hello techies,

my cdrw/dvd combo drive (slimtype combo LSC 24082K) on my Acer Travelmate 291LCi laptop stopped working at the end of its guaranty period. I want to figure out if this is some solvable problem, or if the device is dead for ever.

My observations:
1.The drive is detected by windows (XP + SP2) and shows in 'safely remove Hardware' tray icon
2. Nero info tool detects the drive at secondary master
3.any disc(cd/dvd) i load, will spin, spin, and spin.Then stops - no disc detected.
3. When i load a bootable disc before switching on (or booting), the drive is ejected automatically (No spinning)

Before this total breakdown happened, i had problems with reading some discs (or to say, random behavior. But writing was still working). Current situation : NO READ NO WRITE ONLY SPIN

Any suggestions are most awaited. I have seen similar problems discussed in many forums, but there is no conclusion for the discussions. The last SUCCESS/FAILURE post is missing in all.

Also please suggest the cheap replacement alternatives if this is a permanent failure.

Thanks in advance