i am 99% sure you dont have another earth ground connected during testing.
IF the ground makes it run then touching the AV jacks shell to ground will work too.
what i found causing intermittent read issues (tracking errors) especially cold is binding in the laser sled due to dirt or dry grease.
that cap will be hard to identify, but if defective should be replaced.
I don't understand your comment about the earth ground. All I was saying that if I connect earth ground to board ground it seems to work correctly. If only the TV or AC adapter was connected to earth ground everything would be OK.
I'm pretty sure its not binding of the laser sled because it seems to run smoothly thoughout the full range if I turn the motor manually. Also attaching an earth ground would not affect a binding problem. How would I know if it was binding during operation?
I also have reflowed all the caps on the CD drive end of the board and gave the board a thorough cleaning and it is behaving exactly the same.
I was probing the electrolytic caps for noise and noticed a 200mV 120Hz signal on the two through-hole caps C136 and C163 near the BA chips. I'm not sure if this is normal or not.
thanks,
Joe