HT-P38 Fails to Read Discs.... Somtimes

[delb]

I have a very strange problem that seems like it's getting progressively worse. I am using a Samsung HT-P38 at my home. It's roughly a year and a half old, and I would say 8 months ago we started having some issues with it reading consistently.

Ar first it would simply have issues playing a movie. It would hang for maybe a second and continue playing. Usually to correct this I could take the movie out, give it a quick wipe down and put it back in and it would continue playing without a hitch. Sometimes it would do this several times in one movie, sometimes it only does it once, sometimes not at all. We have one DVD that it absolutely hates and will do this every time the disc is loaded. This disc however I have only gotten to play properly once in this DVD player.

A quick note before I keep going with the issues, all the discs that I am mentioning I have checked for scratches or damage etc. They all play fine in a multitude of other players, this one seems to be the only one with issues.

With that said, in the last 3-4 months the issue has gotten more severe. Some discs it is not able to load at all. I receive an error stating something to the effect of "no file". Generally if I am able to get them to work if I eject/reinsert and then try again. Sometimes I have to do this many time, sometimes only once.

I have tried cleaning the player with a lens brushing disc, which works fine. Additionally plain audio CD's always play. I have never had one of those fail.

I guess I am looking for some suggestions if there are any, because if I take it to the shop to be looked at, it's $40 just for them to look at it. That sucks.

Any help or ideas are appretiated. Thanks a lot!

[delb]

No ideas at all? Crap. I was hoping to avoid $40 for no reason.

[jsbpepe]

Well, I have the same player and had the same issues. For me, it also did not acept the disc (music, video, origional, or not) and sometimes it did. I had mine replaced for free under warrenty. Now though the exact thing is happening. As you can guess, warrenty is out and the problem is getting worse.

How did you fair with yours? Did they replace it or maybe even tell you what's wrong with it? Do you have any magic solutions?? Does it need a cleaning, a firmware update or just a kick in the head

[Krispy Kritter]

Typically, if the player is not recognizing the disc (assuming you are using commercial pressed discs), then it is most likely a hardware issue (either failure or dirty lense). About all you can do is try cleaning it. If that doesn't work, then it is time for a replacement, hopefully a different brand/model.

[jsbpepe]

Hmmm, Krispy. It happens with all different kinds of discs: new/used, bought/burnt, dvd/music, etc. It also is not consistent. Sometimes a "reboot" helps sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes ejecting the discs works, sometimes, well you know what I mean...

It would seem like it might be a dirt issue, as it does get worse (sort of ) over time. Is there something you recommend? Do you know of resources for cleaning or exchanging the laser heads? Is there maybe just something wrong with how this model was built?

Any tips or suggestions greatly appreciated

[dchawcroft]

I have the same problem. I have posted another thread about it.

In that thread a poster suggests that the laser itself begins to fail after a while. Either the actual laser or the associated electronics. That's the way I read his post.

I know capacitors can fail after a while and fail in an intermittent way. I know that 'dry joints' can develop which manifest intermittently with different stresses and strains on the circuit board perhaps from heat. Resistors similarly. I know these things are true but just what the chances are of them happening inevitably on a large proportion of dvd player boards I don't know. So that's electronic failure. Quite possible.

And the actual life-span of the laser crystal is totally unknown to me. It is quite possible, I guess, that after a while it loses its ability to cohere light (or however it is that it should be described) and does so in an intermittent fashion. i.e. it is temperature dependent perhaps or humidity or pressure dependent. So that's major component failure. Apparently quite possible.

As yet I haven't managed to get any authoritative description of the actual mechanism, hardware and electronics, for orienting the laser onto the tracks. But one would imagine that it's fairly critical that it be precise and one can imagine that mechanical wear could throw the tracking ability off sufficiently to cause the device to lose its way sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the body and sometimes at the end of the track. So that's tracking failure through normal wear.

Similarly mechanical obstruction - a minute piece of dust or dirt - could cause minute fluctuations in mechanical tracking. So that's tracking failure from dirt or foreign matter.

Just how critical is the mechanical tracking? I don't know.

Similarly the associated electronics of the tracking mechanism would be subject to the same well known electronic fallibilities as the laser electronics and malfunctions in the electronic components could cause the tracking to 'lose track'. So that's tracking failure from electronics failure.

It all makes it look like a wonder that the things ever work at all.

But they do. And for years and years sometimes.

Because modern electronics are more and more encapsulated in chips and the components better and better quality and manufacture better and better quality.

That much I know. We all know. And it makes it - to my mind - highly unlikely that there's electronic failure. (as an aside and a 'for instance' I've got a Sharp calculator that is now 20 years old and still works flawlessly)

What we don't know is the possible failure rate of the laser crystal itself. And the degree of wear and the criticality of it in the mechanical parts.

We need more information and from technicians who are familiar with the manufacture of these things. I've searched the web a little and failed so far to come up with anything.

Currently I'm still looking and have formed the tentative belief that it's mechanical tracking failure is what's wrong. Something is loose and sloppy. Perhaps only by a thousandth of an inch. And that's all it takes. Depending on almost pure luck sometimes the player starts off a new disk with the 'sloppiness' positioning the read head where it can see nothing. Report: 'No Disk'. And sometimes it starts off in a perfect position but slowly runs out during the course of playing.

It is very interesting, isn't it? We can only hope a knowledgeable techie will visit the forum one day.

I too am interested in the possibilities of replacing the mechanism. A poster in my thread suggested that the mechanisms are worth peanuts in China or Japan or whatever, wherever they're made, so if we were there and could get them perhaps we could just rip out the guts and replace it. (perhaps not, perhaps they're too cleverly wired in and too specifically designed for each different model, but perhaps yes)

But here, outside of the country of manufacture, I think probably we'd never be able to get those mechanisms, even if they were useful to us, one by one but would have to order dozens or maybe hundreds from the factory before they'd fill an order.

It may even be that the factory produces a basic unit which each badged vendor modifies to suit. We'd then be faced with doing the mods ourselves - far too difficult for most of us I'd say - or getting the vendor to sell us the part which I think they'd be most unlikely to do.

But that's what I'd like to do and I'm trying to chase up that possibility via friends I have overseas.

[Krispy Kritter]

There are cleaning "discs" that can be used to clean the lense. You can also open the unit and blow it out with canned air. However, in most cases of read errors like this, it is a hardware (failure) issue. With the cost of players these days, unless it is under warranty, it is cheaper to just replace the unit than try and repair it.

[jsbpepe]

Thanks for your input. Man, this is stupid but it seems like the "clean cd" (a cd with little brushes on it) did the trick. The cd case explicitly says not to use it on regular DVD players but I tried anyways. It seems to work fine 8) I now also noticed that the big cd tray (for the five cd's) is quite dusty. I should have noticed that before... Well, I will also take the lid off and give it a whirl with some canned air. I guess our place is either too dusty (does not seem like it though) or this player is overly touchy and/or is a dust magnet.

I guess one of the reasons my brain just did not think about the most obvious is because when I complained to Samsung the first time they just sent a new player. This led me to believe that there must be something wrong with the player. I turned off my brain and guess never found the on switch again. So, all you forum people looking to fix their dvd first try cleaning it.