Yeah, they're Mitsumi drives, but finding a drive with a drawer that would
allow the front to be swapped didn't work out for me, as your experience
suggests you found out as well. I had the same problem with a Gateway box,
and one with a CTX box also (I know that's not a "major" system vendor.).
The problem is that the popular U.S. vendors expend entirely too much of their
resources on packaging, thinking, perahaps correctly, that it will help sales,
but they forget, oir perhaps not, that the individualized packaging will make
their systems difficult to upgrade over time, thereby making the long-term
usefulness of considerably less value. Apple has taken this to the extreme,
as only a vendor knowing he has a market segment to himself could do.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris" <mythtech_at_mac.com>
To: "Classic Computer" <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 7:19 AM
Subject: Re: APPLEVISION Monitor
> >While the logical replacement has never been a problem, the rounded front
> >that
> >fits the case is a virtually impossible thing to replace by the time the
> >drive
> >needs replacment. They seem to require a rounded drawer front with no
bezel
> >of the drive. Whereas the bezel can be removed easily enough, finding a
> >drive
> >with that rounded front that fits, precisely, the slot in the plastic
> >front-face of the box is a problem. The part number is seemingly never
> >available more than 90 days after the computer is no longer an
off-the-shelf
> >item.
>
> The last HP I had to do a CD swap on, I gave up finding a replacement
> "HP" drive, and just found the same model Mitsumi drive, then swapped the
> front bezel off the drawer. Of course, finding an 8x multi-year old
> Mutsumi CD drive was a challenge in itself (I tried other Mitsumi's, but
> on newer ones, and on every other CD drive I found, the drawer position
> and or mounting clips had changed, so there was no way to align it or put
> the old bezel on it).
>
> One more reason I build my own PCs these days.
>
> -chris
>
> <http://www.mythtech.net>
>
>
Received on Fri May 03 2002 - 12:40:59 BST