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  1. Member bahjan's Avatar
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    Last week my reliable Liteon LVW5005 suddenly failed. There was no warning no disk read errors, or 'fail' messages, I'd set it up to record overnight and when I came to it the next morning all that would show was 'HELLO'. I read this webpage where the writer mentions capacitor failures with a JVC. http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/best-dvd-recorders-p1.htm.
    I wonder if anyone can point me in the direction of a repair manual (maybe too much to hope), or if you have had a Liteon failure like this do you have any idea if it's terminal or not? I am going to get a replacement drive and swap it out to check it's not that, but I've never had a drive fail with absolutely no warning before.

    Also. I tried taking out the 2005 drive only to find the front seemed to have been stuck to the front plate (the bit that flaps up when you load the tray). The drive was replaced by Liteon themselves at that time. I wonder what is going on as I have viewed the Spanish video on Youtube and the bloke there had no such issues removing the drive. Is the drive stuck because there is a disk loaded? If so, I am a bit stumped, as any emergency eject hole there might be on the front of the replacement drive (it's a DDW-806S03C) is covered by the stuck face plate. Does anyone have any ideas how I can get the disk ejected barring disassembling the drive?

    Finally, if I can't fix it I'd appreciate advice on a machine that works well dubbing VHS as well as taking most media. I usually record on Verbatim DVD+RW and have never had any issues with them.
    Thanks.
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  2. Banned
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    My dad had a beloved Liteon DVD recorder that died a few years ago. I took a look and I had to give up on replacing the drive. I couldn't find any model numbers on the drive that I could reference anywhere in the internet, so it made it impossible to find a replacement. Those Liteon burners, like most DVD recorders, have non-standard connectors which means you've got to get the exact same model to replace it for the best chance of success. If you haven't looked for a replacement drive yet, it may not be as easy as you hope. The burner will just wear out over time and it may not have anything to do with capacitors. You'll probably have to buy a replacement on the secondary marketplace like Ebay and hope for the best. I don't know enough about electronics to be able to diagnose and repair capacitor problems. I can only warn you that it's difficult to find replacement burners for their models.
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  3. These old Liteon models used IDEE burners and WERE easy to replace with a off-the shelf PC IDEE drives, I emphasize "were" as compatible drives are hard to find now. Here's a link to some info and a list of compatible drives. You can also do a search for Liteon dvd recorder drive replacement and you will find a lot of info during the 2006-2008 era on tips and replacement models. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/305164-Ilo-DVDR04-replacement-drive
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  4. Member bahjan's Avatar
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    Thanks for the reply. Just to let anyone out there know; if the dvd load tray gets stuck shut, you'll have to disassemble to remove any disks. I spent several hours struggling with a stuck draw issue (it was the draw ratchets sticking I think). Got it unstuck reassembled switched on, still got just 'Hello' Couldn't remove the old drive without breaking the silver facia - I thought it was a pull off part but no such luck. However, I did manage to move the old drive to one side well enough to plug in a new one ( well, newish) - it was good enough to establish that one of the Liteon LVW5005 circuit boards have failed. It's not the main power as the fan at the back still spins. It's clearly something that deals with initialization. I don't have a service manual, so I can do nothing with it. Furthermore, when I got the unit back together again, I found the disk drive was stuck shut again....
    Last edited by bahjan; 8th Sep 2014 at 13:25.
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  5. The fan spinning doesn't mean that the power supply is good, it only takes 7 V to drive a 12 V fan. The power supply needs to output at least 2 different voltages for the DVD drive (5 and 12 V), the main board probably needs a 3.3 V source and maybe something between 20 to 30 V to drive the display (if that's a VFD). The way those cheap power supplies are designed the 5 and 12 V are linked meaning that when one side fails the voltage goes up on the other, a good power supply should have 5 V ±5% between the red and black wire of the drive power connector and 12 V ±5% between the yellow and black. Look at the markings around the board, if you see a 3.3 V output check that it's within 5%.

    The display showing hello shows that the main board is still working, there's a good chance that a bad cap on the 5 or 3.3 V line is causing too much ripple in the CPU clock and that's what is locking up the initialization. Caps are easy to replace, but if you have no soldering experience find someone who does. You can get quality low ESR caps from Digikey.

    These Lite-on All Write recorders were very nice in the day, but as was mentioned the burners are bound to fail and finding a replacement is going to be an issue too (though it might be possible to use an IDE to SATA bridge with a new drive, but that doesn't mean the system will recognize it). Newegg has a nice Toshiba, but I wouldn't call it cheap.
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  6. Member bahjan's Avatar
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    Thanks for the reply, I'll look into it......
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  7. these units are easy to fix and the power supplies rarely go out(except from strong power surge or lightning strike)


    99% of the time it's a failed spindle or failed laser . this can cause initialization problems as well since it's trying to make the "drive ready" when it's done starting up

    the eject motor might be weak as well which is why it will not eject.
    Last edited by liteon_user; 11th Sep 2014 at 20:58.
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