I have a Toshiba DVD player, model #SD-K760SU that is approx 1 year
old.
It is not playing properly in that scenes freeze on the screen, images
are distorted, and
Disks do not start from the beginning, but from other parts of the
disk.
Is this a situation where the lens needs cleaning, or might it be
another matter? If the lens does need cleaning, how can I access
the lens, OR, are there lens cleaning kits available?
Any suggestions on how to rectify the situation would be appreciated.
Aaron
For reasons quoted many times on here, DVD players do not generally suffer
from dirty lenses like CD players do. Exceptions to this are if the player
is located in a country or area that is very dry, or if the player is
located in a heavy smoking environment. Playability problems are most often
associated with a worn laser, although one year does seem a little on the
'young' side. That said, if the player gets heavy use, it is by no means
unheard of for a laser of just one year to be showing signs of wear, and of
course, none of this precludes the possibility of the laser being defective.
Other causes of playability problems include mechanical defects on the deck,
iffy spindle motors and 'marginal' caps on the power supply.
Do your freezes tend to occur late in the disc ? If so, that is usually a
good indicator of laser trouble, as it is much more difficult for it to read
layer two through layer one. A further test that you can run is to try
playing some full-length commercially pressed CDs. If these play without
problem, this pretty much verifies the mechanics, and is another pointer for
laser trouble.
By all means try cleaning the lens, but do not use a lens cleaner disc, as
this is unlikely to help, and can on some machines, cause physical damage to
the laser assembly. Access is usually available once the optical block has
been slid down its tracks towards the back of the deck, which brings it out
from under the disc clamp. The lens should be cleaned carefully with a
cotton bud (Q-Tip) moistened (not wet) with electronics grade isopropyl
alcohol. The lens suspension is fairly delicate, so don't be 'brutal' with
it, but by the same token, it is not so delicate that it is easily damaged.
Just use common sense. When the alcohol has evaporated, polish the lens with
a new clean and dry cotton bud.
The only symptom that you describe, which is a little 'odd' is that discs
seem to start from odd places rather than the beginning, although that might
just be being caused by the laser having trouble getting a good error-free
data stream off the disc.
Arfa
