TEAC Combo Drive

[tmk]

I pulled a teac dw-224e  combo drive from my toshiba a-10 sattelite notebook.  In looking for a replacement I see alot of teac drives with the model name dw-224e-c      Does anyone know the differance, looks to me that the c may be faster in some way.  Before I order the c model I want to make sure its compatible.

Thanks

[Carskick]

You do not have to get another teac. It should be a universal slot. I personally would get an NEC, Samsung, LG, or something like that.

[query]

Be careful with this one.  Toshiba has been known to use a nonstandard set of pinouts on the drive to assign the master/slave between the hard drive and optical drive.  I've seen too many Toshiba systems where the attempt to install a non-OEM drive results in the optical and hard drive not being detected.

You are best off buying a Toshiba OEM drive unless you can solder a wire trace to the drive to match the Toshiba configuration.

[Carskick]

Really!?

Wow, I thought manufacturers stopped doing this years ago. Pfft.

Sorry for the inconvinence. I wonder if you called Toshiba, if they'd tell you if you can use any drive in the computer, or just their propriatory ones?

[tmk]

Instead of the TEAC, I bought a SAMSUNG|SN-S082D in a attempt to upgrade.  The Toshiba A10 did not like it and I got the "IDE Error #1".  Anyhow, I got it from Newegg and they have agreed to take it back.  I don't want to get into soldering or anything.  Does anyone have any idea where I can get Toshiba OEM drives or how I would contact Toshiba.

Thanks

[query]

Yes, that is the error you'll get if you use a standard drive in a Toshiba notebook.

Unfortunately, getting parts out of Toshiba is very difficult.  They'll simply tell you to take the notebook to an authorized dealer, which will charge you about $100 for the drive plus labor to install.

ALL the notebook manufacturers play these games in one way or another - try using a standard aftermarket power supply on a Dell, a standard drive in a Toshiba, or any one of a host of other gotchas that apply to HP/Compaq and others.