Things You'll Need:
- Air Duster
- Cleaning Disc
- Q-Tips
- Rubbing Alcohol
- Screw Driver
- 3 in 1 Oil
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Step 1
First you will want to start by, unplugging your DVD player from the wall and tv, and move it to a more suitable working environment, like a table or desk.
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Step 2
Examine the outside of the DVD player, around the vents for the cooling fans, and look for any excessive dust build up, if the vent area seems to have a small quilt of dust on it, it has been way to long since you cleaned! You dont want to blow this dust with the air duster, as it will spread back into the DVD player, however, if your dust build up is light, you can begin by blowing through the machine. If you open the drawer, on some models this will allow you to blow all the way through the DVD player.
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Step 3
Next, you can put your cleaning disc in and relax as it plays through, however, if you had the "Quilt 'O Dust" mentioned above, your dvd player is most likely still not playing correctly. If the cleaning disc played through, you can stop here, if you had the quilt of dust, you will need to do a bit more thorough of a cleaning, continue to the next step if this is your case, otherwise.. go watch a movie!
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Step 4
Ok, now for the fun part, and a crash course in electronics. We will now disassemble your dvd player for a good clean. First looks around the seams of the dvd player for the screw holes, and for security tape. (There should be a piece of tape on the dvd player that would break if the dvd player's case is opened, this will VOID YOUR WARRANTY, continue only if you could care less about your warranty or its expired) Now once you have made your decision to open it up anyways... remove the screws on the bottom side, so that you are removing only the outer casing of the DVD player. Now that you see all the insides of the dvd player, start removing the heavy dust collections around your vents by hand, after you have completed this, you can go over all of the insides with the air duster, just be sure not to tilt, shake, or hold the can upside down, the liquid nitrogen that comes out can damage your electronics and your skin!
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Step 5
Once you have the inside blown down, you can get your rubbing alcohol and a q-tip, dip your q-tip in the alcohol, and use this to wipe down the laser, you can also use the alcohol on the rails that the laser is guided on if there is dust here as well, do not use the alcohol on any of the circuits, or the boards they are on, just the laser, the rails it rides on, and if it has small belts on it, you can clean them and around them with the alcohol.
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Step 6
Once this is wiped down, and you have let it dry (wont take but a minute) get your 3-1 oil, and dip another qtip in it, and lightly brush some on the rails the laser rides on for a smoother move, this may even make your dvd player run a bit quieter, you can also use this on any gears you may see that are attached to belts. Make sure not to get any on or around the laser, or on any of the circuit boards, be very careful.
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Step 7
Once you have done all of this, you can begin to put your DVD player back together, once its together, you can run the cleaning disc, however, this probably isnt necessary, as you just cleaned the laser with alcohol. Your DVD player should now be restored to practically new!
Comments
JMOrganizations said
on 2/9/2008 Thank you for the good tips. Sounds like I might tackle this just to save money.
AshleyBerge said
on 2/2/2008 I think this is a great article and a very helpful one to. I have an old crappy dvd player which works fine but this may help prolong its useage:) thanks!
shahbasharat said
on 1/29/2008 nice tips. keep up the good work.
i have a portable DVD player was bought brand new..hardly used. now when i insert DVD seems like the disc is not moving...i get an error message saying 'please insert the disc', when it is in. will cleaning help?...but i am thinking why should it need cleaning when i hardly ever used it... it ran out of warranty too.
Dubtrizzle said
on 1/26/2008 Liquid nitrogen is harmful, i cant say i have proof it will harm electronics, but i personally assume it would, not to mention the side of the can will clearly give you very similar warnings as i did in my article. As for 3 in 1 oil, its an all purpose lubricant, mineral oil which was referenced in a comment, is definently not made for electronics, nor is it the same as 3 in 1 oil, hence why it wasn't mentioned in the above article
Eschatonic said
on 1/25/2008 3-in-1 mineral oil will actually attract dirt and is not suitable for little nylon gears etc found in a DVD mechanism. 3-in-1 do make a PTFE based lubricant in an aerosol package which works fine. Cheers.