A Busted DVD Burner

Well, almost taking a cue from my recently busted case fan (2 dollar replacement's working like a charm, btw!), my Aopen DVD burner, purchased in January of 2005 from Newegg. Newegg is easily the biggest and best computer hardware retailer on the web, most recently evidenced by how I can still check out what I bought for what price all the way back in August of 2002, when I apparently spent $1697 to build the first components of the computer I'm still using now (my copy of Windows XP and my floppy drive are the only components left in my machine).

But back to the DVD burner first. About a year ago it started acting up. About half the time it wouldn't open or close, either by the button or by ejecting in Windows. Everything else still worked, and hardly ever burned coasters, but I had for the longest time resigned msyelf to sticking a paperclip in that tiny hole under the tray that forces the tray open.

Yesterday after having issues burning an onerous ISO file, I forced it open again, and now it no longer recognizes any disc I put in there. The LED indicator doesn't even turn on anymore.

So, time for a new one.

Anyway, while I do claim more loyalty to Newegg than any other online retailer, if Pricewatch says there's a cheaper component out there (including shipping and tax), and the product nor retailer isn't crap, then that's where I'm headed.

In this case, I was led to 3btech's supply of a Samsung 18x Double Layer burner. Back when I bought the CD Burner for my computer in 2002, it cost 67 dollars, plus another 42 for the DVD player. When I replaced both of them with one DVD burner in 2005, that cost 65 dollars.

The Samsung I just bought cost 29.99 with no tax and free shipping. Incredible. Newegg had a 24.99 burner but had 5 dollar shipping and would've cost me tax, so I'm cheating on Newegg this time around.

If 3btech is any good at all, I should have my new burner by the end of the week. Come back soon to see how the purchase all works out, despite my original insistence that this was a predominantly software tweaks site, not a hardware one.

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