Apex AD660 stop playing VCD all of suddden.

[JonPumin]

Hi all, my Apex AD660 suddenly just quit playing VCD, but DVD still is playing fine. What is up with that? Does anyone have any clues? Please help anyone? :?:

[yoda313]

Hello,

Do your older ones still play?? Or is it newly created ones that don't work?

Have you tried different brands of discs????

Kevin

[JonPumin]

I'm sure it isn't a disc problem. It plays fine before, it suddenly quit playing. I've tried to play it, but it always said "no disc". I've put in a commecially done VCD disc, but it still said "no disc". The VCD discs all play fine on other DVD player.

[freebird73717]

Sounds like your player/laser is dying. My dvd player (norcent dp301) did the same thing a few months ago. Just quit playing anything on cd media. Still plays dvd's (burnt and commercial) just fine. You are probably going to have to replace it. More than likely be cheaper than having it repaired.

[JonPumin]

Freebird, how much will it cost to repair this? If is $10 or less, I'll have it repair. But If it more than that, I have rather buy a new one that cost saround $40 at Wal Mart.

[freebird73717]

Most repair shops will charge you probably around $20 for labor and then whatever the replacement parts cost.

[jman98]

VCD playback uses a different laser than DVD. My best guess is that this is a $50 repair at least.

[wulf109]

The AD-660 uses and IDE DVD loader. Almost any computer DVD-ROM drive will work in it. I have an AD-660 running a Toshiba 1712.

[freebird73717]

Even if he wants to repair it himself he would still be better off just buying a new one unless he just happens to have the spare parts lying around.

[JonPumin]

Wulf109, are you serious that I can just replace it with a new DVD rom drive? I've a Toshiba that I can use, but do I need to install anything else beside the rom itself. Please tell me more detail about it. If I can just simply replace it with my Toshiba DVD rom, and that's it. Man, that would be great since I've open it up cople times already.

[tipstir]

You could try to do it I had to fix a Mintek DVD-1600 unit which is made from the same manufacturer that the Apex comes from and now Hiteck sold at Target stores.

My problem the drive unit wasn't working so I fixed (took it apart) it myself.

Not hard to do, if you have spare DVD-ROM parts around. Otherwise you can pickup another Apex for dirt cheap at Sears Hardware Center store not a Sears Major department store. They seem to have alot of them for under $34 bucks.

[JonPumin]

Tipstir, I tried it with a Toshiba DVD rom over the weekend, but no luck. Are you sure that I can replace it with a DVD rom drive? It didn't work for my case..

[wulf109]

You need to be sure your Toshiba DVD-ROM is jumpered as "master". It won't work any other way. Just dis-connect the power and data cables from the OEM drive and plug them into the Toshiba.

[tipstir]

If the Toshiba DVDROM doesn't work if you can find an old Apex DVDROM otherwise pickup another player they're cheap now.

Shinco (top end)
Mintek
Apex
Hiteck
All made at Shinco in China