DVD Player

[Golf]

I know I'll get hammered for this, but here it goes.........I have a
Mintek portable DVD player (I know, should have bought another brand).
Anyway, it will recognize a disk, but it stays in the loading mode
with the disk spinning at high speed. Never starts what's on the disk.
Any possible fix, or suggested problems that may be causing this
(except buy a different player)? Thanks group.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Well, it sounds like there is the possibility of the unit recognizing the
disc properly. I'd start by trying another DVD, preferably from another
movie studio if you haven't already done that. Also try an audio CD and see
if that plays.

Try carefully cleaning the laser lens.

Finally, check the power supply for bad capacitors. Some cheaper DVD players
have bad or underrated capacitors in the power supply.

All of that said, I haven't got much against a cheap DVD player. I have an
older Apex Digital AD-1201 that is used heavily and is still going strong. I
also have a very lightweight Philips player that I picked up off the curb.
After letting it dry it, it too has worked just fine.

William

 

[Meat Plow]

I know I'll get hammered for this, but here it goes.........I have a
Mintek portable DVD player (I know, should have bought another brand).
Anyway, it will recognize a disk, but it stays in the loading mode
with the disk spinning at high speed. Never starts what's on the disk.
Any possible fix, or suggested problems that may be causing this
(except buy a different player)? Thanks group.

Will it load a cd?

 

[Golf]

Thanks for the reply. It plays a music CD fine. I figure since I don't
get the "no disk" message with a DVD, the laser is OK. I did notice
that if the laser is moved away from the center, then put in a disk to
play, the laser doesn't track back to the center - it doesn't move.

 

[Golf]

Thanks William. I'll check inside for maybe obvious cap problems, but
the player will play music CD's. Thanks again.

 

[NRen2k5]

I have an older Apex Digital AD-1201 that is used heavily and is
still going strong. I also have a very lightweight Philips player
that I picked up off the curb. After letting it dry it, it too has
worked just fine.

Funny you should say that.

My first DVD player ever was an Apex, and it was a godawful piece of
slag. I had paid more than $200 for it new, and by the time I was
finally able to take advantage of the no-lemon part of my extended
warranty, an "equivalent" Samsung DVD player was less than $75.

I am not an Apex fan now.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

I am not an Apex fan now.

I've heard both kinds of stories, and about equal numbers of each. I bought
this player shortly after it came out and was thinking "oh, what a cheap DVD
player...it probably won't last that long". But it has done very well over
time and a lot of movies, audio CDs, photo CDs, video CDs, etc...

I suppose that if I had a high end TV set I might be unhappy with the
picture, as some people have reported that the picture isn't the best when
used with a really good TV. My ~10 year old 25" Zenith seems to do just
fine. My only complaint about the unit has been a brief delay in playback
when the layer transition happens on a dual layer disc. I've seen more
expensive players (a nice high end Panasonic player comes to mind) that did
the same thing.

The power supply on mine doesn't seem to be troublesome. It runs cool and
shows no signs of impending failure. I did, however, add a heatsink to the
main video processor/control IC on the main circuit board. That chip got
awfully hot in operation, so I fashioned a heatsink for it after putting a
thin layer of heatsink compound down on the chip itself. Perhaps my adding
the heatsink has done a lot to increase the longevity of the unit.

William

 

[Meat Plow]

Thanks for the reply. It plays a music CD fine. I figure since I don't
get the "no disk" message with a DVD, the laser is OK. I did notice
that if the laser is moved away from the center, then put in a disk to
play, the laser doesn't track back to the center - it doesn't move.

If it plays a cd fine but not a dvd I've learned that this is a laser
problem.

 

[Arfa Daily]

Thanks for the reply. It plays a music CD fine. I figure since I don't
get the "no disk" message with a DVD, the laser is OK. I did notice
that if the laser is moved away from the center, then put in a disk to
play, the laser doesn't track back to the center - it doesn't move.

If it plays a CD ok, then the sled must be capable of movement. If the laser
genuinely doesn't home when a DVD is put in there, then that is a puzzle.
What happens if you deliberately move the laser from home, and then just
shut the door? Likewise, if you do the same with a CD? In all cases, the
laser homing should be the very first thing that occurs, as soon as the
system control micro detects that the door switch has closed. That aside,
you cannot infer that the laser is good, just because you don't get a "no
disc" indication. If the disc spins up, that implies that focus has been
correctly obtained. The reason that it then continues to spin at high speed
is that the spindle servo has not locked. This can be for several reasons.
However, the fact that a CD can be played generally indicates that the servo
and motor drive circuitry are operating correctly. By far, the most common
problem when a CD can be played, but a DVD not, is the laser ( optical
block ) itself.

Arfa