[OKDXA] Tales From The Bench...

Sat, 13 Mar 2004 00:41:57 -0600

At 10:51 PM 3/12/2004, you wrote:

  Mister Derks,

  Did this DVD player even fit in the back of your caddie?

>Here's a repair tip that I wouldn't believe if I hadn't done it myself...
>
>Picked up a nice older Toshiba DVD player at Goodwill this afternoon for
>$30... Not exactly a screamer deal as you can buy cheapies all over town for
>$40 new and in the box. But, this Toshiba is a mid-range model, looks good,
>and gave me the 'take me home' vibe.
>
>Fired it up to find it would play audio CD's like a champ but failed to
>index DVD's something like 8 tries out of 10. Every once in a while it would
>load and play OK, but it's a PITA to keep pushing the LOAD button until it
>finds track zero. As you can imagine, the golden screwdriver came out for a
>look inside.
>
>It got dusted, the sled rails got a touch of oil, the two laser lenses got
>cleaned (gently!) and none of this made a damn bit of difference.
>
>Did you know that DVD's rotate much faster than CD's? Yeah, they do, and the
>play head has two lasers that flip from one to the other while it's trying
>to figure out if it's loading a CD or DVD. The init sequence runs the disc
>at both speeds and it goes through the disc interrogation fairly quickly. I
>was about to decide the DVD laser was probably at the tail end of its useful
>life when I noticed that every time it changed spindle speeds the disc would
>'chirp' very softly...
>
>Did you know the spindle has a flat rubber doughnut that grips the disc?
>'Spose the donut was a little glazed and the disc wouldn't come up to speed
>fast enough to satisfy the init sequence due to slippage? Did the soft
>'chirp' from the disc indicate a poor grip on the spindle? A light shot of
>WD-40 on a Q-Tip was all I needed to clean up the rubber surface and it gave
>me a little color on the Q-Tip. That told me there was some crud and/or
>oxidation on the rubber surface.
>
>Now it loads DVD's first time, every time... Plays as good as new.
>
>In case you're wondering why I didn't use alcohol on this rubber part,
>alcohol will dry out the surface and usually leaves it less 'grippy' than
>before the cleaning. WD-40 tends to penetrate and rejuvenate rubber while
>loosening the surface glaze. Let it dry for a bit, rub it down with a dry
>Q-Tip and the rubber ends up with more grip than before. On a belt that's
>contaminated with oil, alcohol or mineral spirits are the way to go, but on
>dry rubber that's become glazed, try a little WD-40 instead.
>
>- AC5UP
>
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>
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