Dissapearing optical drive on Vaio laptop & Best Buy's ineptitude

[Lrr]

Recently I sent my Sony Vaio PCG-FXA36 laptop off to be repaired under warranty through best buy. My hard drive was making loud clicking sounds every so often, loud enough to make me jump when I was typing a paper late at night. Also the combo drive was not reading dvd-r's and when I would try and play an audio cd or a DVD the sound would be stuttery and kind of digitized. So I finally caved and sent it off to get it repaired, knowing that it was going to take like three weeks to get the drives replaced.
I finally got it back and I was a happy camper because they had replaced the 20gig HD with a new 30gig Samsung spinpoint which is extremely quiet and, well, 10gig's bigger. Also it had a new combo drive. When I got it back there was absolutely nothing on the HD and I ran the system restore disks. When the computer shipped it had two partitions, I took this opportunity to set it up with only one. About a day after I had it all set up and had installed stuff like McAffe, Word, and Zone Alarm it started to freeze completely at start up. I ran the system restore again, and now my combo drive is not showing up in My Computer about 70% of the times I turn it on. I tried putting in a bootable disk and it started from the disk about half the time. Even when it is not showing up in windows the drive has power. All the guys a best buy are saying is they are going to send it off for 2-3 weeks again. Any thoughts on simple fixes, or other suggestions?

Also: the combo drive is physically loose in the comp, it wiggles
.

 

[Inaris]

unfortunalty, you are kind of stuck on this. the only real option here is to open the case and then find the missing screw that Sony forgot to put back in. at least that is what I'm suspecting. Problem is, as soon as you open the case, you are in violation of the warrenty terms for the machine. I do that stuff all the time and am certified by IBM and Dell so it's ok for me, but unless you feel ok with it and don't damage anything while your doing it, I would just say to take it back to them... Explain that this is not something you are going to wait 2/3 weeks for and that you want it done yesterday. This came back with a problem that wan't there before, so they broke something in prossess. it's their (sony) responsibility to get it back without a problem after sending it in to fix one.

my thoughts on it...

 

[Lrr]

Thanks, I have already opened it up to look and see if there was any obvious problems. i feel comfortable doing this as one only has to take three screws out to lift out the keyboard to look at the guts. i also downloaded a pdf of the service manual for the comp. I checked the connections between the mobo and the drive, they were fine. and as far as i can tell looking at the exploded view of the thing in the manual there is only one screw holding the drive in place, and it seems to be fine. I am not worried about voiding the warrenty because they have already broken all the seels and stuff.

 

[Inaris]

well, at least you have that. how is the drive loose?
Something on looking deaper, DO IT! Just don'e loose anything, keeping either a mental note, or an actual picture so you remember how to put it back together.
is this a removable unit?

 

[Lrr]

The drive is a fixed one, however just barely it turns out. i just took it apart again, and i had to remove a whole thrid screw to remove the optical drive. there was just the one screw, located at the rear center of the drive. the wiggle that i mentioned was the drive pivoting on this one screw within its bay. I unplugged the drive, slid it out, blew on the contacts, plugged it back in making sure that it was all the way plugged it and screwed it back together. I think the reason the drive seemed more secure within the computer before was because the copper tape that they used as the warrenty seal was at the front of the drive and kept it from pivoting on the single screw. I'm just going to live with the wiggle i guess. So far things seem to be working fine, have played a dvd, and restarted a few times and it is still showing up.

again, thanks for your help

Now that i know how easy it is to remove the drive i am wondering if there was ever a dvd-r drive for this model, do you thing that if i found one it would pretty much be plug and play?