[RESOLVED] Pioneer DVD-104 problems

[Craigt]

Hi. I have owned a Pioneer DVD-103 for about 8 months now and haven't had any problem with it...until last week http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/frown.gif

I was trying out some CD burning software that I got with my CD-RW some time ago (Win-on-CD). After installing the software, it decided it wanted to do a speed test on the CD drives connected to my system. The tests passed fine and I restarted to computer, only to find that my DVD had decided that it didnt want to work at all...

Heres the problem and what Ive tryed so far...

When I insert a CD/DVD into the drive, the drive does not spin up to detect the disk and Windows does not detect a disk in the drive. However, Windows will allow me to eject the disk from the right-click menu item.

I have remove the device from device manager and let Windows redetect it, but this didnt solve the problem.

I have booted the machine from a Dos boot disk with CD rom drivers. I can access my CD-RW from the Dos prompt, but not my DVD (same problem, disk not spinning up).

I have downloaded the latest firmware update for the drive and insatlled it without a problem. But the drive still failed to work.

I physically removed the DVD from my computer, restarted, shutdown and reinstalled the DVD. This seemed to kick some life back into the DVD for a short period of time, but after a while it stopped working again. Ive checked the connections on the drive again and again since then, and it all seems to be plugged in nice and tight.

When I enter a DVD, there is a very quiet 'click' from the drive. It sounds like it is trying to spin up but failing.

Has anyone experienced this before? I personally think that it might be a mechanical problem with the drive. When I unplugged and plugged the drive back in I may have shook it around a bit which caused it to work for a while.

Help! I don't really want to throw out a device which cost be quite a bit of cash if I can get it working again.

Oh.. and last thing. Does anyone know the phone number for Pioneer technical support in the UK? http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/smile.gif

Thanks for any help.

Craig.

[chip35]

Minor stuff first:
DVD's have to be master, CDRW can be slave.
This has little to do with spin up though
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It does sound mechanical.
Place cd in drive, check label position.
Eject and see if label changes position.
If not spinning up I would get a flashlight and look inside the drive clamping mechanism.
That is the most likely problem. The top half is magneticly attracted to the bottom half thru the CD. This clamps the cd to the motor and suspends it a fraction of an inch from the tray.If the top part has come loose then it has to be put back together. This is the part that voids the warranty. Each manufacturer has a differant clamping mechanism.You would have to remove the cover and oh so gently put the clamping mechanism together again. The top half 'floats' when a cd is in the drive but hangs loose when not.Some are two piece. What I've seen of Pioneer their CD Mechanisms are built very well (at least that cdrom changer I checked out was but that's another funny story, It liked CD's label side down).Mind you don't even think about it if it is in warranty and if you haven't at least tried to fix one windup clock (a really good exercise for mechanical aptitude) http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/smile.gif. You have to feel it out as you go along. Another thing that occurs to me... If there was a cd in the dvd when you did the work there is a good possibly it is still in there jamming up the works having slid back and caught.I've removed a few 'I shipped the cd in the drive' problems.
The final thing. If the motor doesn't spin there could be a broken wire to the motor. If you're good with a solder iron that too can be fixed.

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What's the differance between 'twisted' and 'torqued' anyways?

[Craigt]

Thanks for the help. I opened up the DVD last night and had a look inside. It turned out that the mechanism was not sliding back correctly when a DVD was inserted. I managed to free up the mechanism by poking and prodding it a few times (Lucky, I didn't have to take any of it apart) and now it seems to work fine again.

Thanks http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/smile.gif