Serial Ultrabyay Slim or Enhanced Blu Ray drive for T500, T530, or W530

[cadillacmike68]

Hi, I'm looking for 1 or 2 ThinkPad Blu Ray drives for T500, T530 or W530. The T500 is shorter and would only fit a serial ultrabay slim drive while the T530 and W530 can take either a Serial Slim or Serial Enhanced drive.

Usage would be primarily for viewing movies / TV series, etc. They would stay out of the systems unless being used, as I have several DVD multi drives in both sizes. I don't plan on burning BRDs any time soon, but having writers instead of read-only would be better in case SW suppliers start putting their offerings on BRDs. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but my crystal bell has never been very clear.

There are a few out on ebay, but at like $95 & higher. If that's the going rate, then that's the going rate, but does it matter which one to get? I mean if I get any Serial Ultrabay Slim Blu ray drive shouldn't it work in any of the 3 ThinkPads? Likewise any Serial Ultrabay Enhanced Blu Ray should work in the T530 or W530 - correct?

Or do I have to get a drive made later than my systems mfr date?

Or a specific ASM or FRU P?N?

Or some other pitfall to look out for?

I know that many times the ASM P/N and FRU P/N are different, only because the supplier was different (H-L, Mat / Pana, LG, etc). That shouldn't matter. I like the H-L and Pana / Mat one, but any should do. Am I wrong? I'm Not partial to Sony. Never liked them, but I'll take hat I can get as long as it works.

If someone has a working one that they would like to sell, please feel free to PM me.

[atagunov]

Reading https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Ultrabay it seems T500 got "Serial Ultrabay Slim" while T530 got "Serial Ultrabay Enhanced". If I interpret compatibility matrix correctly it seems "Serial Ultrabay Slim" devices work in "Serial Ultrabay Enhanced" but not vice versa. So one would then expect a T500 DVD to work in T530 but not vice versa. This is all purely theoretical though.. Following links on the same page we get to https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category ... im_Devices where there are some FRU-s. Not sure if they are useful for you.

I'm in London and I've been considering throwing away DVD drives from one or both of my T520-s because I virtually never used them and I hoped to loose some weight. Not even sure if they are RW or not.. Still thinking

[kfzhu1229]

if functionality is the only thing you are after, you can broaden up your search to any slimline sata BD drives but you will have problems with the face plate and ejection. As you said you have working dvd multi drives so you can transplant the mounting plates and perhaps even the face plate if you are lucky.

[cadillacmike68]

Functionality yes, but I don't want it to look like a kludge either, especially for one of my wife's systems. I'll never hear the end of it.

So a Lenovo one only. I guess any serial ultrabay slim (or enhanced for the T/W530s) would work?

[kfzhu1229]

So a Lenovo one only. I guess any serial ultrabay slim (or enhanced for the T/W530s) would work?

Yeah and perhaps the T4xx series might have it too. These ThinkPads are supposed to be designed to have Ultrabay devices interchangeable to each other so any serial Ultrabay device should work on a T520 or T530.
Just saying something from another brand laptop can be half as cheap as the ones you find like this one:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/324059088037?ha ... SwUL9czTWj
I need to clarify all modern laptop optical drives share the same screw holes for mounting brackets, and most share the same kind of face plate clips, but then again there is always the chance of having a non-match with any of your DVD drive face plates. If you have a Panasonic branded DVD drive like that eBay listing then everything should work flawlessly for sure.
If you transfer those over successfully it will look and function like a ThinkPad one.
This is very similar to how you would mount a generic slimline SATA to 2.5" SATA adapter in one of those Ultrabays

[cadillacmike68]

Jeez, now I understand why these are so hard to find here in the US.

I did some digging and found out that Lenovo in their infinite (lack of) wisdom discontinued most or all of these some 7-8 Years ago! WTF?!?

Oh well, I guess it's china where I'll have to get one, unless there are any in HK.

[theterminator93]

I got both of mine from China. It takes a while to arrive but they work. The T410 and T400 both use the Serial Ultrabay Slim, but the T420 and T430 have Serial Ultrabay Enhanced which is a bit thicker. You can put the Slim drives in the Enhanced bay, but not vice-versa. There will be a gap under the drive if you put the slim drive into the enhanced bay.

I have two Serial Ultrabay Enhanced BD drives. One is a BD-RE drive and the other is a BD-ROM drive. Pretty sure my BD-ROM drive is a counterfeit though - the label says Serial Ultrabay Slim but it's most definitely not! The SUE BD-RE (T420/430) has a FRU of 45N7463.

[cadillacmike68]

Thanks, FRU 45N7463 is the Enhanced Blu ray II which is what I'll get first.