STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21186: New External CD Drive

July 14, 2005 on 2:56 pm | In Miscellany |

As of today, the 14th, I am the proud owner of a Liton 16X External DVDR/DVDRW Drive for my computer. It cost me $118.00 including tax, but I’m back in the CD copying business again. I don’t know what it would have cost to repair the CD Drive in the computer, but when you consider the “down-time” and inconvenince into the equation (if it went into the repair shop, I would have been without my computer for from 2-4 weeks depending on the freight situaton), I think it’s a good deal. Surely, the cost to repair the drive in the computer couldn’t have been that much less expensive. The new drive is faser, smarter, and has more features than my original drive. As I am typing this, I am copying a CD to my hard-drive.
In other news, the MMM are ‘clean’ again. I bought the new drive at Circuit City while I was waiting for them to get their baths/trim.
On a sadder note, I’m currently without my XM radio. I think my FM Modulator went kaput. I may have to either buy a new one, or install one of my older radios with a cassette player in it from the vast collection I have in my storage shed so that I can use the cassete adapter.
Good News, after dismantling the dashboard of my truck I discovered that the problem is just a bad fuse; Bad News, it’s not a common fuse. I’m going to have to go “in search of” replacement fuse. I’m thinking that ‘good ole Fry’s’ will be a likely first stop.
More Bad News. The fuse wasn’t a cause of the problem, but a symptom of the problem, with the FM Modulater. I trekked to Fry’s and found, then bought, the correct replacement fuses (a package of 5). Unfortunately, they didn’t fix the problem. Every time I replaced a fuse it blew as soon as power was applied. I think the FM Modulator has an internal short. I’m going to have to replace it at a cost of about $50.00. Currently, I have disconnected the FM Modulater and am back to ‘airwave’ radio only. How common-place.