DVD player stopped working

[ishotlove]

I put a loose subwoofer on top of my DVD player without realizing it had a huge magnet around it. Now my DVD player doesn't work right. If I plug it in, it seems to get power because the standby light comes on. But if I try to turn it on, the light goes off for a few seconds, the disc spins for a split second, then it goes back to standby (as if it tried to start up but couldn't?). What exactly happened here? What did the magnet do and is there anything I can do to fix it?

[jman98]

I would guess that the magnetic field fried some of the DVD player components. You can maybe have the player repaired, but it's probably not worth it. Expect any repair to cost more than $100, which might be more than the player cost. It's impossible to know exactly what happened, but you could have had your firmware chip get fried. That might lead to what you see.

[ishotlove]

I've been messing around with it and I've gotten it to work twice, but it goes back to being weird after a while. If I did any kind of permanent damage like fry any chips or something, I would assume it wouldn't work at all, yes?

[Krispy Kritter]

I doubt it is "fried". But the magnetic field could have screwed up the ROM where the firmware is stored. If you can find a new firmware AND if you can get the player to work again, you could try flashing the firmware. If not a repair shop could likely do it for you, but the cost ($50-75) would likely be better applied to a new player.

[redwudz]

Most programmable memory modules are E-EPROMs (Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) or similar so magnetic fields 'should' have little or no effect.

The magnetic field is 'fixed' with a permanent magnet in a speaker and doesn't move around to induce currents. It will change the the magnetic fields for a transformer, but shouldn't cause any problems with semiconductor devices, AFAIK.

But bottom line, if it's broke, toss it. Unless it's a top of the line unit, probably not worth repair. That subwoofer can do some damage to a CRT TV, though, so keep it away from them.

You can try reflashing the ROM, as you have little to lose. But I wouldn't hold out much hope for a cure that easy.

Also, have you tried unplugging the DVD player for about a half hour, then plugging it back in?

[Rich86]

Also, have you tried unplugging the DVD player for about a half hour, then plugging it back in?

Excellent suggestion, as that might force a cold reboot of the player firmware. Some players have key sequences to follow to force a complete reboot - search the net.

[ishotlove]

thanks guys. i managed to get it started up and flashed it with new firmware i found. it seems to be working great so far, i'm not sure if it's the firmware or just one of it's phases again. hopefully it is the firmware. either way, thanks again for the help.

[ishotlove]

Alright, well, it didn't solve the problem but i noticed something else. The DVD player gives me problems when it's been resting. To get it going, I hold the power button for a while and eventually it'll kick on. It'll work fine a few minutes after that (powering on and off, playing a dvd, etc...) but if I turn it off and let it rest for a while, then it'll give me a hard time powering on again.