for the ujda720 (sbide.zip) but wasn't successful installing it, I'm a novice in these things. The OS is w2k with the most recent video driver.

The store is willing to trade the combo drive for two drives but I'm striving as usual for aesthetic and functional unity. Any ideas?


Thanks, GO

I don't know about the M a t s u s h i t a/Panasonic UJDA720, but I do know about the Toshiba combo drives. As far as I know, basically ANY 12.5mm CD-RW/DVD drive should work in your 600X, but the tricky part is getting one that has a front bezel that matches your machine (or figuring out how to swap it with the bezel form another drive, or how to cut it or file it to fit more smoothly). You shouldn't need to load any drivers for any CD/DVD drive as far as I know. Firmware upgrades should be available from the actual drive manufacturer, if necessary -- there should be no need for an IBM-specific firmware upgrade, and you will not have a very good selection if you limit yourself to drives that were actually sold by IBM for the 600X specifically.

I've successfully installed a Toshiba SD6372 CD-RW/DVD-R/+R/-RW/+RW in my 600X, by simply swapping it with the original Toshiba CD-ROM/DVD drive that came with my machine -- using the drive caddy and bezel pieces from the original.

For more information on my searches and for a brief discussion of which drives will allow you to use the same bezel as an original 600X IBM branded, Toshiba-manufactured optical drive, check out the following thread:
Find the right optical drive to fit 600X

If you are not so comfortable working on your laptop with screwdriver and possibly a knife and file, then you may want to stick with officially supported drives only, rather than getting in to trying to remove the bezel from one drive and attach it to a new one. But you can get a darn good drive for pretty cheap if you are willing to buy just the bare drive and use your current caddy and bezel. I can't tell whether you have an additional drive kicking around for your 600X or not, but if you have a Toshiba CD or DVD drive, then you can probably use my unofficial list of swappable drives as a guide for you or your store support person (the guide is provided in the thread linked above).

Phil.

thanks for the list of drives, now I'm debating whether to return the Matushita to the store and buy a different (and cheaper) drive on ebay or keep the drive I have.

It wouldn't be much of a choice except last night I installed PowerDVD 4.0 (to replace 5.0) and a commercial DVD played much, much better, with some minor audio glitches but nothing to complain about. I'm tempted to reverse-upgrade PowerDVD until play is flawless.

And yes, the Ujda720 fits very well into the 600x, the bezel just slightly not flush with the case.


GO