Hi,

This DVD/VCR combo came in dead. Trouble was IC101 blown in the PSU
circuit, an ICE2B265 SMPS control IC, and C108 - 33uF, 25V - was
bulging and leaking.

All worked fine after replacement parts inserted, but at one point the
AV channel on the TV set started flicking rapidly between AV and the
last channel it had been on, as though the control voltage telling the
set that a SCART device was connected was switching on and off. I
thought maybe the SCART had some bad joints, so I took the tape deck
out and then the mainboard beneath it. No bad joints and problem has
not since recurred.

Trouble is, since I did that - although i have checked for dry-joints
and cable contacts being clean and correctly inserted, etc. - it won't
play DVD discs properly, although tape deck operation is fine.

Upon insertation of the DVD, it goes to the language selection screen
as usual, and after selection, it gives the copyright notice. At this
point it should now show the silly nonsense logo of the film creator
and eventually take you to the proper DVD menu from where you can then
select to play the film. But, it's not doing this. Right after the
copyright notice, it goes to the screen which comes up when 'stop' is
pressed. In fact, it actually shows the stop/pause icons (this is
normal for one press of stop. A second press causes just the stop icon
to appear and you can now no longer press play again and return to
where you were in the film) and if you press play, it tries to for a
second but then shows the stop/pause icon again, as though you
immediately pressed stop after pressing play.

Incidentally, this is all being done by the remote, but I have ruled
the remote out of the equation completely and satisfactorily. I can't
use the actual panel buttons as some kind of child-lock is on and if
the buttons are pressed, the display simply shows 'Safe' for a few
moments. I haven't got the original remote so can't turn child-lock
off. Only the front panel eject buttons and stop button for the DVD and
tape deck work whilst this lock is on.

The fault seems to be worse at times, reacting as though the stop
button has been pressed twice (only stop icon shows on the screen). No
heating or pressing of the PCB affects this fault, though. If I press
'play' on the remote, however, when it's reverted by itself to
stop/pause mode, and keep the button pressed, the disc will play as
usual, until the moment I stop pressing the play button, whereupon it
reacts as though the stop button is still being pressed.

I'm puzzled and I cannot find anything like this fault for any DVD or
DVD VCR combo, and no service manual!

Someone please help and I'd be very appreciative,

Many thanks,
James

"HandyMan" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

This DVD/VCR combo came in dead. Trouble was IC101 blown in the PSU
circuit, an ICE2B265 SMPS control IC, and C108 - 33uF, 25V - was
bulging and leaking.

All worked fine after replacement parts inserted, but at one point the
AV channel on the TV set started flicking rapidly between AV and the
last channel it had been on, as though the control voltage telling the
set that a SCART device was connected was switching on and off. I
thought maybe the SCART had some bad joints, so I took the tape deck
out and then the mainboard beneath it. No bad joints and problem has
not since recurred.

Trouble is, since I did that - although i have checked for dry-joints
and cable contacts being clean and correctly inserted, etc. - it won't
play DVD discs properly, although tape deck operation is fine.

Upon insertation of the DVD, it goes to the language selection screen
as usual, and after selection, it gives the copyright notice. At this
point it should now show the silly nonsense logo of the film creator
and eventually take you to the proper DVD menu from where you can then
select to play the film. But, it's not doing this. Right after the
copyright notice, it goes to the screen which comes up when 'stop' is
pressed. In fact, it actually shows the stop/pause icons (this is
normal for one press of stop. A second press causes just the stop icon
to appear and you can now no longer press play again and return to
where you were in the film) and if you press play, it tries to for a
second but then shows the stop/pause icon again, as though you
immediately pressed stop after pressing play.

Incidentally, this is all being done by the remote, but I have ruled
the remote out of the equation completely and satisfactorily. I can't
use the actual panel buttons as some kind of child-lock is on and if
the buttons are pressed, the display simply shows 'Safe' for a few
moments. I haven't got the original remote so can't turn child-lock
off. Only the front panel eject buttons and stop button for the DVD and
tape deck work whilst this lock is on.

The fault seems to be worse at times, reacting as though the stop
button has been pressed twice (only stop icon shows on the screen). No
heating or pressing of the PCB affects this fault, though. If I press
'play' on the remote, however, when it's reverted by itself to
stop/pause mode, and keep the button pressed, the disc will play as
usual, until the moment I stop pressing the play button, whereupon it
reacts as though the stop button is still being pressed.

I'm puzzled and I cannot find anything like this fault for any DVD or
DVD VCR combo, and no service manual!

Someone please help and I'd be very appreciative,

Many thanks,
James


Flakey operation after an SMPS repair? Sounds to me like you need to replace
all the electrolytic caps in the PSU.

Dave

On 9/30/2005 1:19:03 PM, "HandyMan" wrote:
Hi,

This DVD/VCR combo came in dead. Trouble was IC101 blown in the PSU
circuit, an ICE2B265 SMPS control IC, and C108 - 33uF, 25V - was
bulging and leaking.

All worked fine after replacement parts inserted, but at one point the
AV channel on the TV set started flicking rapidly between AV and the
last channel it had been on, as though the control voltage telling the
set that a SCART device was connected was switching on and off. I
thought maybe the SCART had some bad joints, so I took the tape deck
out and then the mainboard beneath it. No bad joints and problem has
not since recurred.

Trouble is, since I did that - although i have checked for dry-joints
and cable contacts being clean and correctly inserted, etc. - it won't
play DVD discs properly, although tape deck operation is fine.

Upon insertation of the DVD, it goes to the language selection screen
as usual, and after selection, it gives the copyright notice. At this
point it should now show the silly nonsense logo of the film creator
and eventually take you to the proper DVD menu from where you can then
select to play the film. But, it's not doing this. Right after the
copyright notice, it goes to the screen which comes up when 'stop' is
pressed. In fact, it actually shows the stop/pause icons (this is
normal for one press of stop. A second press causes just the stop icon
to appear and you can now no longer press play again and return to
where you were in the film) and if you press play, it tries to for a
second but then shows the stop/pause icon again, as though you
immediately pressed stop after pressing play.

Incidentally, this is all being done by the remote, but I have ruled
the remote out of the equation completely and satisfactorily. I can't
use the actual panel buttons as some kind of child-lock is on and if
the buttons are pressed, the display simply shows 'Safe' for a few
moments. I haven't got the original remote so can't turn child-lock
off. Only the front panel eject buttons and stop button for the DVD and
tape deck work whilst this lock is on.

The fault seems to be worse at times, reacting as though the stop
button has been pressed twice (only stop icon shows on the screen). No
heating or pressing of the PCB affects this fault, though. If I press
'play' on the remote, however, when it's reverted by itself to
stop/pause mode, and keep the button pressed, the disc will play as
usual, until the moment I stop pressing the play button, whereupon it
reacts as though the stop button is still being pressed.

I'm puzzled and I cannot find anything like this fault for any DVD or
DVD VCR combo, and no service manual!

Someone please help and I'd be very appreciative,

Many thanks,
James



I mused for a second with the thought that maybe you need to set the region code of the DVD player again for one reason or another. I now figure this unlikely because any DVD player should ask the user to set the region code if it does not find it. However you may want to check how to set the region code.

On the other hand your story so far definitely jives with a bad PSU; there is relatively little CPU usage or reading of the disc to display still images such as FBI warnings, but one would expect a lot more activity for loading a menu or a movie.

- NRen2k5

Thanks both of you for your replies. Incidentally, this problem is only
with the DVD, and not the tape deck. Here's an update:

I have reflowed all SMD ICs on both the mainboard and DVD board. I took
your advice and replaced all caps in the PSU and resoldered any suspect
joints. I've cleaned the laser lens again, and removed it and cleaned
laser assembly guide rails and regreased them. None of this has made
the slightest difference.

Before doing all that, the problem became permanent rather than
intermittent. Also, it now always goes to proper stop, instead of the
stop/pause. Maybe taking boards out, etc., has caused this, I do not
know.

I've been studying the behaviour and note that the lens seems to
recognise a disc is present, starts reading it right near the centre of
the disc, and then the 'stop' icon appears and the laser moves out from
the centre by about 5mm. Pressing the play button causes the laser to
once again dart towards the inside of the disc for a second or two, and
then move back out again with the stop icon appearing on the screen
once again. As usual, holding the play button down will cause the disc
to play as normal - showing the trailers and so on, before the proper
menu appears - until I stop pressing the button, at which point it
immediately reverts to 'stop' again. So, it seems that the 'parked'
position of the laser carriage is a few mm away from the inside edge of
the disc, and when it tries to play or is told to play, it darts
towards the very centre of the disc and then the stop icon appears and
it reverts to its 'park' position.

Interestingly, I have discovered that if I press the 'menu' button, the
laser darts towards the centre of the disc and brings up the film menu
with no trouble. The laser stays at the centre of the disc and I can
then choose to play the film from the menu and the film plays properly.

So, it seems that it's having trouble when it comes to the information
which exists before the menu part of the disc. I know this information
to be in the form of trailers, copyright notices and drawn-out logos of
the film makers, etc.

This is even more puzzling. With one disc, I know that when played in a
working machine, it will start playing a logo for the film-maker
followed by around 10 minutes of trailers, before the menu proper
appears. Why on earth will this machine recognise the disc, play the
film if you press the menu button first to skip the trailers, etc., but
not play those few minutes of logos and trailers, instead showing the
'stop' icon?!

I hope someone's cleverer than me and can shed some light on this!

Thanks you all,
James