Newbie trying to fix DVD drive -- can anybody explain this?
Hi guys (and gals)!
A friend of mine gave me this non-working DVD+RW writer; although the drive was still under warranty, it was easier for him to just buy a new one rather than pay shipping both ways and wait 6-8 weeks for the unit to come back from Taiwan. (Cheap 4x drives can be had for nothing nowadays.) Armed with the very thorough repair guide on repairfaq.org, I found that this drive's problem is that the pickup doesn't move to the center of the disc at power-up or when closing the tray. Testing with a VOM indicates that no power is being applied to the motor. Now for the weird part: if I unplug this drive for a long enough period of time, the drive will work again when plugged back in! Unfortunately, this doesn't last; unplugging for 30min seems to be enough for the spindle to move once at power-up, while unplugging for 3-4 hours will allow the spindle to move only for a little while. (I haven't played enough with it to determine whether it's a function of time or of how many times the spindle will move.) After that, the drive reverts to its vegetative state, with no power being applied to the pickup motor. I thought it might be caused by some component overheating, but nothing in there feels too hot to the touch. On a kick, I stuck the drive in a freezer for 15 minutes (yeah, you may laugh) which had no apparent effect. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong visually -- nothing looks out of place, the connectors are solidly fastened, every mobile part is moving freely, etc. Any of you have any idea what might be causing this time-delayed behavior? Faulty capacitor, maybe? -- Frederic Briere * = IS NO MO http://www.abacomsucks.com = |
Newbie trying to fix DVD drive -- can anybody explain this?
"Frederic Briere" wrote in message ... Hi guys (and gals)! A friend of mine gave me this non-working DVD+RW writer; although the drive was still under warranty, it was easier for him to just buy a new one rather than pay shipping both ways and wait 6-8 weeks for the unit to come back from Taiwan. (Cheap 4x drives can be had for nothing nowadays.) Armed with the very thorough repair guide on repairfaq.org, I found that this drive's problem is that the pickup doesn't move to the center of the disc at power-up or when closing the tray. Testing with a VOM indicates that no power is being applied to the motor. Now for the weird part: if I unplug this drive for a long enough period of time, the drive will work again when plugged back in! Unfortunately, this doesn't last; unplugging for 30min seems to be enough for the spindle to move once at power-up, while unplugging for 3-4 hours will allow the spindle to move only for a little while. (I haven't played enough with it to determine whether it's a function of time or of how many times the spindle will move.) After that, the drive reverts to its vegetative state, with no power being applied to the pickup motor. I thought it might be caused by some component overheating, but nothing in there feels too hot to the touch. On a kick, I stuck the drive in a freezer for 15 minutes (yeah, you may laugh) which had no apparent effect. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong visually -- nothing looks out of place, the connectors are solidly fastened, every mobile part is moving freely, etc. Any of you have any idea what might be causing this time-delayed behavior? Faulty capacitor, maybe? Usually bad capacitors get better as they warm up, this sounds more like a semiconductor or solder joint. I would try some freeze spray and cool one small section of the board at a time to see if that helps. You could also try a firmware update. |
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