Potential source of many DVD drive issues?

joeltt1 · 07-29-2008, 06:39 PM

I've noticed alot of issues that others suggest might be fixed by cleaning the lens, or that lenses are burnt out, or that it is a firmware or other software issue.

My DVD RW drive has basically ceased most functionality which comes at a bad time since Im trying to reinstall windows XP. I took it out and removed the top cover with the 4 screws on the bottom. This reveals alot of the inner workings of the drive; next I could easily remove the faceplate which remains attached to the drive tray if you dont remove the stop plate on the tray.

The first thing I notice is that the Lens assembly, which is supposed to pop up when the tray is fully inside the drive, isnt fully engaged, only partially. I look in front of it and there is a flat, white piece of plastic with 2 "Z" like slots on it into which there are two guide pins. On top of this plate are two verticaly mounted plastic guide pieces which fit into guiding canals on the underside of the DVD tray.

When open, the guide pins that run in the Z plate are in the lower part of the two Z's, which keeps the lens assembly in the lower or disengaged position. As you push the tray in, the topside vertical pins ride through the straight slots on the underside of the tray until it gets most of the way in. Near the end the tracks make two 45 degree turns both to one side. This makes the plastic plate slide to one side as the tray is almost all the way in, forcing the guide pins in the two Z grooves to slide up the Z to the top end, thus moving the entire reader Lens assembly up to the engaged postition to read the CD/DVD - thats how it looks like its supposed to work at any rate.

Mine and one of mine before seem to be the victims of faulty engineering, or maybe there is something I am missing. I had the drive in my hands manually moving the tray in and out for over 2 hours and I think the Z plate slid over far enough to fully engage the lens 100% of the way up about, oh 20% of the time. Increasing the speed which I pushed the drive in seemed to inrease the success chance to about 35-40%. In all the failed situations, the lens/head only come up about 70% of the way and are still sitting at a 4-5 degree angle off flat, which I imagine would make reading any CD/DVD next to impossible. The funny thing is that it seems that this drive and my other older one that did this same thing to me 6 years back both work on the same mechanics - working AGAINST gravity to engage the lens mechanism - a practice which will certainly where out any device over time. I actually manually operated the drive with it oriented upside down, and the lens assembly engaged about 90%+ of the time - this made me laugh

So I have taken this 1.5 year old Pioneer DVD RW drive apart as much as I can - no screws left to undo. Yet I don't see any bent or warped parts or anything that looks to be functioning out of the ordinary in the mechanical sense - all the gears and drive pieces are spinning fine and arent missing any teeth or anything like that.

So please, if anyone that is mechanically adept can suggest a piece to bend or a cog to tweak, I would appreciate it (as would all the other folks with "mysterious" CD/DVD malfunctions).

07-29-2008, 06:39 PM	#1 (permalink)
joeltt1 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 9 OS: WINXP (SP2)	Potential source of many DVD drive issues? I've noticed alot of issues that others suggest might be fixed by cleaning the lens, or that lenses are burnt out, or that it is a firmware or other software issue. My DVD RW drive has basically ceased most functionality which comes at a bad time since Im trying to reinstall windows XP. I took it out and removed the top cover with the 4 screws on the bottom. This reveals alot of the inner workings of the drive; next I could easily remove the faceplate which remains attached to the drive tray if you dont remove the stop plate on the tray. The first thing I notice is that the Lens assembly, which is supposed to pop up when the tray is fully inside the drive, isnt fully engaged, only partially. I look in front of it and there is a flat, white piece of plastic with 2 "Z" like slots on it into which there are two guide pins. On top of this plate are two verticaly mounted plastic guide pieces which fit into guiding canals on the underside of the DVD tray. When open, the guide pins that run in the Z plate are in the lower part of the two Z's, which keeps the lens assembly in the lower or disengaged position. As you push the tray in, the topside vertical pins ride through the straight slots on the underside of the tray until it gets most of the way in. Near the end the tracks make two 45 degree turns both to one side. This makes the plastic plate slide to one side as the tray is almost all the way in, forcing the guide pins in the two Z grooves to slide up the Z to the top end, thus moving the entire reader Lens assembly up to the engaged postition to read the CD/DVD - thats how it looks like its supposed to work at any rate. Mine and one of mine before seem to be the victims of faulty engineering, or maybe there is something I am missing. I had the drive in my hands manually moving the tray in and out for over 2 hours and I think the Z plate slid over far enough to fully engage the lens 100% of the way up about, oh 20% of the time. Increasing the speed which I pushed the drive in seemed to inrease the success chance to about 35-40%. In all the failed situations, the lens/head only come up about 70% of the way and are still sitting at a 4-5 degree angle off flat, which I imagine would make reading any CD/DVD next to impossible. The funny thing is that it seems that this drive and my other older one that did this same thing to me 6 years back both work on the same mechanics - working AGAINST gravity to engage the lens mechanism - a practice which will certainly where out any device over time. I actually manually operated the drive with it oriented upside down, and the lens assembly engaged about 90%+ of the time - this made me laugh So I have taken this 1.5 year old Pioneer DVD RW drive apart as much as I can - no screws left to undo. Yet I don't see any bent or warped parts or anything that looks to be functioning out of the ordinary in the mechanical sense - all the gears and drive pieces are spinning fine and arent missing any teeth or anything like that. So please, if anyone that is mechanically adept can suggest a piece to bend or a cog to tweak, I would appreciate it (as would all the other folks with "mysterious" CD/DVD malfunctions).