Panasonic DMR-HS2 won't recover

While the hard drive on my HS2 has been working fine for 4 years now the laser side has become steadily more fussy about recording. Stopped writing to DVD-R (crashes on dubbing) then stopped playing DVDs. OK with RAM discs for a while until today when it crashed trying to erase a track and was unable to recover after about 15 attempts. Consequently the disc is well and truely stuck in there. If I could get it out I know the unit would then recover. Then I would at least be able to use the hard disc. I've taken the cover off but can't find an obvious way of manually removing the disc. Does anyone know how to manually remove them? I could then buy a straight DVD recorder to back my edited stuff from the hard drive onto. (I did use a lens cleaner during the laser's decline) Thanks dinsdale

1) Many people don't call them PanaCHRONIC for nothing.
2) Many people STILL scoff at the other people who only use their DVD Recorders to RECORD and not play anything and everything "disc-shaped" in the house....other people like me and my antique Philips DVDR985 that has virtually NEVER played a DVD in it's life and it still kicking(VERY rare for an old Philips).
3) Most players and recorders have a built in "escape hatch" so to speak...a button that ejects the disc. Check the manual. What you are looking for is a small hole under the unit that you can possibly activate with a straightened out paper clip or something like that.

From the Service Manual

Thanks for the prompt info. Hech54's right. I am going to reserve my next recorder for recording only. Would the best route be a machine that records all formats inc RAM discs? Is it possible to dub a prepared list of tracks on the hard drive in the same way as before onto any RAM recorder or does it have to be Panasonic? There's no DV out. Does the optical link allow the transfer of a list of tracks from the hard drive to a DVD RAM in another recorder? Laserman - thanks for the diagram. I could get the top case off but I couldn't see how to completely release the front. There are clips underneath but there must be something else holding the front from inside. I don't have your comprehensive service manual. Maybe I'd be wise to take it to my local repairer!

Just the 3 connectors then the 5 tabs. Be gentle with the tabs though, they are easily broken.
Its easy enough, just take your time. A repair chap will certainly lighten your wallet, and there`s no telling if it will happen again. Get some practice in now, and save some money.

Thanks for instructions - I'll let you know how I get on...........

Do I need the eject pin? What will do instead? Used a very small screwdriver but couldn't locate anything to turn. How far in is it?

A jewelers screwdriver or large straightened paperclip would suffice. No turning involved, the end of the pin simply pushes against a tooth of the gear. Each push will rotate the gear around, albeit slowly. You will need to push in and out (gently) many times for the tray to make its way out.

I'm assuming the gear I'm trying to turn is parallel to the DVD in there. If so which way does it turn - clock or anti clock. I can't picture how simply pushing in & out of the hole against whatever's in there will make it turn. Isn't it a flicking sort of movement one way or the other once a tooth is located?

Done it! I was able to view the gear through a gap in the casing. Disc out & unit now recovers. However, in the process of taking it apart the screen is displaying some extra small vertical white lines. All works now (HDD) although strangely it won't accept videoplus numbers more than 3 digits long. Just have to enter those programmes manually I suppose. Thanks again for all the advice.

Looking from the top front, the gear will turn clockwise. Push the pin in until you feel some resisitance, the end of your pin should be in contact with one tooth of the gear. Press a little harder and that tooth will be pushed back, rotating the gear by 1 tooth. Now the next tooth has moved round, so by removing the pin a little and pressing back in, the tool will be located on the next gear tooth. Very difficult to explain and the only analogy I can think of is an overshot waterwheel. Imagine the pin is the water, pushing the buckets back sequentially.

Hi,

I'm not seeing the slot to insert the pin. Am I supposed to remove the LCD display unit first? If so, how do I disconnect it?
Here is a pic of what I'm seeing:

Cheers
Pete

(PS, Thanks Baldrick)

Here's a link to the free service manual download

http://www.eserviceinfo.com/index.php?what=search2&searchstring=DMR-HS2EB

Well, frustration got the better of me.
I googled every link I could find and found countless "Tips n Tricks" offering key combo's to get the stinkin' disk out but none of them worked.
Finally I threw caution to the wind and started pulling it to bits. And, no, I'm not an electronics technician but it wasn't as bad as I've been led to understand. The trickiest parts were fitting the ribbon connectors back together.
After removing the drive unit I was able to see the pin slot. Poking in the slot with an appropriate pin didn't eject the tray as expected but simply lowered it away from the motor (I presume) enough for the disk to come loose. I then tipped the unit up and the disk slid out.
Reassembled it all and powered it up and it went through recovery and then all was sweet!
The most annoying thing about this experience was that it was a Panasonic RAM Disk. All I'd done was put it in my lappy and read the files though Win Explorer, eject it, put it back in the DMR and all of a sudden it was no good.
My lappy drive is supposed to read/write DVD-RAM but it obviously writes something to the disk as soon as it's read and renders it useless to the DMR.

Live n learn huh?