dead refurbished CD-ROM2 drive.

[Issun]

I recently sold a CD-ROM2 drive that either 'thesteve' or 'Keith Courage' refurbished for me a few years ago. New laser, new gears etc. When the buyer got the package he claimed it didn't work, so I told him he could have his money back if he returned it.

When I got the package, I notice the the ground wire to the bottom plate was slightly sticking out above the DC jack. I opened the unit to make sure it 'really' was the unit I'd sold him, as I've been burned before. The ground strip that goes to the laser ribbon cable was loose as well. The gears seemed okay, there's a black two wheel setup with a cable between them and I think 'Keith' did it this way so decided to return the buyer's money.

My thought is that the post company dropped the package or something, the ground wires came loose and something shorted when the unit was turned on. I tried to make a claim at the post office, they did a brief investigation but decided that they hadn't done anything wrong.

Anyway, the laser and motor is totally dead, won't move at all. When the 'Run' button is pressed, the  'Wait...' message is displayed and 'PC' is lit up on the player but nothing else happens.

Any ideas?

[Necromancer]

Send it to steve for repairs.  If it's repairable, he'll figure it out.

[Keith Courage]

I have never used any Black gears before in any of my repairs. so someone else must have set up the gears that way. I used to use a two gear set up in the past before 3 gear setup was available but they were white.

Have you tried spinning the lens motor after hitting the play button to see if maybe they are getting power but things just aren't moving along as freely as they should?

Sometimes that older 2 gear setup can get stuck if things are not lined up perfectly.

Might also be good to switch it back to the 3 gear setup now that original replacement gears are being made.  if you can get the lens motor spin after hitting play on the CD drive and pushing it with your finger then this would most likely take care of the problem.

One last thing, if that grounding strip was loose it could have been touching parts of the motherboard causing shorts. I've seen this happen many times. That grounding strip is not really needed at all and you can remove it along with the black wire that's going to the motherboard without any ill effects.

[Issun]

That's strange, I wonder if 'thesteve' ever used a black two gear setup? Can't remember who did the work on this one.
   
Anyway, I opened it up again today and found that the ground 'tape' attached to the laser ribbon cable was loose again, I reattached it with the help of some tape. When I powered on I got some action when I pressed 'play'. The disc spun a few centimetres and the laser moved all the way in towards the centre. But that was it, if I pressed 'stop' and the 'play' again it did it again but nothing more. I opened the unit up again and noticed that the thinner ribbon was missing the tape that holds it in place and the cable itself was floating and obstructing the laser mechanism. So I put it in place and it works like a charm now!
 
Thanks for the help and tips. I might consider changing the gear setup in the future.