I did it - I mended something!!

I've got a Panasonic SA-HT80, 5-disc, 5.1 dolby digital surround sound DVD player. It's a 10 year old hand-me-down I got from my parents when they left the UK and moved back to the US. Lately, I'd been getting this problem where some discs could not be played by the DVD player. If you open and shut the door enough times, sometimes it would pick it up and play the disc, but lately all my new DVD purchases were refusing to play.

I found out via a online technical forums that it was down to the laser in the DVD player being underpowered for modern dual-layer DVDs. I tested this and many of the older DVDs I had bought round about the time the DVD player was produced all worked flawlessly. The later the year of release for the DVD, the more likely it was that the DVD would not play and those around the cut-off point would sometimes play after multiple failed attempts.

I located a guide to fixing the specific problem by turning up the potentiometer to the laser to boost its power. This would have the unfortunate side effect of reducing the life expectancy of the laser, but if I'm having this much trouble playing my DVDs then I figured I didn't have much to lose.

HowToMendIt.com - How can i fix my Panasonic SA-HT80 DVD Player?

Hardware Forum - Panasonic SA-HT80 - "NO PLAY" messages

THE FIX:

As some FChatters are aware, electricity and I don't really get on very well...

A word of warning... (an early NeuroBeaker post)​

...so it was with some trepidation that I approached my latest electrical project: my DVD player.

Disassembly went fine, but then I didn't have a tiny screwdriver I needed to remove some very small screws. I went to B&Q (i.e. equivalent of Home Depot or Lowes for those of you in the US) to try to buy a very small screwdriver. No luck, the screw drivers didn't have fine enough tips. After I tried five other stores, I started to get worried. In the end, I took the component I needed to adjust to a jewellers and asked to borrow their watch repair tools - they were more than helpful and I managed to adjust the potentiometer.

Back home now, it had been a couple of days since I took everything apart and now was putting it back together wishing I'd taken some digital photos of the tear-down process. Most everything went back together just fine, except for this one cable that seemed to be 'extra' and I couldn't locate where it was supposed to go. I literally spent more than an hour searching for where to plug this stupid thing in. Anyway, I eventually found the smallest of little hidden slots to stick it in and finished the reassembly.

I reconnected everything to the TV and the speakers, and mentally prepared myself for connecting the power. I half expected to see a bright blue spark through the ventilation slats in the cover, hear a loud zap, and for the room to be filled with the smell of an expensive mistake... so I held my breath and stuffed in the power cable. Nothing happened. Well, I guess that's good... nothing blew up. I looked around at the front of the unit and the standby light was on. I pressed the power button and it made some interesting noises, cycling through the empty disc slots.

Time to test it. I put in a DVD and it fired into life. I tested it with an old DVD that I knew should work: Cool Runnings. Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, Andrew fixed the unit - it's DVD time!!

Well... almost. I next tested a brand new disc that I'd never been been able to watch before (Transformers 2 - got it for my birthday a few weeks ago) and that works too. So right now I'm revelling in the glory of my DIY success and just had to come on here to start a thread about it. So everyone:

I did it - I mended something!! ​

Just thought you should know.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Yea, that SmartCar catastrophe was a bit of a doozie, wasn't it?

Uh... in other news... I may have been too hasty in my declaration of unmitigated success... there was a strange buzzing sound (occurred only briefly) and now the unit has stopped recognizing quite a number of buttons on the remote.

Fortunately, the buttons on the front of the unit itself are all still working, but it means I can't pause/play/rewind, etc from the sofa any more. Oh well, if that's the worst thing to go wrong then I guess I still did ok.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Days without suffering electrocution: 0

Also... the DVD player is not currently working.

I'm all tingly,
Andrew.