plz help ! which bay has my R40/e ? 2684-L9G

[svenwurmsdobler]

Hello,
since I have great trouble, finding Information about the r40/e series on the ibm-page I'd really need a hint of some pro or more experienced thinkpad-owner.
I was only able to find useable info by searching for the FRU-Partnumber of my DVD-Rom optical drive (08k9845)->

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... MIGR-45953

this diagram says, that my r40/e has a "Bay, non-removeable" which gives me quite a lack of knowledge about which cd/rw-drives i could upgrade my system with.

Does anyone know, whether I have an Ultrabay Plus, Ultrabay 2000, Ultrabay slim or neither of the above and what in this case i could propably stick into this notebook in order to burn cds ?
An external burner won't work, because the NB has only USB 1.1 so I want to buy a dvdrom/cdrw at ebay, cause there they are way less expensive than the astronomically priced accessories offered at ibm.com (which i also cannot classify as compatible or not).

[JHEM]

Unfortunately, your R40e doesn't have a user accessible optical drive bay, so none of the Ultrabay 2000 or similar options will work with your system.

In order to change the existing optical drive you would have to disassemble your Thinkpad and install a new drive, such as the Panasonic UJDA–730 or UJDA-750: http://www.centrix-intl.com/?source=fro ... er=UJDA730 or similar.

Regards,

James

[svenwurmsdobler]

first of all thank you very much, for the fast reply !

I've allready followed the ibm-video-guide for taking out my optical drive.
What's confusing now is, that the photo of the back of the drive you recommended shows no signs of the fixed male plug which my actual drive has. (the plug looks like
..........BACK
.....____..<--
---|.......|--------
|......................\
|.......................\
|......................... ----
|...............................|
|...........UP................|
|...............................|
|...............................|
|...............................|
---------------------------
...........FRONT
)
Do you mean by "disassembly" that i will have to go farther than just opening the keyboard-screws, the cd-rom screw taking off the keyboard, taking out the cd-drive and replacing it with the panasonic UJDA730?

[JHEM]

Sven,

By disassembly I meant removal of the keyboard, etc., which you've already accomplished.

Look at the back of the drive you removed, the connector for the Thinkpad is an adaptor that is connected with two screws. Remove the adaptor from the existing optical drive and attach it to the new drive.

Regards,

James

[svenwurmsdobler]

I'll buy it now. Thanks for your help, ..what can I say,... masterchiefcommander of thinkpads ! !

[lowie]

I had the same problem: looking for a DVD-CDRW for my R40e, instead of the oldschool CDROM drive, i bought thisdrive on ebay.
After removing the adapter, it was easily inserted and worked like a charm.
All thanks to you guys (and the IBM installation movies) : RESPECT


Wietse
Leuven, Belgium

Thinkpad R40e - 2684 - A2C
P4M 1.8 GHz
768MB RAM
40GB HD
...
cost me less than 600 euro!