Pioneer Laser cleaning

[XploRa1]

Hi all,

My Pioneer DVR-433H was recently used as a home for quite a large number of ANTS - needless to say there were eggs, or whatever those white little things were, all over the inside of the recorder.

Now I managed to get them all out by taking the cover off and putting the machine in a bright sunlit area, but still had to persuade some to leave their new home with a paint brush.

Problem is that now that the recorder is nice and clean and ANT-free, the DVD drive does not read any discs at all, I know that sound all too well from working with PC drives. Now I know there are adjustment parts that can be used to set the focus (that could have gone out when I cleaned it with the brush) and another adjustment (alignment is it?). But ok the DVD unit I also opened later to check if there were ants in there as well (and there was). Now I'm not sure where things went wrong, for instance 1. Maybe the ants left dirt on the Lens? 2. The adjust of VR101 & VR401 was disturbed by the cleaning?

btw. the top of the lens is perfectly clean, but I do not know if there is another lens below the top one?
I would like to see someones recorders position settings of the adjustment of VR101 & VR401.
And secondly how to clean the lens properly.

Thanks.

[hech54]

You can clean the lens, but you won't be "adjusting" or aligning" it by yourself.

[XploRa1]

Do you know of any articles describing the cleaning process of the Pioneer lens unit?

[hech54]

Google is your friend. Cleaning a CD/DVD unit's laser is only as difficult as getting to the laser. If you've already cleaned it then after 8 years the drive is probably dead.

[redwudz]

I just clean the lens with a non-fiber 'Q' tip and 99% isopropyl or denatured alcohol. The lens should cover the LEDs enough that nothing could get under it.
You might also examine the tracking assembly to see if there is any damage to it.

I wouldn't mess with the tracking/focus adjustments except as a last hope. But be prepared to toss the unit when those adjustments fail.

[XploRa1]

Well the lens seems to be as clean as can be and the tracking assembly seems fine as well, so I'm going to try and fiddle with the adjustments and see if I can magically get the right setting

I have previously done this adjustment on a NAD CD player and it paid off, but I somehow doubt if this is going to be as easy as that attempt.

[XploRa1]

Well the lens seems to be as clean as can be and the tracking assembly seems fine as well, so I'm going to try and fiddle with the adjustments and see if I can magically get the right setting

I have previously done this adjustment on a NAD CD player and it paid off, but I somehow doubt if this is going to be as easy as that attempt.

Ok the NAD's pots was marked at the factory.

[orsetto]

The pots at VR101 and VR401 look OK to me, about the same as I've seen in the Pioneers I've serviced. It is extremely unlikely that you dislodged their setting by dusting them with a paintbrush: they hold their settings pretty firmly, and even the Pioneer 433/530 service manual does not recommend fiddling with them. If you did somehow manage to move them with the paintbrush, you probably wouldn't be able to reset them correctly by eye: Pioneer would need to do it for you at a service facility.

When you say you cleaned out the burner, did you mean removed it entirely from the chassis (disconnected it) and opened its case? If so, that might be part of your problem. The 433 was one of the last "100% designed by Pioneer" models, and those don't like having their drives removed and reinstalled. Depending on the specific unit, some of them require use of a special service remote and service dvd to reinitialize the the drive(s) after removal/reinstallation. Usually one can tell from the front panel and/or what the onscreen display shows when you first power it on. If you are seeing anything but the usual time display, such as "E01" or "CPRM Err," the recorder wants the service tools to reinitialize the drive(s). If all displays are normal, your particular 433 doesn't need the service tool reset, but the ant residue probably gummed up the laser mechanism. Getting rid of the ant residue could be a daunting task if major disassembly of the drive is necessary.

This recorder is eight years old now: as hech54 suggested, it has already lasted well beyond its expected lifespan (and the DVD drive could have coincidentally just failed from age). The most efficient course of action might be to replace the DVD drive entirely: you can do this following the instructions posted here. You'd need to find one of the generic Pioneer DVR-109 or DVR-A09 burners that were sold for PCs or Macs, and swap its controller board with the one in your original recorder. The controller board is rarely the cause of Pioneer burner problems: the laser or drive mechanism fails long before the board. By swapping the board into another, still-working burner, you trick the 433 into thinking it is the same burner it came with, while getting a nice clean replacement laser and mechanics. You need to swap the controller board because the one used in the generic Pioneer 109 burners made for PCs does not have the special proprietary connectors and firmware used by the 433.

Before seeking a replacement burner, you should briefly remove the controller board from your "dead" 433 burner, and examine it carefully on both sides. It is possible such a severe ant infestation could have damaged some of the circuit traces or parts on the board. If you see any sign of deterioration or damage, it is likely the board is faulty and cannot be successfully recycled in a new burner. In that case, forget about repairing the 433 and consider buying a replacement recorder.

[nic2k4]

Something you need to consider about ants, they are constantly spewing all sorts of pheromones and chemicals, especially formic acid. Even if the top lens looks perfectly clean the laser assmebly is not air tight so you can expect to have deposits on the intermediate lens and the mirrors.

First thing you should look at is whether the laser is still lighting up. Normally that would mean running a disc with the cover off, but with this Pioneer service remote deal that may prove difficult. Just insert a commercial DVD and listen for the laser trying to track and focus. If the laser doesn't work, it won't take long for it to stop trying to read the disc.

If you're confident the laser still lights up, next thing to try would be what Redwuds suggested. For a deeper clean you need to get an alcohol based contact cleaner (I use Contact 2000 by Asalco); whatever you use make sure its acrylic safe, test it on a bad DVD disc. You also need a can of compressed air and a hair dryer. Remove any metal covers around the laser, but leave the ones that are soldered. Shoot contact cleaner through any openings while keeping the assembly tilted to one side to allow the cleaner to run off, but don't flip it upside down. You want to avoid having run off go on the bottom face of both lens. Try to shoot at different angles, that helps hitting all the mirrors. Then blow the cleaner off with the compressed air and use the hair dryer to warm the assembly up to prevent condensation.

I've had good results with this procedure. I've had drives that were contaminated with soot that required inserting tiny bits of lens cleaning paper to wipe the optical surfaces (my sister lives in the big city and her drives die prematurely all the time). Even then, that may not be enough and some parts of the laser may be out of reach.

As for the trimmer adjustments, first they're not that easy to move that just a brush's bristtles would change their settings. If they're out of position, just keep tweaking them in one direction, try reading discs and tweak some more until you get consistent results. You will notice that there's a center position where reading is good and when you go in either direction it gets worse. Be careful which trimmer you play with, DVD drives have 2 lasers, one for CD and one for DVD. When you test discs use both CD and DVD and both blank and silver discs (you may also want to test RW's).

[Noahtuck]

Well the lens seems to be as clean

And how are you ascertaining that the lens is clean ?
Just by looking at it ??

Just because it SEEMS or LOOKS to be clean, does not mean it is!!

I have seen literally 100's of lenses in dvd drives that did not look any different before or after cleaning, yet after cleaning they read disc's
fine, where they did not before cleaning!!

And I mean by taking the drives apart and gently cleaning the lens, not with one of those POS cd's with a brush on them.

[XploRa1]

Right, first there are no error codes and funny things coming up, just the "load" and difficulty reading sound (the laser unit moving and going to disc and trying to read - back and forth) and then ejecting the disc.

Ok so i'm going to get some the alcohol mentioned and clean it properly (using a cloth used for cleaning reading glasses).

And see what happens - so will do that and come back with the results, thank you for sharing the knowledge.

[XploRa1]

Something you need to consider about ants, they are constantly spewing all sorts of pheromones and chemicals, especially formic acid. Even if the top lens looks perfectly clean the laser assmebly is not air tight so you can expect to have deposits on the intermediate lens and the mirrors.

First thing you should look at is whether the laser is still lighting up. Normally that would mean running a disc with the cover off, but with this Pioneer service remote deal that may prove difficult. Just insert a commercial DVD and listen for the laser trying to track and focus. If the laser doesn't work, it won't take long for it to stop trying to read the disc.

If you're confident the laser still lights up, next thing to try would be what Redwuds suggested. For a deeper clean you need to get an alcohol based contact cleaner (I use Contact 2000 by Asalco); whatever you use make sure its acrylic safe, test it on a bad DVD disc. You also need a can of compressed air and a hair dryer. Remove any metal covers around the laser, but leave the ones that are soldered. Shoot contact cleaner through any openings while keeping the assembly tilted to one side to allow the cleaner to run off, but don't flip it upside down. You want to avoid having run off go on the bottom face of both lens. Try to shoot at different angles, that helps hitting all the mirrors. Then blow the cleaner off with the compressed air and use the hair dryer to warm the assembly up to prevent condensation.

I've had good results with this procedure. I've had drives that were contaminated with soot that required inserting tiny bits of lens cleaning paper to wipe the optical surfaces (my sister lives in the big city and her drives die prematurely all the time). Even then, that may not be enough and some parts of the laser may be out of reach.

As for the trimmer adjustments, first they're not that easy to move that just a brush's bristtles would change their settings. If they're out of position, just keep tweaking them in one direction, try reading discs and tweak some more until you get consistent results. You will notice that there's a center position where reading is good and when you go in either direction it gets worse. Be careful which trimmer you play with, DVD drives have 2 lasers, one for CD and one for DVD. When you test discs use both CD and DVD and both blank and silver discs (you may also want to test RW's).

Yes the laser is still lighting up, just tested it.This is what the unit looks like now.

[nic2k4]

I see. There's little chance your brushing would have disturbed that trimmer at the bottom left. Whatever you do don't remove the sled from the drive; the rail height is one of the tracking adjustment. Is there a cover on the bottom? If you don't have an opening into the mirror cavity, your not likely to succeed in cleaning it. Use a magnifying glass and look around the sides too.

[XploRa1]

I see. There's little chance your brushing would have disturbed that trimmer at the bottom left. Whatever you do don't remove the sled from the drive; the rail height is one of the tracking adjustment. Is there a cover on the bottom? If you don't have an opening into the mirror cavity, your not likely to succeed in cleaning it. Use a magnifying glass and look around the sides too.

Yes the bottom has two plates covering the lenses/mirrors; I went ahead and removed them and
could see all of the lenses/mirrors I cleaned it as suggested, so it looks good there. (sorry, in this photo they were put on again)

btw. I did not brush in here at all cause it was still clean enough - only a few ants got in when I ejected
the tray before I opened the recorder shell - I just had to blow the out.
What did got disturbed was the two orange pots?(don't know if that's what they are called) on the power supply board (in my picture)
Do you know what they actually do? Cause I have to reset them to their original positions

[XploRa1]

Ok thanks guys for all the info and help - thing is the rails are out, but the head is perfect (untouched), and VR101 & VR401 are out.
I'm calling it quits since I only really wanted to use the unit as a player (CD/DVD) and not recording since I have a Pace PVR setup already. btw. This unit playes Audio CDs very, very well (do not know how they managed it) but sounded just freaking wonderful with my Marantz AV amp and Wharfedale Diamond 10s (better than the NAD 5000 player I had) - just a pity it's dead now. I hear the new Pioneers are not as good as these units were and Marantz players are too expensive really as an option. Someone know if any of the new Pioneers players that would sound as nice as this one did (normal size)?

Thanks again.

[oftheair]

Pioneer DVR 433H will not load. The discs are ejected after a few cliks. I assume a dirty laser lens. A treatment with a cleaning disc did not help. How can I reach the laser unit? I see a box with code DVR - R09 -XP.

[pepegot1]

Make sure you exterminate the future ants-the root causeof your problem!!

[orsetto]

Pioneer DVR 433H will not load. The discs are ejected after a few cliks. I assume a dirty laser lens. A treatment with a cleaning disc did not help. How can I reach the laser unit? I see a box with code DVR - R09 -XP.

See my post above, specifically:

"The most efficient course of action might be to replace the DVD drive entirely: you can do this following the instructions posted here."

The Pioneer DVR-433 recorder is now ten years old: way, way beyond the usability lifespan expected by the manufacturer. Unlike some other brands, Pioneers of this era are not prone to dirty lasers becoming a problem, so cleaning rarely helps when the unit starts misbehaving. The odds that your problem is simply a "dirty lens" are practically zero: when this model series clicks several times and then spits the disc out, every single disc, the laser or other internal parts have worn out. (Perhaps if everyone in your household is a heavy cigarette smoker, and you all smoke in the vicinity of your 433, the smoke residue could accumulate enough to cloud the lens. But you would have experienced problems long before now if that were the case.)

I wouldn't recommend trying to repair a 433 at this late date. This model series is extremely sensitive to having either of its drives removed, often protesting that the copy protection code has broken and needs to be re-entered with the Service Remote and Service Disc (which may be difficult to obtain in Netherlands). For a truly effective repair, you would need a brand new Pioneer 109 replacement burner. These are no longer available, the few 109 burners that occasionally pop up on sites like eBay are too old now even if the seller says "mint condition." But if you feel you have nothing to lose, you could gamble on cleaning the laser lens by removing the burner and opening it. Removal-disassembly instructions are provided at the beginning of the same post linked above. (After Step 11, stop and turn the burner back to normal position (109 label facing you). Pull off the top cover to reach the laser lens and gently clean it. Then put everything back together and install the burner back into the recorder. If you're VERY lucky, it might work again.)