I have been asked to try to repair this 7" screen player. The fault
is that discs are not read. The screen displays and menus are OK. I
have no remote or service info but disassembled the unit and used a
genuine correct region 2 DVD (it's a region 2 unit) to find that the
disc runs up, the speed hunts up and down whilst the laser initially
goes to the outer edge of the disc, then to a position about 30% out
from the centre and the laser lights. It then hunts +/- 3 mm from
this position, occasionally hitting the inner mechanical stop with a
clunking noise. There are no loose screws or obstructions or broken
sled bits, the 'runners' are smooth and lubricated although I do not
wish to disassemble the optical unit in case I affect alignment. The
lens is clean. After 90 secs the screen reads 'wrong disc'.
I am a general purpose, not AV, technician and posses general test
equipment. I understand laser safety and only look at an angle at the
laser spot hitting the underside of the disc.
Given I live in Saudi Arabia and sending the unit for repair is
uneconomic, can anyone advise of any further simple procedures I could
try? I realise the procedure 'find a dustbin' is probably logical,
but I'd like to try and fix it.

"Steve" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have been asked to try to repair this 7" screen player. The fault
is that discs are not read. The screen displays and menus are OK. I
have no remote or service info but disassembled the unit and used a
genuine correct region 2 DVD (it's a region 2 unit) to find that the
disc runs up, the speed hunts up and down whilst the laser initially
goes to the outer edge of the disc, then to a position about 30% out
from the centre and the laser lights. It then hunts +/- 3 mm from
this position, occasionally hitting the inner mechanical stop with a
clunking noise. There are no loose screws or obstructions or broken
sled bits, the 'runners' are smooth and lubricated although I do not
wish to disassemble the optical unit in case I affect alignment. The
lens is clean. After 90 secs the screen reads 'wrong disc'.
I am a general purpose, not AV, technician and posses general test
equipment. I understand laser safety and only look at an angle at the
laser spot hitting the underside of the disc.
Given I live in Saudi Arabia and sending the unit for repair is
uneconomic, can anyone advise of any further simple procedures I could
try? I realise the procedure 'find a dustbin' is probably logical,
but I'd like to try and fix it.


First test. Does it read CDs ? If yes, then the most likely problem is the
optical block itself. The next most likely suspect is the spindle motor not
reaching the higher speed needed to read a DVD, or not spinning at a stable
enough speed. After that, it's a data stream decoding / processing fault,
and finally, it could be a software problem. The message " wrong disc " is
usually generic with most of these players, and should not be taken as
literal. All it actually means is " I can't read this disc " (for whatever
reason). If you can lay hands on a genuine pressed region 0 disc - that's a
test disc or a promotional demo disc - that will normally tell you if the
unit has a 'genuine' soft issue with disc types / regions, or whether it is
a hardware fault.

If you know the name "Goodmans" from years ago, as a manufacturer of
quality loudspeakers, don't make the mistake of thinking that this comes
from the same stable, and is worth doing. I see a great deal of Goodmans
gear in my day to day repair life, and almost without exception, it is very
cheap Chinese or Korean stuff, badged with that name. For the most part,
spares or service info and assistance for these items, is at best very hard
to come by, and at worst, non-existent.

Arfa

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

If you know the name "Goodmans" from years ago, as a manufacturer of
quality loudspeakers, don't make the mistake of thinking that this comes
from the same stable, and is worth doing. I see a great deal of Goodmans
gear in my day to day repair life, and almost without exception, it is
very cheap Chinese or Korean stuff, badged with that name. For the most
part, spares or service info and assistance for these items, is at best
very hard to come by, and at worst, non-existent.

It's the same in the US with Singer, RCA, GE and many other brands. Even
some 'live' brand names are rented out to crap outfits.

"Homer J Simpson" wrote in message
news:bXrHh.22585$Du6.11002@edtnps82...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

If you know the name "Goodmans" from years ago, as a manufacturer of
quality loudspeakers, don't make the mistake of thinking that this comes
from the same stable, and is worth doing. I see a great deal of Goodmans
gear in my day to day repair life, and almost without exception, it is
very cheap Chinese or Korean stuff, badged with that name. For the most
part, spares or service info and assistance for these items, is at best
very hard to come by, and at worst, non-existent.

It's the same in the US with Singer, RCA, GE and many other brands. Even
some 'live' brand names are rented out to crap outfits.

It's a bit of a shame really, as all of these brands built up huge amounts
of respect over the years, and they are firmly ingrained in people's
memories from when they were kids. Our family had a Bush TV set, and I had a
Bush tranny radio (which I've still got - no PCB's - it was built on a real
metal chassis !! ). Both were top of the range products. My parent's first
colour TV was also Bush, and again, was a superior product. Now, sadly, it's
just a name shoved on pretty much worthless supermarket fare, but I still
get customers ringing me up and asking if I will look at an item, and then
proudly telling me " It's a good one - it's a Bush !! " Just goes to show
what power there is in a name, and how clever the current owners of them
are, to have bought them up in the first place. There is basically no
indiginous mainstream consumer electronics manufacturing in the UK at all
now. Sad after all the quality brands that we did have.

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote:
It's a bit of a shame really, as all of these brands built up huge amounts
of respect over the years, and they are firmly ingrained in people's
memories from when they were kids.

The first company to do that was Packard Bell. Packard Bell was a well
known brand name in the U.S., probably made up by combining two other
well known brands Packard (automobiles) and Bell (telephones). They died
out in the 1950s or 1960s.

In the late 1970s there were many name brands for Microcomputers (the
term PC was not coined yet), for example, Apple, IMSAI, Altair, Sorcerer
and so on. There were also brand names such as IBM (yes, the had a desktop
computer before the IBM PC) and so on. There were also names like the
Kaypro, Osborne (named after Adam Osborne), COMPAQ (a play on the word
compact) which was a PC compatible, but not an exact copy (clone).

When PC clones became possible and they became common items, someone
bought the name Packard Bell from whomever owned it and used it for
computers. They were smart, they never claimed their computers were
descended from the radio company, they just disclaimed it had anything
to do with the Bell System, and that "America had grown up with Packard
Bell" which implied it was the same company.

Not all brands names were diluted as they are today, about 10 years ago
I bought a stereo system made by "Sherwood Newcastle". It was supposed to
be made in Newcastle, England by a company that was descended from the
original Sherwood company, while the name Sherwood was used for Korean
products.

It was robost and well made, however it suffered from component failures
after about five years. I eventually found someone localy who could fix
it, but it was never 100% after that.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 Fax ONLY: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Arfa Daily wrote:


If you know the name "Goodmans" from years ago, as a manufacturer of
quality loudspeakers, don't make the mistake of thinking that this comes
from the same stable, and is worth doing. I see a great deal of Goodmans
gear in my day to day repair life, and almost without exception, it is very
cheap Chinese or Korean stuff, badged with that name. For the most part,
spares or service info and assistance for these items, is at best very hard
to come by, and at worst, non-existent.

Arfa

Right on there Arfa. This has actually beeen discussed before ages
ago here. I have certainly noticed this resurrection of well known Hi-
Fi brands of the 1970's being slapped on Chinese or Turkish junk -
KLH, Sansui, Akai etc. Even now Grundig's name has fallen prey to
this!

Last year I saw a cheap Asda TV branded Dual, obviously no relation
to the former German Hi fi company. Also apart from Goodmans, other
old English electronics names like Wharfedale, Dansette (!), etc. ahev
been used on tacky imported electonics.

-B.