Not sure yet how the batts are, but I might as well ask now: How would I put in my own NiMH cells?

Click to expand...

There are various guides online that tell you how to go about this. Basically involves cracking open the battery, and resoldering tabs onto replacement cells (go for batteries which already have the solder tabs, otherwise it's a pain to solder).

Regarding the CD drive: I forgot about this site, which details a possible fix for your 1400 lens not reading any media:

http://home.comcast.net/~gionpeters/hhhh/pb1400.htm

(at the bottom of the page)