BenQ DW1640 drive tray (part 2)

Previously I wrote about trying to fix my BenQ DW1640 drive tray, but without replacing the belt. Of course it didn’t work.

This time I went to Sim Lim Tower, where I know this particular shop called Space Electronics in the basement has a very wide selection of drive belts. Since I didn’t take the original belt out for comparison, I had to buy a few based on my memory. It turns out the smallest belt I bought worked very nicely as a replacement.

Here are the steps you should take to disassemble the drive:

  1. The drive tray should be ejected first.
    Either manually using the hole in the front, or when the drive is still powered. I used the hole in front, by inserting a solid single core AWG 20 wire I had. An unfolded paper clip will work fine too.
  2. Remove the front bezel off the tray first.
    There’s 2 catches on the underside of the tray. Unhook those and slide the bezel upwards.
  3. Remove the bezel off the drive itself.
    There are 3 catches, two at the side, one at the bottom. The bezel hinges at the top, so be careful not to break those hooks.
  4. The last step would be to remove the 4 screws at the bottom of the drive.

If you’ve done this correctly, the drive will separate cleanly into the top metal cover, the drive itself, and the bottom metal tray.

To access the belt underneath the drive tray, simply use the release mechanism at the front. Pull the drive tray all the way outwards. There’s a catch located at the end of the drive, on the right side. By pulling the catch outwards towards the nearest side of the drive, the tray can be pulled out completely to reveal the drive belt.

Sorry I was too lazy to take any pictures. Hope this helps.

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BenQ DW1640 drive tray

I own a BenQ DW1640 DVD drive and like many other people, the drive tray will no longer eject and retract properly.

Following advice from a blog, I took apart my drive and indeed the tray mechanism is driven by a rubber belt. Although it seems to run properly by manually spinning it, it still doesn’t work after I’ve oiled some gears.

I have no rubber band of such a small size lying around, so I either have to go out and buy another rubber belt to fix the drive for the next few months (maybe years), or I can go out to get a new drive that doesn’t use rubber belts.

Update 8-Aug-2010: I’ve successfully replaced the drive belt and the drive is working as it should (quite surprisingly).