I joined 5 minutes ago and just as I was about to post on the thread for problem dvd drive, the thread closed. I missed saving it by a second or two!
Anyway, here's my low-fi contribution:
There can be many things that a lay man will not be able to fix but if your player has started rejecting dvd's and it seems to get worse over time then it might be that the laser lens has become off-position. In two players I have, I have repaired this fault by shifting the angle of the lens slightly. On my recorder I found that the lens is held in place by six very fine wires that also carry current and move the lens during operation. I believe the wires may have sagged slightly over the years so I propped the whole harness that contains lens plus wires up on one side with a tiny wedge of paper. Hey presto, the recorder is now accepting the discs and initializing them at twice the speed I was used to. No more trying different dvd brands (some seem more tolerant of an off-centre laser).
In another, inexpensive dvd player I have which also started rejecting many discs there are only four wires holding the laser lens. That player is now functioning perfectly after bending the two upper wires very slightly in an upward direction.
.... a year or so later: I would now like to alert the reader that bending those wires sometimes should be considered only as a last resort. Just recently the player wouldn't start the motor when I put in a disc until two or more attempts: by re-inserting the disc until it finally registered that it was a good disc. After the disc 'made it into' the player, it would work 100%, even after sitting in there for days. Eventually, the inserting problem started getting on my nerves and I started tweeking those fine lens wires again. That was a mistake because, at first, the playback became jerky and now there is no playback at all.
After much more time used up on the player I have realized that the problem this time was being caused by positioning of the main motor (the one directly under the dvd). There are three adjustment screws at the base of/under the motor (in this Alba player) and one of them can be accessed easily with a screwdriver once the 'harness' (the bridge that lies over the top of the disc) is removed. I have adjusted the three screws in different ways and now have no problem with motor activation when the disc is first inserted (and checked by the laser). However, I seem to have put my laser lens well out of alignment with the slight bending of fine wires and it doesn't look like the player will ever play a disc again.
In conclusion, first try adjustment of the 'main' motor positioning if the motor does not start up when you first insert a dvd. It might need only a tiny tweek to the left or to the right.
Anyway, here's my low-fi contribution:
There can be many things that a lay man will not be able to fix but if your player has started rejecting dvd's and it seems to get worse over time then it might be that the laser lens has become off-position. In two players I have, I have repaired this fault by shifting the angle of the lens slightly. On my recorder I found that the lens is held in place by six very fine wires that also carry current and move the lens during operation. I believe the wires may have sagged slightly over the years so I propped the whole harness that contains lens plus wires up on one side with a tiny wedge of paper. Hey presto, the recorder is now accepting the discs and initializing them at twice the speed I was used to. No more trying different dvd brands (some seem more tolerant of an off-centre laser).
In another, inexpensive dvd player I have which also started rejecting many discs there are only four wires holding the laser lens. That player is now functioning perfectly after bending the two upper wires very slightly in an upward direction.
.... a year or so later: I would now like to alert the reader that bending those wires sometimes should be considered only as a last resort. Just recently the player wouldn't start the motor when I put in a disc until two or more attempts: by re-inserting the disc until it finally registered that it was a good disc. After the disc 'made it into' the player, it would work 100%, even after sitting in there for days. Eventually, the inserting problem started getting on my nerves and I started tweeking those fine lens wires again. That was a mistake because, at first, the playback became jerky and now there is no playback at all.
After much more time used up on the player I have realized that the problem this time was being caused by positioning of the main motor (the one directly under the dvd). There are three adjustment screws at the base of/under the motor (in this Alba player) and one of them can be accessed easily with a screwdriver once the 'harness' (the bridge that lies over the top of the disc) is removed. I have adjusted the three screws in different ways and now have no problem with motor activation when the disc is first inserted (and checked by the laser). However, I seem to have put my laser lens well out of alignment with the slight bending of fine wires and it doesn't look like the player will ever play a disc again.
In conclusion, first try adjustment of the 'main' motor positioning if the motor does not start up when you first insert a dvd. It might need only a tiny tweek to the left or to the right.