RCA DVD Player won't read discs, power intermittent

[Solder Boy]

Hi there not sure if this is the right spot for this... this is one of the 50 or so I got a week ago. Decided to see if I could fix it..

It had a service tag on top indicating the that the door wouldn't open properly and the video was broken up on playback. It's a RC5240P. Turned the unit on, the door opened, put a disc in, it said it was reading then it said no disc. Tried to get it out, it wouldn't open, nor would the unit shut off, I had to unplug it to get it out.

Sooo I took off the lid and undid all the boards except the video processing board. Sure enough I found bad caps in the power supply board, the video-out board, I was going to check the power switch board but haven't yet because I have to desolder the bottom lid to get at the caps.

Oh ya tried loading a CD, the gears sounded noisy when it was trying to read it.

Other than the obvious bad caps in this thing.. how easy is it to fix the sprockets and gears in one of these things. Not looking to fix it to sell cuz there would be no way I'd recoup my time and effort.. just something to do on a cold winter day.

[Solder Boy]

Re: RCA DVD Player won't read discs, power intermittent

Update.. ok I replaced all of the bad caps that I found, that seemed to have fixed the on/off problem and the open/close drawer not responding.

I cleaned the lens gently with rubbing alcohol and let it sit for a few minutes.

with the lid off this, I noticed the laser was moving up and down by increments trying to read the CD I inserted, still said NO DISC.. unplugged the laser unit from the logic board to see what would happen, nothing did so plugged it back in.. get the same result.. so would the laser assy be shot? I don't think the logic board is bad because the front panel buttons all work.

[Wizard]

Re: RCA DVD Player won't read discs, power intermittent

Laser do weaken with age and quality of laser declines with price of DVD players. Good ones lasts longer.

Pull the caps you used in this and junk it.

Cheers, Wizard

[stj]

Re: RCA DVD Player won't read discs, power intermittent

turn up the gain on the laser a tiny bit - there is a pot on the side of the block.
if there are 2 pots then the other is for the cd.

[Solder Boy]

Re: RCA DVD Player won't read discs, power intermittent

turn up the gain on the laser a tiny bit - there is a pot on the side of the block.
if there are 2 pots then the other is for the cd.

I saw the pots you are referring to on the laser assy, there wasn't any real easy way to get at them.

As far as junking this thing goes, I'm gonna keep the boards since I repaired them.. maybe I'll come across another one with a good laser but shot boards.. ya never know with my business