I'm not going to knock my cheap-ass Dell laptop. After all, the cheap-ass-ed-ness is one of the reasons I was able to afford my current beloved laptop. Among the many uses I'd thought I'd use a computer for, as luck and the inevitable march of time and Murphy's Law would have it, the last use is the one use I've ended up using the most.

[parsing the last sentence... seems OK. let's go]

I had never thought to use my laptop as a DVD player. As it is, I've actually forgone my TV (and cable) and now just watch all the available opiate-slash-pablum-via-DVD on my laptop. (well. I'd like to think I've graduated a step above the standard american TV crap, in that I'm only watching movies and foreign films and Japanese anime. Which only means, of course, that I've gone from mind-numbing crap, to mind-numbing crap in a language I can't understand)

In the year-and-some [edit: 21 months, I went back and counted] that I've owned this particular computer, I've run about 1400 discs through the CD/DVD drive. It should be no surprise that the sucker gave out on me. (some CDs, a lot of anime, a few CDRoms and other computer stuff-- but mostly DVDs. I'm not sure that this particular drive was designed for this. Actually, since it failed, I guess I can be sure...)

So, I could buy a new laptop
"Ha! You win the lottery and forget to tell us, numbnuts?"

...or I can fall back on some sort of temp, quick-fix solution. Iomega is my huckleberry, in this case.

The new drive is a USB 2.0 Tank, same sort as what's currently in the laptop (CD-RW/DVD) but about 4 times faster, with its own power supply, and in a case that makes my notebook look flimsy. This sucker may survive my current system and its next two successors. It looks and acts like it could run on the bottom of my beer cooler, and would only complain that the beer cans knocking around are causing the DVDs to skip. (note: metaphorical hyperbole. I'm not about to sink the new drive in a half gallon of ice water, no matter how confident I am of it's abilities.)

It's the best $100 I've spent in quite some time. YMMV.

(My circumstances are unique; I'm not saying anything about Dell components, per se. And the Iomega external drive isn't even a week old yet. But if you find yourself with a similarly failing DVD drive, here's one solution; and if you plan on watching an absurd crapload of DVDs on your laptop, you might want to mention that to Dell when you place your order...)