Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other day,
and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc' message.

Cleaned the lens, made fractional adjustments to the pots next
to the lens, but every time it tries to load a DVD, it slowly spins
a few turns, stops, slowly spins a few turns again, and then the
'no disc' message appears.

I have seen the 'no disc' message mentioned on the web with other
brands of DVD players as well, but couldn't find any response as to
what the most common reasons would be for that. Any ideas?

On Fri, 10 Oct 2014, fred wrote:

Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other day,
and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc' message.

Cleaned the lens, made fractional adjustments to the pots next
to the lens, but every time it tries to load a DVD, it slowly spins
a few turns, stops, slowly spins a few turns again, and then the
'no disc' message appears.

I have seen the 'no disc' message mentioned on the web with other
brands of DVD players as well, but couldn't find any response as to
what the most common reasons would be for that. Any ideas?

That's not one that uses a standard computer DVD drive, is it? I remember
when Apex was Big, at least some of the players used standard computer
drives, so you could just plug one in if the drive went bad.

Michael

"Michael Black" wrote
On Fri, 10 Oct 2014, fred wrote:

Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other day,
and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc' message.

Cleaned the lens, made fractional adjustments to the pots next
to the lens, but every time it tries to load a DVD, it slowly spins
a few turns, stops, slowly spins a few turns again, and then the
'no disc' message appears.

I have seen the 'no disc' message mentioned on the web with other
brands of DVD players as well, but couldn't find any response as to
what the most common reasons would be for that. Any ideas?

That's not one that uses a standard computer DVD drive, is it? I remember
when Apex was Big, at least some of the players used standard computer
drives, so you could just plug one in if the drive went bad.

Michael

Unfortunately, not. I have a LiteOn DVR where I replaced its IDE drive
with another IDE computer drive (works great), but the Apex drive has
two regular plugs, and a small ribbon-cable connector.

Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other day,
and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc' message.

A couple of thoughts:

- It might be worth checking the power supply. I think that player
was made during the era of the "stolen-electrolyte bad capacitor
plague" problem. It's possible that the power-supply bypass
electrolytic caps have gone bad (they usually fail as a result of
power-on hours, but I suspect they could have gone bad in storage
as well). Signs and symptons might be swollen tops on the
capacitors, obvious signs of leakage of electrolyte, or (if there's
no external failure) excessively high "equivalent series
resistance" or excessive noise and ripple on the power supply
rails.

The cure would be to remove any such suspect capacitors, repair any
damage to the PC-board traces caused by leaking electrolyte, and
replace them with high-quality low-impedance/high-frequency-rated
"switching supply rated" electrolytics (Panasonic and Nichicon are
good brands).

I had a Cyberhome DVD player of about the same vintage which failed
due to this problem. Replacing the caps fixed it.

- It's possible that the "sled" which moves the optical assembly back
and forth is stuck in place. Whatever lubricant was used on the
sled "rails" may have congealed over the years. Fixing this would
require opening up the drive (if it's sealed), gently sliding the
sled back and forth by hand, cleaning the old lubricant or grease
off of the rails (Q-tip or chamois swab, plus 99% isopropyl alcohol
would probably do) and then lightly re-lubricating the rails
(Tri-Flo, or sewing machine oil - don't use WD-40).

"David Platt" wrote
Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other day,
and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc' message.

A couple of thoughts:

- It might be worth checking the power supply. I think that player
was made during the era of the "stolen-electrolyte bad capacitor
plague" problem. It's possible that the power-supply bypass
electrolytic caps have gone bad (they usually fail as a result of
power-on hours, but I suspect they could have gone bad in storage
as well). Signs and symptons might be swollen tops on the
capacitors, obvious signs of leakage of electrolyte, or (if there's
no external failure) excessively high "equivalent series
resistance" or excessive noise and ripple on the power supply
rails.

The cure would be to remove any such suspect capacitors, repair any
damage to the PC-board traces caused by leaking electrolyte, and
replace them with high-quality low-impedance/high-frequency-rated
"switching supply rated" electrolytics (Panasonic and Nichicon are
good brands).

I had a Cyberhome DVD player of about the same vintage which failed
due to this problem. Replacing the caps fixed it.

- It's possible that the "sled" which moves the optical assembly back
and forth is stuck in place. Whatever lubricant was used on the
sled "rails" may have congealed over the years. Fixing this would
require opening up the drive (if it's sealed), gently sliding the
sled back and forth by hand, cleaning the old lubricant or grease
off of the rails (Q-tip or chamois swab, plus 99% isopropyl alcohol
would probably do) and then lightly re-lubricating the rails
(Tri-Flo, or sewing machine oil - don't use WD-40).

Thanks David for the recommendations. I had the power supply and the
drive out for close inspection. The optical assembly moves freely, and
the caps "look" in perfect shape - not that looking good necessarily means
much with caps.
Normally I would just toss it, but I have a few PAL DVDs which this player
plays with an incredible picture quality. I have a newer Toshiba DVD player
which is able to play PAL DVDs also, but it doesn't even come close to the
video quality of that Apex.
Initially, out of the box, I got it to spin up a couple of times after a
zillion tried, but since then it just keeps displaying the "No Disc"
message, no matter what type of DVD I try.

"fred" wrote in message
...
Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other day,
and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc' message.

Cleaned the lens, made fractional adjustments to the pots next
to the lens, but every time it tries to load a DVD, it slowly spins
a few turns, stops, slowly spins a few turns again, and then the
'no disc' message appears.

I have seen the 'no disc' message mentioned on the web with other
brands of DVD players as well, but couldn't find any response as to
what the most common reasons would be for that. Any ideas?


Spindle motor. Even though it's only been used a few times, the motors don't
like lack of use. Unfortunately, by adjusting the pots on the laser head,
you may now have also damaged the laser diodes. They are *very* sensitive to
over-current - particularly the visible red DVD one - and just the smallest
adjustment from the factory setting can be enough to cause damage to some
makes.

Have you tried playing a CD ?

Arfa

On Friday, October 10, 2014 1:26:55 PM UTC-7, David Platt wrote:
Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other
day, and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc'
message.


- It might be worth checking the power supply. I think that player
was made during the era of the "stolen-electrolyte bad capacitor
plague" problem.
snip
I had a Cyberhome DVD player of about the same vintage which
failed due to this problem. Replacing the caps fixed it.
A few years ago, I fixed my Apex AD-1500 by replacing the bad electrolytic capacitors (mostly in the power supply). I agree with David's advice on ways to identify the suspect caps.

On Fri, 10 Oct 2014, fred wrote:


"David Platt" wrote
Used this Apex Ad-2600 DVD player only a few times. Has been
sitting in a box for close to 10 years. Tried it out the other day,
and every type of disc loaded gives the same 'no disc' message.

A couple of thoughts:

- It might be worth checking the power supply. I think that player
was made during the era of the "stolen-electrolyte bad capacitor
plague" problem. It's possible that the power-supply bypass
electrolytic caps have gone bad (they usually fail as a result of
power-on hours, but I suspect they could have gone bad in storage
as well). Signs and symptons might be swollen tops on the
capacitors, obvious signs of leakage of electrolyte, or (if there's
no external failure) excessively high "equivalent series
resistance" or excessive noise and ripple on the power supply
rails.

The cure would be to remove any such suspect capacitors, repair any
damage to the PC-board traces caused by leaking electrolyte, and
replace them with high-quality low-impedance/high-frequency-rated
"switching supply rated" electrolytics (Panasonic and Nichicon are
good brands).

I had a Cyberhome DVD player of about the same vintage which failed
due to this problem. Replacing the caps fixed it.

- It's possible that the "sled" which moves the optical assembly back
and forth is stuck in place. Whatever lubricant was used on the
sled "rails" may have congealed over the years. Fixing this would
require opening up the drive (if it's sealed), gently sliding the
sled back and forth by hand, cleaning the old lubricant or grease
off of the rails (Q-tip or chamois swab, plus 99% isopropyl alcohol
would probably do) and then lightly re-lubricating the rails
(Tri-Flo, or sewing machine oil - don't use WD-40).

Thanks David for the recommendations. I had the power supply and the
drive out for close inspection. The optical assembly moves freely, and
the caps "look" in perfect shape - not that looking good necessarily means
much with caps.

That 19" Acer monitor I brought home, it sort of worked, but would reset
so only the logo was displayed, or I had problems when switching from one
type of size of screen to another. The electrolytics looked fine. But
once I changed the bigger value ones in the power supply, it worked fine.
So they don't have to bulge to be bad, and something can almost work yet
need new capacitors.

I figure I can get my found in a recycling bin DVD recorder going again
when/if I finally get around to changing the power supply capacitors.
There again, the capacitors look fine, but operation was slowly declining
when writing, and slipping a DVD writer from a computer (yes, it uses a
standard drive) didnt' change anything, so I'm assuming something isn't
quite right.

Normally I would just toss it, but I have a few PAL DVDs which this player
plays with an incredible picture quality. I have a newer Toshiba DVD player
which is able to play PAL DVDs also, but it doesn't even come close to the
video quality of that Apex.

I was wondering why the fuss. I have five or six that I've brought home,
all found on the sidewalk, so a DVD player is easy to come by. But the
ability to play foreign DVDs isn't something every DVD player is capable
of.


Initially, out of the box, I got it to spin up a couple of times after a
zillion tried, but since then it just keeps displaying the "No Disc"
message, no matter what type of DVD I try.


I got that message with my found on the sidewalk blu-ray player. It would
play DVDs. Once I cleaned the lens over the laser, it reads blu-ray disks
fine.

Michael

"Michael Black" wrote
The electrolytics looked fine. But once I changed
the bigger value ones in the power supply, it worked fine.

If I can find suitable replacement caps in my parts box, I may
just start replacing the larger power supply caps and see what
happens...


"Arfa Daily" wrote
Have you tried playing a CD ?

Never thought of trying a CD - good idea!

Well, same symptoms, except, when I spun the CD by hand
after it refused to turn on its own, it all of a sudden sped up to
something like 3-digit RPM for half a minute (sounded like the
Concorde taking off), still showing "LOAD" in the window.
That was it, followed by the "no disc" message.

However, every time the CD was inserted and loaded, I could see
the red laser shining through the disc for perhaps half a second only,
and then no more. So it would make sense that after a while the
"no disc" message would appear. Seems like a faulty laser function
to be at the root of the problem. Replacing the Power caps may be
a good start.




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"fred" wrote in message
...
"Michael Black" wrote
The electrolytics looked fine. But once I changed
the bigger value ones in the power supply, it worked fine.

If I can find suitable replacement caps in my parts box, I may
just start replacing the larger power supply caps and see what
happens...


"Arfa Daily" wrote
Have you tried playing a CD ?

Never thought of trying a CD - good idea!

Well, same symptoms, except, when I spun the CD by hand
after it refused to turn on its own, it all of a sudden sped up to
something like 3-digit RPM for half a minute (sounded like the
Concorde taking off), still showing "LOAD" in the window.
That was it, followed by the "no disc" message.

However, every time the CD was inserted and loaded, I could see
the red laser shining through the disc for perhaps half a second only,
and then no more. So it would make sense that after a while the
"no disc" message would appear. Seems like a faulty laser function
to be at the root of the problem. Replacing the Power caps may be
a good start.


The visible red laser is for the DVD. The CD laser is near infra red, and
only visible looking directly at the laser from an angle. As it is primarily
a DVD player, the software probably turns on the DVD laser first, which is
what you see through the disc. When a valid 'return' is not seen by the
decoder on the end of the pickup diodes, the software will decide to try for
there being a CD in there instead, and turn on the CD (near infra red)
laser, which you won't be able to see. The symptoms that you saw with the
disc refusing to spin up on it's own, but did when 'helped' is
indeterminate, and can be the result of many different problems. The fact
that it doesn't read either DVDs or CDs normally indicates that the problem
is not the laser diodes themselves. However, this does not preclude the
pickup diode array being faulty. Also, as the unit had sat for a long time,
it could have built up a layer of dust on the optics inside the head -
particularly the critical-angle mirror. Cleaning the lens will of course
have no effect on this. If you have a can of air duster to hand, you can try
*carefully* holding the lens to one side using a scalpel tip or similar, and
then giving a couple of quick blasts down the gap.

As to caps, personally I think that the likelihood of that being the cause
of the trouble is fairly slim. Although caps are one of the commonest causes
of trouble on modern equipment, it is almost always as a result of use, with
either poorly rated types that can't handle the ripple currents that they
are being subjected to, or have been badly physically sited in the design of
the PCB, and are subjected to heat stress from nearby regulators etc. I know
lots of people advocate blanket changes of electrolytics, but I've never
felt that this is a good idea unless you are really convinced that several
are faulty. The only proper way to diagnose this is with an ESR meter.

Arfa

Interesting. Thanks for the thorough explanation!

"Arfa Daily" wrote

The visible red laser is for the DVD. The CD laser is near infra red, and
only visible looking directly at the laser from an angle. As it is
primarily a DVD player, the software probably turns on the DVD laser
first, which is what you see through the disc. When a valid 'return' is
not seen by the decoder on the end of the pickup diodes, the software will
decide to try for there being a CD in there instead, and turn on the CD
(near infra red) laser, which you won't be able to see. The symptoms that
you saw with the disc refusing to spin up on it's own, but did when
'helped' is indeterminate, and can be the result of many different
problems. The fact that it doesn't read either DVDs or CDs normally
indicates that the problem is not the laser diodes themselves. However,
this does not preclude the pickup diode array being faulty. Also, as the
unit had sat for a long time, it could have built up a layer of dust on
the optics inside the head - particularly the critical-angle mirror.
Cleaning the lens will of course have no effect on this. If you have a can
of air duster to hand, you can try *carefully* holding the lens to one
side using a scalpel tip or similar, and then giving a couple of quick
blasts down the gap.

As to caps, personally I think that the likelihood of that being the cause
of the trouble is fairly slim. Although caps are one of the commonest
causes of trouble on modern equipment, it is almost always as a result of
use, with either poorly rated types that can't handle the ripple currents
that they are being subjected to, or have been badly physically sited in
the design of the PCB, and are subjected to heat stress from nearby
regulators etc. I know lots of people advocate blanket changes of
electrolytics, but I've never felt that this is a good idea unless you are
really convinced that several are faulty. The only proper way to diagnose
this is with an ESR meter.

Arfa



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