eBay CD drives - everything old is new again, unfortunately

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The Spirit of X21 · #1 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:51 pm

Several months ago I purchased an external USB CD-ROM drive off of eBay from a company in China to use with my X-series laptops. I have tried booting both my X23 and my X30 without success. Curious about the internals of the drive, I opened it up to find that the drive itself was manufactured in May of 1999 while the enclosure for the drive said it was manufactured in February 2007!

After learning the age of the drive, I wasn't surprised that my machines wouldn't boot. The odd thing, though, is that a friend's X41T will boot from the drive just fine. I have heard numerous reports from users of this forum that machines as early as the X20 can boot from USB CD-ROM drives, so what is going on? Is it an issue with the bridge chipset used in the enclosure of my cheap drive?

Turbo Audi · #2 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 3:02 pm

Are boot BIOS settings correct?

The Spirit of X21 · #3 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 3:21 pm

I have USB boot enabled in the BIOS. Does it matter what the boot order is? When I want to use an external device I just push F12 when the machine starts up.

t20user · #4 Post by **t20user** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 4:06 pm

The Spirit of X21 wrote:off of eBay from a company in China

I just read an article about the hazardous "illegal" recycling of computers over there. Maybe this is their way of sending our trach back to us?

The Spirit of X21 · #5 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:23 pm

Perhaps. I've heard two schools of thought about why some CD drives boot computers and others do not. Some say that it is the BIOS only that determines this, while others believe that it is a combination of the BIOS and the USB chipset used. Anyone care to weigh in on this?

#6 Post by **tomh009** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 11:23 pm

I have nothing worthwhile to contribute to this thread, but I must say that I loved the President Gas reference!

The Spirit of X21 · #7 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:12 am

tomh009 wrote:I have nothing worthwhile to contribute to this thread, but I must say that I loved the President Gas reference!

Forgive my ignorance, but what is this "President Gas" you speak of?

#8 Post by **tomh009** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:54 am

Sorry, thought that the Spirit of X21 would remember Psychedelic Furs as well -- anyway, here is a link to the lyrics:
http://www.lyricsdir.com/the-psychedeli ... yrics.html

Tholek · #9 Post by **Tholek** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:58 am

t20user wrote:
The Spirit of X21 wrote:off of eBay from a company in China
I just read an article about the hazardous "illegal" recycling of computers over there. Maybe this is their way of sending our trach back to us?

Can you point us at the article?

The Spirit of X21 · #10 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 2:48 am

tomh009 wrote:Sorry, thought that the Spirit of X21 would remember Psychedelic Furs as well -- anyway, here is a link to the lyrics:
http://www.lyricsdir.com/the-psychedeli ... yrics.html

Yes, my user name honors both Rush and my first ThinkPad, but I wasn't even alive when Rush's first album came out!

t20user · #11 Post by **t20user** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:18 pm

Tholek wrote:
t20user wrote: I just read an article about the hazardous "illegal" recycling of computers over there. Maybe this is their way of sending our trach back to us?
Can you point us at the article?

This is the one I read that day...

http://news.com.com/E-waste+lays+siege+ ... l?tag=item

This is one I read a while back...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/10/ewaste/

eBay CD drives - everything old is new again, unfortunately

eBay CD drives - everything old is new again, unfortunately

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