I believe that the CD-ROM/burner/DVD player of my 5-year-old Dell Inspiron B120 laptop is dying.  The CD burner function stopped working over a year ago, and the CD reading function seems to be dying as well.  I'll have to do some more troubleshooting to fully confirm that the CD-ROM is the problem and not something else (like the CD), but the evidence so far is pointing in this direction.

First of all, what last-ditch efforts can I make to save the CD-ROM?

Second of all, which specific internal laptop CD/DVD burners do you recommend?  I don't seem to have very good luck with CD burners, as I had an HP CD burner also die out after only a few years.  How do I know what internal laptop burners are compatible with my particular laptop?  Are there any internal laptop burners that are incompatible with Linux?  What else should I look for?

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Jason Hsu
Founder and lead developer of Swift Linux (http://www.swiftlinux.org)