RobertB-dc
01-07-07, 12:43 PM
Ok, I may be exaggerating. I didn't end up with electrical burns or have any capacitors explode (yet), but I'm looking forward to finding out what steps I took that have people who actually know what they're doing scratching their heads.
My Panasonic RV26 is a nice little player. I especially like the rotating knob to advance through screens or frames. I'm not a videophile, so a $39.99 Wal-Mart special would do, but when the RV26 started throwing the H02 error, I wanted to bring it back. Google searching found an this informative thread (can't link, 'cause I'm a n00b and the system won't let me), where I learned the value of turning the unit upside down and shaking it. Unfortunately, that didn't help, but I learned a lot about what was previously just a short, wide black box.
Maybe too much. I grabbed my screwdriver and dug in.
The first thing I found was that all the cover screws were already missing. The memory was faint, but I think I recall the unit got "stuck" a year or so ago, and someone (me? my wife? the cat? nobody will confess) opened it up to get the disc out. I seem to have completely repressed the memory of whether that was effective, but it sure doesn't look like it could have been, based on my later pratfalls.
So the cover comes off easily enough, and based on the thread noted above, I want to see if the turning thingy (oh, you mean the spindle? yeah that's it) is working. It really doesn't look like it. There's a white part that spins... kinda. It never seems to spin up to normal speed, and sometimes it just sits there until I turn it with my finger. So now I've got to figure out how to get to it and do something about it, right? It looks like it should be easy enough to get the assembly unmounted from the motherboard.
O RLY? no.
I remove the screws holding the unit to the board. It's still stuck -- there's something in the front that's holding things together, but I can't find anything to unscrew. (are you shaking your head yet? I thought so) But I can see that the vertical daughterboards (which hold the front panel buttons) are clearly designed to pull right off from the motherboard, thanks to some handy connectors. So I pull, while lifting to clear two metal tabs that protrude from the DVD reading assembly to hold it in the motherboard. After much wiggling and ominous scraping, I get the front panel/DVD carrier assembly separated from the motherboard. The LED display, as it turns out, is soldered to the motherboard.
I still can't get the DVD carrier assembly removed from the front panel. I spend another 15 minutes pushing and puling, trying to see what wiggles. The front of the DVD drawer seems to be the only wiggly part. I start to wonder if I should have tried ejecting the tray before disassembling the unit. (I see you've passed the "shaking your head" stage and started looking for a clue-by-four...)
So I figure I'll put it back together now and try ejecting the tray. But it won't *go* back together. The LED display is in the way. Now, I don't know how many times I've told my son, "if you have to force it, you're probably doing it wrong." Having ignored this advice once when pulling the things apart, I belatedly realize the wisdom of my own words. I stop forcing things back together (well, I did break off a tab in the process, but it's nothing Duct Tape can't fix...)
More wiggling, and I'm pretty sure I've got to get that tray ejected. So I have to hold the front panel/DVD carrier assembly at a catywampus angle to get the connectors plugged back in, then hold it with one hand while plugging in the unit to the wall. Nothing happens. I reach toward the "Power" button, then curse softly. It's a "soft button". On the front panel. Which is no longer connected to the mother board. I curse more loudly.
Now, I unscrew the daughter boards from the front panel. They come off with no problem, and to my surprise, the connectors that hold them to the motherboard are robust enough to hold the boards vertical, as long as there are no strong breezes in the rom. Slow, shallow breathing from now on. Then, I hold that front panel/DVD assembly over the dangling cards, plug in the connectors, plugging in the unit to the wall (can you believe I actually thought to unplug things from time to time? me either), and hit the "power" button on the daughtercard.
"Welcome to DVD World" I haven't been so happy to be welcomed to DVD World since the 8-track tape days. I hit the "eject" button, and almost drop the unit as its balance shifts and the whole thing nearly comes apart. The whole thing was being held tightly in place by the drawer itself. It only takes another 5-10 minutes to figure out that the front of the drawer actually slides off, though to be fair this includes the time I spent sliding it off again after putting it back together to see if that was really how it worked. Oops.
So things are finally disassembed in the *right* way. I have the DVD unit in my hand, without any extraneous panels. I can even set it in its place, plug it in, and fire it up. Just like I would have been able to do several paragraphs ago if I'd just tried "eject" before "apply brute force". I even figure out how to remove the module containing all the good stuff -- the read head, the gears that drive both the read head and the DVD drawer, and the spindle motor, all tightly packed into a single unit.
Well, there was the little problem of figuring out how to get the unit back into its frame. You have to snap it into its plastic hinges near the back while lining up one vertical tab with a vertical slot, and a horizontal dowel with a gear that's connected to the drawer. I was pretty sure I'd gotten it right. Or I was until I applied power and the drawer ground to a halt about an inch out, then sucked back in like a frightened barnacle. Some more eject cycles and applicaton of gentle(ish) force finally got the gears lined up properly again, and it sems to work fine.
But there's obviously nothing I can do about the spindle motor. Even after carefully applying WD-40 (something I'm not sure is such a good idea, but I covered the eye first so it wouldn't get greasy), the spindle does exactly what it did before. Spin up sometimes (but rarely up to full speed), but mostly just sit there unless I kick-start it with my finger.
I guess I'm going to have to replace that whole assembly, since the spindle motor is toasted and can't be replaced separately. It's soldered onto the board, and after reading the above, I'm sure you don't want me anywhere near a soldering iron. And based on what I've read so far, the unit will to cost more than that $40 Wal-Mart special. But I may go for it. I really like that rotating knob.
My Panasonic RV26 is a nice little player. I especially like the rotating knob to advance through screens or frames. I'm not a videophile, so a $39.99 Wal-Mart special would do, but when the RV26 started throwing the H02 error, I wanted to bring it back. Google searching found an this informative thread (can't link, 'cause I'm a n00b and the system won't let me), where I learned the value of turning the unit upside down and shaking it. Unfortunately, that didn't help, but I learned a lot about what was previously just a short, wide black box.
Maybe too much. I grabbed my screwdriver and dug in.
The first thing I found was that all the cover screws were already missing. The memory was faint, but I think I recall the unit got "stuck" a year or so ago, and someone (me? my wife? the cat? nobody will confess) opened it up to get the disc out. I seem to have completely repressed the memory of whether that was effective, but it sure doesn't look like it could have been, based on my later pratfalls.
So the cover comes off easily enough, and based on the thread noted above, I want to see if the turning thingy (oh, you mean the spindle? yeah that's it) is working. It really doesn't look like it. There's a white part that spins... kinda. It never seems to spin up to normal speed, and sometimes it just sits there until I turn it with my finger. So now I've got to figure out how to get to it and do something about it, right? It looks like it should be easy enough to get the assembly unmounted from the motherboard.
O RLY? no.
I remove the screws holding the unit to the board. It's still stuck -- there's something in the front that's holding things together, but I can't find anything to unscrew. (are you shaking your head yet? I thought so) But I can see that the vertical daughterboards (which hold the front panel buttons) are clearly designed to pull right off from the motherboard, thanks to some handy connectors. So I pull, while lifting to clear two metal tabs that protrude from the DVD reading assembly to hold it in the motherboard. After much wiggling and ominous scraping, I get the front panel/DVD carrier assembly separated from the motherboard. The LED display, as it turns out, is soldered to the motherboard.
I still can't get the DVD carrier assembly removed from the front panel. I spend another 15 minutes pushing and puling, trying to see what wiggles. The front of the DVD drawer seems to be the only wiggly part. I start to wonder if I should have tried ejecting the tray before disassembling the unit. (I see you've passed the "shaking your head" stage and started looking for a clue-by-four...)
So I figure I'll put it back together now and try ejecting the tray. But it won't *go* back together. The LED display is in the way. Now, I don't know how many times I've told my son, "if you have to force it, you're probably doing it wrong." Having ignored this advice once when pulling the things apart, I belatedly realize the wisdom of my own words. I stop forcing things back together (well, I did break off a tab in the process, but it's nothing Duct Tape can't fix...)
More wiggling, and I'm pretty sure I've got to get that tray ejected. So I have to hold the front panel/DVD carrier assembly at a catywampus angle to get the connectors plugged back in, then hold it with one hand while plugging in the unit to the wall. Nothing happens. I reach toward the "Power" button, then curse softly. It's a "soft button". On the front panel. Which is no longer connected to the mother board. I curse more loudly.
Now, I unscrew the daughter boards from the front panel. They come off with no problem, and to my surprise, the connectors that hold them to the motherboard are robust enough to hold the boards vertical, as long as there are no strong breezes in the rom. Slow, shallow breathing from now on. Then, I hold that front panel/DVD assembly over the dangling cards, plug in the connectors, plugging in the unit to the wall (can you believe I actually thought to unplug things from time to time? me either), and hit the "power" button on the daughtercard.
"Welcome to DVD World" I haven't been so happy to be welcomed to DVD World since the 8-track tape days. I hit the "eject" button, and almost drop the unit as its balance shifts and the whole thing nearly comes apart. The whole thing was being held tightly in place by the drawer itself. It only takes another 5-10 minutes to figure out that the front of the drawer actually slides off, though to be fair this includes the time I spent sliding it off again after putting it back together to see if that was really how it worked. Oops.
So things are finally disassembed in the *right* way. I have the DVD unit in my hand, without any extraneous panels. I can even set it in its place, plug it in, and fire it up. Just like I would have been able to do several paragraphs ago if I'd just tried "eject" before "apply brute force". I even figure out how to remove the module containing all the good stuff -- the read head, the gears that drive both the read head and the DVD drawer, and the spindle motor, all tightly packed into a single unit.
Well, there was the little problem of figuring out how to get the unit back into its frame. You have to snap it into its plastic hinges near the back while lining up one vertical tab with a vertical slot, and a horizontal dowel with a gear that's connected to the drawer. I was pretty sure I'd gotten it right. Or I was until I applied power and the drawer ground to a halt about an inch out, then sucked back in like a frightened barnacle. Some more eject cycles and applicaton of gentle(ish) force finally got the gears lined up properly again, and it sems to work fine.
But there's obviously nothing I can do about the spindle motor. Even after carefully applying WD-40 (something I'm not sure is such a good idea, but I covered the eye first so it wouldn't get greasy), the spindle does exactly what it did before. Spin up sometimes (but rarely up to full speed), but mostly just sit there unless I kick-start it with my finger.
I guess I'm going to have to replace that whole assembly, since the spindle motor is toasted and can't be replaced separately. It's soldered onto the board, and after reading the above, I'm sure you don't want me anywhere near a soldering iron. And based on what I've read so far, the unit will to cost more than that $40 Wal-Mart special. But I may go for it. I really like that rotating knob.