LG RH-7500 Optical Drive problem

[DJ_Bite]

Hi,

I have this recorder for over 2 years now and it is a great piece of equipment. However, lately the DVD drive is having problems recognizing the disks.
I did try to clean the lens of the drive several times with a cleaning disk, cloth, alcohol etc., without success.

I wanted to replace the drive, but found that the connector is not as I am used to be (i.e. IDE style connector) but just a piece of "plastic" going into a connector on the mainboard.

On the pictures, you can see the connectors:
At the drive (in the green circle) is the "piece of plastic"
On the board is the connector and also the power cable that connects to the drive (in the red circles)

Can anybody tell me the product type number / name of the optical drive in the RH-7500?
Does anybody have an idea if those types of dvd rewriters can be bought?

Thanx in advance,
Bite


rh7500.jpg

[fzabkar]

The photo shows an unpopulated 40-pin connector adjacent to the DVD connector. I suspect that both flex cables may be electrically equivalent to a 40-pin IDE ribbon cable. I could be wrong, but Panasonic DVDRs appear to have a small adapter PCB that adapts a flex cable to their IDE HDDs. Your HDD appears to have one, too.

You could confirm the interface type by consulting the spec sheet for the main LSI Logic chip in the middle of the PCB. If it is in fact IDE, then I would try to order the flex cable and adapter as a spare part, and modify the power connector. Then you may be able to use a standard PC IDE writer.

FWIW, I notice that the PCB is labelled RH7000, so maybe it is common to that particular LG model family.

BTW, I'm surprised that the LSI Logic chip doesn't have a heatsink. I bet it gets very hot.

[DJ_Bite]

Thank you for your information. Since I am not technical at all, I didn't look at the HDD. But it does make sense. I will open it up again and check if there is such an adapter. In that case, I can atleast try another DVD-drive with that adapter and see if it works and then use this adapter as an example to buy another one in a specialised (computer?) shop.

I will keep you posted.

Cheers,
Bite

[JKLAB]

I would realy like to hear how this worked out as I have an identical problem.

[DJ_Bite]

I'm afraid I have bad news. I wasn't able to have it repaired cheaply, so I eventually bought another HD recorder (LG RH 387H)

Good luck!

[fzabkar]

Apart from an IDE adapter for the flex cable, you could also use a Y-cable to power both the DVD and HDD from the one plug. I once priced an IDE adapter PCB for a Panasonic DVDR. It cost AU$50 delivered (!!!), but LG may be more reasonable. Your local TV repair shop may have one for free, or you may be able to find one at your recycling depot.

[JKLAB]

I plan to buy a new HD recorder as this has no HDMI, but I have filled the HD with recordings from my DV tapes and it took forever. The whole point was to edit and burn them onto DVD. Could the old HD be swapped into a new HD recorder without losing the contents? Thanks

[fzabkar]

I don't know if transferring a HD from one machine to another will work. I do know that my supermarket DVDR uses a proprietary file system that no MS Windows OS can read. Furthermore, if I install a foreign HD in my DVDR, it is automatically reformatted with the DVDR's file system, so any existing data are compromised. Instead I'd try attaching the HD to a PC. Rejumper it as master or slave, as required.

[JKLAB]

I was thinking of getting another similar LG recorder hoping the old HDs format might be recognised. I don't really want to add Windows to the equation if can help it, but I suppose if the file format of the recordings is something common a PC disk recovery program might be able to find them on the HD.

[fzabkar]

I'm guessing that current DVDRs may use SATA drives rather than PATA. You might like to try putting your drive in a USB or firewire enclosure and hope that your new LG DVDR can recognise external drives that use its own proprietary format. I suspect, however, that external drives would need to be formatted using FAT16 or FAT32.

[Jeremiah58]

JKLAB
There was a topic here about replacing/upgrading HDD's in LG DVD recorders. If I remember correctly there was no trouble to recognize HDD's from LG, if connected to PC.

I've got LG RH188S. The optical drive had died within warranty period and I brought it to authorized LG dealer and they replaced it. That was about a year ago.
So, try to find and contact an LG representative/dealer for your country - they should be able to replace your optical drive.

[fzabkar]

I would realy like to hear how this worked out as I have an identical problem.

I recently replaced the burner in an LG RC195 DVDR/VCR combo unit.

The original burner was an IDE type which was connected to the mainboard via a mini-flex cable. A small adapter PCB was used to convert the mini-flex to standard 40-pin IDE. The replacement burner had a mini-flex interface, so the adapter was not required. Before buying the replacement, I tried a standard LG PC IDE DVD writer and it was able to play a DVD movie. I didn't try burning with it, though. Unfortunately the adapter PCB is not available as a spare part.

Service manual for RC195:
http://www.jordansmanuals.com/Default.aspx?Brand=LG&Product=DVD-VCR&Model=RC195

[jumpjack]

Did anybody of you succeed in:
- replacing optical unit in RH255?
- grabbing files from RH255 Hard Disk?

My Windows XP SP3 can't detect the drive using this program: http://from-hdd-lg-to-pc.narod.ru/ (but it's visibile in computer resources)