DVD help requested

DVD quit playing DVDs. Opened it up and found a penny one of the kids evidently thought it needed. Still plays music CDs but no DVDs. Everytime you put in a DVD, I get an error message to "check DVD" as it cannot be played.

Ideas (other than buying another)?

That's weird it will still play music CDs but not DVDs. Maybe they use a different laser for each and only one of them got damaged. Thankfully new ones are so much cheaper now whether for the computer or set top models.

notos&w, sorry, not many ideas except buying a new one... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Just wanted to mention: do not open the unit... just as the sticker says!

It could be that a stepper motor for the optical head somehow got pushed out of calibration by the penny. The DVD's chips can't drive the stepper motor because they can't track it's position by "counting" the steps. And it can't read.

I'd figure out where the head is supposed to be when it's "parked", unplug the unit from the wall A/C to make sure it's completely dead and reset, the push the optical head to the correct position if it isn't there already. Power back up and see if it works better.

If the penny is out, is it still under warranty?

otherwise, even though you'd like to fix it, thankfully DVD prices are in the basment. Hopefully yours wasn't a high-end audio/vidiophile type unit. Even if it was, a $40 player from Wal-Mart would get you by for a while.

Thanks for the ideas. I was afraid that a new one was in the future and that's not too big of a deal. I'm really just curious as to what could have happened in light of the fact that it still plays CD's.

The penny is out and so is the warranty.

Oh, and I did open it. Not dead or blind, PTL.

I'm going with the theory of the stepper motor getting out of whack. However there are other possibilities also -

It might have a dual-wavelength optical head (two lasers) and the shorter wavelength optic got scratched.

The penny could have shorted out something in the shorter-wavelength optcial pickup circuitry.

It's possible that other things were shoved into the DVD slot by a child but subsequently pulled out (pencil, popsicle stick, Polish sausage) and that knocked the head out of whack just enough that it can't follow the finer-pitch tracks of a DVD.

My problem is just the reverse. The sony DVP-S550D plays DVD but no CD or VCD. It only started recently after my son learned how to walked.

I've got a DVD player with no holes in the case. Apparently it doesn't need ventilation holes because it runs cool. I like it because it's small and light and cheap.