"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
I have a Toshiba DVD player, model #SD-K760SU that is approx 1 year
old.
It is not playing properly in that scenes freeze on the screen, images
are distorted, and
Disks do not start from the beginning, but from other parts of the
disk.

Is this a situation where the lens needs cleaning, or might it be
another matter? If the lens does need cleaning, how can I access
the lens, OR, are there lens cleaning kits available?

Any suggestions on how to rectify the situation would be appreciated.

Aaron

For reasons quoted many times on here, DVD players do not generally suffer
from dirty lenses like CD players do. Exceptions to this are if the player
is located in a country or area that is very dry, or if the player is
located in a heavy smoking environment. Playability problems are most
often associated with a worn laser, although one year does seem a little
on the 'young' side. That said, if the player gets heavy use, it is by no
means unheard of for a laser of just one year to be showing signs of wear,
and of course, none of this precludes the possibility of the laser being
defective. Other causes of playability problems include mechanical defects
on the deck, iffy spindle motors and 'marginal' caps on the power supply.

Do your freezes tend to occur late in the disc ? If so, that is usually a
good indicator of laser trouble, as it is much more difficult for it to
read layer two through layer one. A further test that you can run is to
try playing some full-length commercially pressed CDs. If these play
without problem, this pretty much verifies the mechanics, and is another
pointer for laser trouble.

By all means try cleaning the lens, but do not use a lens cleaner disc, as
this is unlikely to help, and can on some machines, cause physical damage
to the laser assembly. Access is usually available once the optical block
has been slid down its tracks towards the back of the deck, which brings
it out from under the disc clamp. The lens should be cleaned carefully
with a cotton bud (Q-Tip) moistened (not wet) with electronics grade
isopropyl alcohol. The lens suspension is fairly delicate, so don't be
'brutal' with it, but by the same token, it is not so delicate that it is
easily damaged. Just use common sense. When the alcohol has evaporated,
polish the lens with a new clean and dry cotton bud.

The only symptom that you describe, which is a little 'odd' is that discs
seem to start from odd places rather than the beginning, although that
might just be being caused by the laser having trouble getting a good
error-free data stream off the disc.

Arfa


As usual, Geoff has more patience than I have. Bottom line: buy a new
player. A Pioneer would probably last longer.

Mark Z.