"William Brammer" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:55:55 +0000 (UTC), Mike S. wrote:

H03 means the laser sled is stuck.
Slide it back and forth see if it comes free. If it does, try re-lube
with light oil.

Mike is right. Calling Panasonic will be a waste of time as they'll just
tell you to send it in.

H03 in a Panasonic DVD player almost always means the laser sled is stuck
on the worm gear. When you open the DVD player, the laser sled is supposed
to be near the spindle.

What happens is, for whatever reason, the laser sled gets stuck near the
outskirts on the worm gear. You won't be able to slide it inward because
it's on a worm gear, but, all you need to do is move the little tiny 5mm
wide plastic toothed gear on the end of the worm shaft to move the sled
back to the spindle.

You'll need to remove the battery, open up the bottom of the DVD player
(about a dozen small phillips screws), and then rotate with a small
flathead screwdriver the little toothed plastic gear on the far end of the
worm shaft.

Rotating that plastic gear will move the sled back to near the spindle
where it belongs. I'm not sure how to lubricate the worm shaft when you're
done, I guess a dab of automotive grease might help, but that's about it.

You'd think Panasonic would make smarter equipment but if everything were
this easy to fix, life would be a breeze!


Automotive grease is too heavy for this job. If the manufacturer-original
lubricant is not available, use instead a light synthetic oil. I use a
product from Electrolube called "CMO" (Clear Mechanical Oil), which is in
an aerosol can, and has excellent 'cling' properties on both plastic and
metal, so is ideal to lubricate laser slides and drives.

Arfa