Dead DVD-RW drive on Acer Laptop

[cotswoldcs]

I think that my DVD-RW drive on my Acer Aspire 1672WLMi has packed up. It won't burn CDs or DVDs without generating an error. I've tried several different programs to no avail. Unit is a Pioneer DVR-K14RA

How easy would it be to change the unit and is it possible to get spares? I've only found one price of £170 but I'm hoping that it won't cost that much. There's one going second hand on Ebay but it's in Australia!

[this_is_gav]

No idea about a replacement as such, but if it's going to cause too much hassle, consider an external DVD writer as an alternative. There's a fair selection at Scan, and they're not much more expensive than a standard IDE DVDRW when you consider what you're getting. I've got a Freecom one myself, and haven't been able to fault it (not that Freecom is a company I'd usually go with).

[cotswoldcs]

Thanks - I've purchased a rather snazzy Asus DVD-RW from Scan. A little expensive at £76 but very much smaller than Freecom or other drives. It's also a lot cheaper than the £235 that Acer wanted for a replacement drive!!!