I've just spent 1½ hours trying to find the price, availability, and how to buy a replacement dvd drive. Its for a 9300 inspiron, DVD-RW Sony DW-Q58A Would someone explain or supply a link to the area of the dell site that caters for this?

Hi neil uk, Have you been to this link HERE or HERE for retail drives.

Call and ask for the Spare Parts department.

Assuming you're in the UK, here's another source:

http://www.tjl.co.uk/dell-inspiron-1000-1200-6000-9200-9300-dvdrw-drive-p7464-p-143.html?zenid=819985e08b4f007d93b8f6af26820b52

Dell Inspiron 9300

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/System_Drives/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&sku=313-3268&~lt=popup&~ck=ManRelated

The Dell™ DVD±RW and CD-RW Double Layer Combo Drive is a versatile, all-in-one drive that allows you to burn DVD±RW or DVD±R discs, burn CDs, and read DVDs and CDs. It offers speeds of up to 8X on Single Layer DVD±R discs and 2.4X on Double Layer DVD+R discs. It also rewrites to DVD±RW discs at maximum speeds of 4X. Watch your favorite DVD movies and play your data, music and picture CDs with this combo drive that plays DVDs at 8X speeds and CDs at 24X speeds. The drive allows you to enjoy the crystal clear picture, color and sound clarity of DVD video on your mobile workstation. It will also prepare you for future software and large data files that will be released on DVD-ROM. With DVD±RW and CD-RW capability, you can easily create your own custom DVDs or data CDs for back-up or transfer purposes. The drive is capable of playing all your existing CD-ROMs, DVD movies, Music CDs, and CDs that you have created with your CD burner. This product has been tested and validated on Dell™ systems to ensure it will work with your computer and is compatible with Dell™ Inspiron™ 9300/XPS-Gen2 and Latitude™ 110L Notebooks. It is supported by Dell™ Technical Support when used with a Dell system.

Manufacturer Part# : R6478
Dell Part# : 313-3268

DVD Burner is Optiarc/NEC  NEC ND6650A

http://support.necam.com/Optical/ND6650A_specs.asp

Interface IDE/ATAPI (Ultra DMA33 compatible)

13.8 mm x 128 mm x 129 mm (with standard bezel)

The Drive is a standard LAPTOP DVD/CD Burner that has a Tiny Metal L bracket on the back to hold the screw that keeps it from falling out.

Here's one with no bracket aka you would need to use a  #0 screwdriver to remove the bracket at the back.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0276574

Here are some refurbished drives from Dell.