[PLUG] Thinkpad DVD drive failure, maybe

[John Jason Jordan]

On Thu, 11 Apr 2013 23:35:36 -0700
John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> dijo:

>But the decision remains on hold until after the Clinic. Crossing my
>fingers that this computer can be saved. :)

Definitely a hardware problem. Confirmed today. OK, we already knew it
was a hardware problem, but now I have additional information.

Today I had to reboot the computer for various reasons, and when it
came up I decided to try the DVD drive. It worked! That is, it worked
for mounting about five DVDs and copying some files off of them. Then,
while inserting another DVD I was suddenly staring at the Thinkpad boot
splash screen. After it rebooted it worked again for several DVDs and
then the screen froze, followed a few moments later by a black screen
and the Thinkpad boot splash screen.

A few weeks ago I asked here about problems that could cause a random
reboot. I guess I just found out what was causing it. :)

I don't know if it can be fixed, but I now know for a fact that
something is haywire with the drive, and most likely the connector.
We'll find out next Sunday.