I have a Dell Dimension E310. Can I purchase another CD/DVD burner or do I have to install a Dell part?
Not really unusual, especially if you use the drive a lot. Remember that CD/DVD burner uses a laser, which has a limited life expectancy. I replace my burner roughly every 18 months as well. There shouldn’t be any problem with installing a non-Dell part, so long as you have a desktop and not a laptop; CD/DVD drives are interchangeable. To extend the life of your new burner, you might consider picking up a cheaper drive to read from–that’ll save on the laser.
You are more than able to purchase a third party drive to replace the one in your system; however, you will need to know how to install the drive. This isn’t as difficult as it can sound and a rough instruction set can be found here: http://www.fonerbooks.com/r_cd.htm. If you are at all uneasy about installing the drive yourself you may wish to get a company, like Circuit City and their ilk, to install the drive for you. As for your second question about two failures in a year and a half time period. It is odd to have a drive fail twice; however, it is not unheard of. Remember Dell replaces broken parts with refurbished parts and they refurb may not have been well done.
