1yr. old laptop having issues dvd+rw

I have a laptop that has the QSI dvd+rw drive SDW-041. Well, the drive was working fine, then suddenly one day it no longer would read any disks that I tried. I have recently tried re-seating the drive to make better connection, flashing the firmware to a newer version and the drive still doesn't work. Does anyone have any solutions that may help me out?

If no solutions are found I will need a new drive for the laptop. The brand of the laptop is Great Quality (was purchased at Fries Electronics) the model is ZX-5531. I don't necessarily mind buying a plain CD ROM drive, but I do not know how to find out what drives will work with this machine. ANY HELP THAT YOU CAN GIVE IS MUCH APPRECIATED!

FYI... I live in the greater Seattle, WA area - if anyone knows where I could find a drive around there, that would be great too.

Thanks,