Panasonic DVD Recorder - Spindle needs cleaning

[lacywest]

I'm currently cleaning a spindle on a Panasonic E85H ... it was definitely dirty.

Webpage >>> http://club.cdfreaks.com/f106/fixing...t-help-210507/

Fixing your Panny: When there's a fault and lens cleaning doesn't help....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before you sling your problematic Panasonic in the bin, you may want to try cleaning the spindle. This has worked wonders for me on my current recorders: I have a 3 year old DMR-E55 recorder (a fantastic old machine which gets used to play & record EVERY day) and an LG GSA-4082B multidrive in the computer, but this method has also fixed many malfunctioning Playstation 2's, and DVD-ROMs, RAMs, CD drives, you name it.

The symptons of your Panasonic requiring a spindle clean are as follows. The machine may start to feel sluggish, particularly when formatting a DVD-RAM, performing erase functions, and may take longer to recognize discs. Then, you will start to get errors during recording and erasing, failed formatting, and the machine will not recognize some discs. Eventually it will be totally unpredictable and unreliable, and you may find that even after dismantling your machine and cleaning the lens most thoroughly, the problems persist. It may still play CDs and shop bought DVDs, those functions are the last to go. I will almost guarantee that this means a spindle clean is needed, although many would incorrectly blame these symptoms on a dirty lens, or even a defective laser, but the reality is, if the machine worked perfectly once, the laser is almost certainly fine. Panasonic use trusted circuitry to ensure a stable laser output.

The spindle is the little round platter inside your machine that your disc sits on. Discs go into the machine and there they are placed on the spindle, after which a circular magnetic grip clamps the disc into its final position, the disc being sandwiched firmly between the spindle and the grip. "Yeah, I know all this already" I can hear you shouting.

But the correct functioning of a spindle is absolutely CRITICAL in such a precise piece of technology as a DVD-RAM recorder, there is no room for error here as a dirty spindle will not spin the disc perfectly evenly - it can introduce wobble and jitter into the disc which even the cleanest lens will not cope with.

You do need to open up your machine to clean the spindle but it is well worth it if your machine is out of warranty. Take off the outer lid and locate the screws that hold the lid on the drive unit. There are usually four screws, two at either side. Remove those screws and that lid should now be loose, but don't use brute force - on my unit you have to jiggle the drive lid around a little towards the back of the unit. It will lift off.

You should now see the spindle. Notice the black rubber on the outer part of the spindle. With isopropyl alcohol and cotton buds, gently but thoroughly clean this rubber. It can sometimes look surprisingly dirty - carpet fibre, dust and tar from heavy smoking are the usual suspects in my experience. Clean the whole spindle too, then go back and clean that rubber again until it doesn't leave a mark on a fresh cotton bud dipped in alcohol. You may as well clean the lens while you are here. If you haven't cleaned a lens before, dip a fresh cotton bud in alcohol and brush the lens very gently with it, the lens will move slightly as it is spring mounted so don't be alarmed. Just be gentle. At this stage it's a good idea to clean the grip which is set into the lid of the drive unit. Now put your machine back together.

You should have a Panasonic that's as good as when you bought it. The first thing I would do is insert a DVD-RAM disc and format it. You should notice the speed difference, and of course, a successful format is a good sign in itself. My E55 first packed up 5 months after I bought it, and it didn't occur to me to clean the spindle even though I'd been fixing PS2's that way for a while. Well, it did, but it was under warranty and I got a replacement. That was nearly 3 years ago, and I have cleaned the spindle twice in that time, most recently yesterday, after a bit of erratic behaviour showed itself. But we are heavy smokers in this house - most people wouldn't need to clean it that often

Of course there are preventative measures you can take, like not putting in dusty or fingerprinted discs, cleaning the innermost part of discs you put in, and NOT handling a disc with its hole, just use the outside edge.

Anyway, I hope this helps somebody. The posts on CDFREAKS have been helpful to me for many years, so I hope I can put something back. It would be good if you could let me know if you fix your recorder using this method, and if you have any questions just let me know.

[lacywest]

Panasonic DMR E85H .... got it last year on Ebay ... Summer of 2008 ... very low price compared to the price the EH50 was going for.

Seller said it would not record to blank DVDs or recognize burnt DVDs. Store bought DVDs yes ... but not home made ones.

Well I cleaned the spindle ... I actually removed front panel ... held on with clips ... actually came off by surprise. But nothing got broke. I then removed the 4 screws holding the lid onto the DVD Burner .... uh uh ... carriage ... and there was everything there to look at ... laser ... spindle ... the works.

Was not hard to see the rubber spindle ... definitely dirty ... peach fuzz ... around the edges ... stuff embedded into the top rubber surface. Took about 10 Q-Tips to get it clean. In one area ... it had a glazed look in one spot ... took a few Q-Tips to get it to look clean. I'm near sighted ... so when I take my glasses off ... I can see very up close.

Inside ... [with the lid removed] the black plastic DVD Burner enclosure ... lint ... peach fuzz ... furr balls ... was easily visible. Blew them out with air can.

And it now ... WORKS

It reads my DVD-RAM disks ... I even took a DVD-R with a XXX movie on it and dubbed it to the Hard Drive and played it back to test it out ... it worked.

What do I do with these DVD Recorders .... I hook them up to my Directv HR10-250 ... and record the shows I've recorded on the HR10-250 DVR drive for archive purposes.

There are still a few stations broadcasting on Analog stations ... nothing great ... HSN is there ... advertising Halloween decorations for your front yard. Saw some cool stuff ... but I'm not going to pay 80 bucks for an inflatable black cat.

Works for me. I got it working ... COOL COOL

[tcfrerich]

I assume this will also work on a Pioneer 531?

I have another thread going about it not burning anymore DVDs, but maybe I need to do this heavy-duty cleaning?

Thanks.

[hech54]

I've cleaned my old Philips DVDR-985 several times. It's not brain surgery....just common sense. It's already broke...can't break it any more than it already is.

[tcfrerich]

That was my thinking as well....

[jjeff]

Good luck, although it has been reported by Orsetto that the Pioneer DVD drive doesn't lend itself to being taken apart for the cleaning.
You could try a trick I use on my Panasonics, that is eject the tray, unplug the DVDR. Then gently slide the tray in and out to gain visual access to the spindle, finally take a long wooden handled q-tip (commonly used in the medial industry) soaked with cleaner to try and clean the spindle.
While you can't clean it as good as taking apart the drive it's worked on my Panasonics.

[lacywest]

I've got a Panasonic EH50 with the 100 GB Harddrive inside ... works okay but the eject button process is frustating ... the tray keeps going back in.

I've got two Panasonic E50 machines ... no hard drive in them and they still work just fine. And the remote control for them is handy ... they have a eject button on them and they can control the EH50 ... so after a few clicks more then I want to do the EH50 Tray stays open ... or I grab the disk inside really quickly ... and put one in really quickly.

But ... this EH50 is picky on what DVD-Rs I can use ... wont behave right with any of the new DVD-Rs being made. Finalize usually wont happen.

But the one DVD-R brand that works every time ... is the TY ... value pack DVDs ... so I really hope that our advertisers here that sell that brand of DVD-R ... keeps selling them ... they work with no problems with my Panasonic EH50.

[jjeff]

Even though the E50 and EH-50 sound similar, the E-50 is a '03 model year DVDR(last year for the eject on remote) and the EH-50 is a '05 model year(first year of increased resolution up to 4hrs/disc). If you were ever thinking about swapping DVD drives I doubt it would work. I've read DVD drives are pretty much only compatible for same year models.

I find it odd that your EH-50 has problems with newer DVDs and yet your older E-50 doesn't? FWIW my EH-50 has no problems with even the cheapest of 16x media. I don't use Memorex but I tested some of my newer TDK 16x discs and they were the same mfg. as Memorex but they still burn fine.

[lacywest]

Even though the E50 and EH-50 sound similar, the E-50 is a '03 model year DVDR(last year for the eject on remote) and the EH-50 is a '05 model year(first year of increased resolution up to 4hrs/disc). If you were ever thinking about swapping DVD drives I doubt it would work. I've read DVD drives are pretty much only compatible for same year models.

I find it odd that your EH-50 has problems with newer DVDs and yet your older E-50 doesn't? FWIW my EH-50 has no problems with even the cheapest of 16x media. I don't use Memorex but I tested some of my newer TDK 16x discs and they were the same mfg. as Memorex but they still burn fine.

I have not opened up the EH50 machine and cleaned it ... it is on the bottom of 3 high of devices on my entertainment shelf ... but I really should clean it too ... as for what DVDs can be burned on the Panasonic E85H ... don't really know. Before I cleaned it ... it would not read any DVD-R or DVD-RAM disk ... I guess I could try some MAXELL DVD-R disks and see if they burn correctly and finalize correctly. It is the finalize portion that messes up on the EH50.

I dont use my E50 machines ... anymore ... I haven't used them since I got my EH50 units ... I was using those cheap CompUSA DVD-Rs disks ... in the E50 machines.

But CompUSA is no longer in Fresno and I don't drive to Fresno no more ... I had in a job in Fresno until ... June 30 2008 ... for 4 years and 2 months ... and now I'm on Unemployment ... ... my job depended on California State contracts being renewed.