Cheap Spongebob DVD player with seemingly odd behavoir

[RBKearnsJr]

Hello all,

Looking for ideas (I like to tinker and have nothing to lose with this cheapo unit). My youngest has this Spongebob DVD player we bought back in '06 (SB329 - top loading with spring loaded door). The other day she decided she wanted to drag it out and play some DVD's. Loaded the disc and get "no disc" message - also not spinning up. Now mind you, this thing was probably played less than 20 times in the past so I says to myself, "hmm what could be wrong?". anyway, tried several discs and got same issue. Tried starting and stopping - still same issue. Here is the odd thing, turn it upside down and it spins up and the movies begin at which point you can turn is right side up and continue watching the movie! After initially getting it to work, it will also periodically load/spin up properly when right side up. Go figure. Any ideas about maybe a adjustment or some general internal "dusting" that could be done to remedy this weirdness? I don't have anything to lose really, so I will try things just for the sake of learning, if I bust it trying - oh well!

Any tips - greatly appreciated

[aedipuss]

doesn't sound user serviceable. might be rust on the spindle bearing freezing it up. upside down moves the spindle to a different area. starting it and then running right side up may eventually clear up the problem until it sits unused again.