The mystery of my damaged duo! -- Mystery Solved!

[Ninja Spirit]

Looks like I may not have to look for one at all.

All I had to do was move the CD laser back and forth on its track and took the edge of my shirt and wiped the laser.

[ShadowStitch]

that's pretty awesome...congrats!

[chop5]

cool,congrats. So the piece can get warped over time? I thought the piece was custom shaped for each unit or something like that,units with the same production date. Cause when i did a transplant of the lens cover i got the same problem. And the duo i took the cover off also isnt working. I wonder if i plug the sucker in with the lens cover off if it will work,hmmm




update: turned it on with no success,must be the mechanism on mine. My search for a hop-m3 with mechanism continues.

[ShadowStitch]

Yeah, this is how I did it:

If you look under the lid of the CD-rom tray cover, there's a circular bit (the part that spins freely and connects with the spindle when the lid is shut) that is held in place by a larger ring. This whole assembly comes off, if you look for one little phlange around the outer edge...sort of like opening a medicine bottle. just push that one little bit and turn the whole ring, and it will pop off, then you've got the spindle cover in hand.

Then take the top of the duo off completely, so you're looking at the laser unit itself. Carefully plug up the AC, AV, and a controller, put a disc on the laser spindle, and place the spindle cover on top of that (It will magnetically stick to the spindle). Then you can hold down the little pressure switch with your finger and start up the duo. From there you can watch what the laser does while it's loading.

See, you have to have the spindle connector from the top of the lid, or else the disc will not stay down and just spin madly out of control. But with the spindle cover holding the disc down, you can approximate what it is doing inside the system when it's all closed up and you can't see it.

If you see the spindle spinning but not touching the disc...try taking off the plastic laser housing. If it works fine at that point, then it's a housing problem. I haven't quite figured out yet how to adjust the housing so it interferes with neither the laser or the disc, so for the moment it is being stored in my parts box, and the duo seems no worse for wear without it.

Maybe by next year I'll figure it out.