Where to find new Lite-On Combo for laptop?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DaveC
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DaveC

Looking for the new Lite-On slim combo drive 24x24x24x+8x, model LSC24082.
This is the replacement for the LSC24081.

Can't seem to get Lite-On to give names of distributors.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
 
Dave,

OWC is at least one. I bought their Firewire CD-R/W drive, and it was made
by Lite-On.
 
Looking for the new Lite-On slim combo drive 24x24x24x+8x, model LSC24082.
This is the replacement for the LSC24081.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, laptop optical drives tend to be OEM parts only. It can
be very difficult to acquire them until they are old enough to appear
on the secondary market. (We make devices that include a slimline
CD-ROM drive, and this sort of issue is a big ongoing problem for us;
the only accessible sources are very unreliable).

Your best chance for acquiring one of these drives is probably to keep
looking on Google for that model# once a week until you find a laptop
review that mentions it, then do the detective work to find out the
laptop OEM's internal part# for the drive, THEN search google or ebay
for the OEM part number, not the Lite-On part number.
 
Unfortunately, laptop optical drives tend to be OEM parts only. It can
be very difficult to acquire them until they are old enough to appear
on the secondary market. (We make devices that include a slimline
CD-ROM drive, and this sort of issue is a big ongoing problem for us;
the only accessible sources are very unreliable).

Your best chance for acquiring one of these drives is probably to keep
looking on Google for that model# once a week until you find a laptop
review that mentions it, then do the detective work to find out the
laptop OEM's internal part# for the drive, THEN search google or ebay
for the OEM part number, not the Lite-On part number.
Click to expand...

Beg to differ...

There is a rampant aftermarket of combo drives being sold which are *not*
OEM, and since they all (well, most) have the same hardware interface, are
pretty much a screwdriver-upgrade.

The software interface is little more. There must be a driver available for a
same-make optical drive, which it turns out, uses the same command set.
Simply modifying the driver by adding the model number of the new drive, and
you've got a very reasonable-cost (compared to the OEM) upgrade.

The reason I'm looking around for the Lite-On models is that there is, with
this brand, a rampant "geekfest" of people writing new firmware for the
drive. Tweaking of parameters is achieved by shareware authors who are
maximizing the performance of the drives (albeit marginally) beyond what the
factory has done.
 
http://www.computerhq.com/hardware/partinfo-id-35077.html
Click to expand...

I, too, Googled up that URL, and others, last week. I called CHQ and they
said they are "out" and don't know when they will get restocked. I'll call
them again to see if that's changed.

I say "out" because the drive is new and they have never had stock, according
to the manufacturer.

And speaking of the manufacturer, the US Lite-On office couldn't say who had
these drives for sale...

Hence my request for help.

Thanks,
 
If you are looking for the 24082 for a Powerbook, I wouldn't get it.
There are reports that it is not bootable because it is hard wired
into slave mode. The LSC24081 has a switch for Master/slave/cable
select which the 24082 reportedly does not have. The only other
difference between the two is that the 24082 says it can burn CDRW's
at 24x. Personally, I'd rather have a bootable drive with a non-hacked
native OSX driver that burns CDRW's at only 12x (but I never burn
CDRW's anyway), and that is the 24081.

Mark
 
If you are looking for the 24082 for a Powerbook, I wouldn't get it.
There are reports that it is not bootable because it is hard wired
into slave mode.
Click to expand...

Wow. Yet another discovery of the primitive nature of some of Apple's
core software.

Whether or not a device is a (hardware) "master" or "slave" should
have little difference to whether the software can boot from it. And
over in the much-maligned PC camp, this has been the case for years.

[ Snip ]
Mark
Click to expand...

Malc.
 
If you are looking for the 24082 for a Powerbook, I wouldn't get it.
There are reports that it is not bootable because it is hard wired
into slave mode. The LSC24081 has a switch for Master/slave/cable
select which the 24082 reportedly does not have. The only other
difference between the two is that the 24082 says it can burn CDRW's
at 24x. Personally, I'd rather have a bootable drive with a non-hacked
native OSX driver that burns CDRW's at only 12x (but I never burn
CDRW's anyway), and that is the 24081.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mark. It looks like I'll go for the '81
 
Unfortunately, laptop optical drives tend to be OEM parts only. It can
Beg to differ...

There is a rampant aftermarket of combo drives being sold which are *not*
Click to expand...

Beg to differ, since I am charged with buying these components for
low-volume production purposes. All the consumer-channel vendors
you'll find selling bare drives are selling refurbs (i.e. pulls from
dead laptops), spare parts from laptop vendors, surplus stock from
various channels and other secondary-channel merchandise.

Some distributors of OEM electronic components do sell these drives
"new", but they don't normally keep them in stock and they aren't
likely to order just one in for you unless you already have a
relationship.
The software interface is little more. There must be a driver available for a
same-make optical drive, which it turns out, uses the same command set.
Click to expand...

ATAPI has a baseline standardized command set (SCSI command set over
IDE bus) which makes it possible for generic software to work with all
compliant drives. Some software vendors - e.g. Apple - choose to
ignore drives they haven't explicitly tested.
 
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