very strange DVD rom problem

[Disco_Stu]

I found this DVD drive in my parents garage, my dad said I could have it beacsue it didnt work. Whatever Dad, we'll see. So I hook it up, and it reads DVDs alright, but it seems to get stuck and skip like a record player when I try to start to movie. And on most cds, it tries to read, then spits it back out after a second.

So, break out the screwdriver. Cleaned the lens, hooked it back up, same problem. this time i noticed that one of the motors is making a slight catching noise as the drive skips. Remove more screws.

Once I have the thing totally apart, I notice some scuff marks on some of the ram on the lower PCB, odd. Near as I can tell, the rubber spacers have worn, or expanded, and no longer hold the motor assembly high enough above the PCB, so the laser arm hits the ram as it reads the disk.

Anyone have any ingenious method to correct this? Im looking for something to act as a replacement spacer, but not really having any luck.

 

[Cjwinnit]

Post some pictures so we can visualise it better, my mind has got more rigid in it's old age and i can't "see" it.

 

[Disco_Stu]

haha, with my imaginary digatial camera, right?

 

[Avatar28]

Yes, exactly!

 

[Disco_Stu]

alright, i cut up some packing peanuts and made extra spacers for the lazer arm assembly, now the question is, did this poor drive survive everything that ive dont to it in the last hour? we're about to see. wish me luck.

 

[Disco_Stu]

Alright... so it dosent skip anymore, It plays DVDs fine, aparently. I got it to play Star Wars episode 2 at several diffearnt points in the movie. But it still wont read regular cds or cdrs/rws. that one has me stumped.

 

[Avatar28]

Most times when a drive won't read either DVDs or CDs but reads the other fine, it's a case of a bad drive. It has to use two different lasers to read the two different types of media so the infrared laser used for CD media is probably kaput.

 

[Disco_Stu]

well, thats gay. sounds accurate though. dang, i was proud of myself for fixing it too.