Hi All, I got PX-W5224 with the fault as per the subject - Any ideas how to fix?
Here is what I did - I disassembled the driver, then removed the tray completely, put a disc inside and assembled the drive again without the tray and then it works perfectly the disc is recognized and it reads the disc without any problems, but obviously the big disadvantage of that "workaround" is that to change the disc I need to disassemble the whole drive again.
So, obviously most of the drive (like 99%) is fully functional.
That made me think it's simple mechanical misalignment, but for several hours I cannot find any mechanical reason - I even compared with my fully working PX-W4824, they have the exact same mechanical design. I really cannot understand it - as far as the tray is installed the motor that opens and closes it, starts to move and opens the tray - any attempt to close it even manually the motor starts spin immediately in the opposite direction and opens it. Really odd and of course the small switch that indicates if the tray is closed or open is working, because otherwise, my workaround with removing the tray will not work. So, apart from that switch I see nothing electronic that connects the tray with the board. Really everything points to something mechanical, but mechanics is the same with PX-W4824 and I see no difference with working PX-W4824 drive. I am repeating myself, but I am really baffled. I hope someone will be able to give me some idea what I am missing.... thanks!
[EDIT] it was on firmware version 1.03, updated it successfully to 1.04 in order to be compatible with DiscImageCreator and it works great there as well. So, it really looks like fully functional apart from the tray problem. I looked even more at the Tray issue, but I cannot find why it has such a fault. So, I already put the tray in a zip-bag to store it and for the time being when I really need to use PX-W5224 (e.g. SecuROM), then I will disassemble the drive and put that way the disc manually. Still, I hope someone here will give me some advice what to look to diagnose the tray problem....
[EDIT2] the only similar problem that i found searching the Internet was with Sony BD drive and it was broken cog on one of the gears. Tomorrow, I will inspect all of them this time with magnifying glass and compare with PX-W4824 gears. I am convinced it's mechanical issue, but I really cannot spot it, at least not yet...
[EDIT3] even my eyes are very tired, I couldn't wait till tomorrow and inspected the gears with magnifying glass - they are fine, no any missing cogs. However, I spotted what I called above "small switch" is actually potentiometer and under the magnifying glass I see grease from the gears went inside it. So, I wonder if that grease is conductive and lower its resistance (or something like that), because on PX-W4824 it measured 10KOhms, when the tray is removed, but on that PX-W5224 at the same position it's only 1.5KOhms. Maybe, that's the issue - grease went inside the potentiometer and messed-up its supposed resistance in each position - that makes a lot of sense, because it will explain why the tray motor is going the opposite direction - I guess it knows which direction to go based exactly on the resistance of that potentiometer. Unfortunately, cleaning it from the grease to test that hypothesis won't be easy - based on its location. Also, maybe the grease permanently damaged it and even cleaning it will not really help.
[EDIT4] I am kind of almost sure it's that potentiometer, cleaning it with IPA from the grease didn't help. So, the drive works properly at the potentiometer's two end positions, but not when it's in the middle position - then it spins the tray motor continuously in direction that opens the tray. Anyway, thanks to that finding, I found another "workaround", that doesn't require to open the drive to change the disc - power on the drive, trays opens, you cannot close it as such attempt puts the potentiometer in middle position, so just power down the computer, put disc in the tray, close it pushing with hand, use small pry tool to move the gears in position that moves the potentiometer to one of its end positions, power-on the computer, the tray doesn't open anymore, because the potentiometer is in the working position, the disc is recognized and you can use the drive. So, I am almost OK with this workaround, because it doesn't require to disassemble the drive, just power-up, power-down, power-up cycle of the computer, plus small pry tool to externally put the gears and the potentiometer in the right position, but I already mastered that and at the moments it's very easy for me to do it. At this point I guess, best help would be someone with properly working PX-W5224 to measure the value of that potentiometer, when the tray is removed and it's in middle position, but I doubt anyone will make such effort to measure it. Anyway, I will investigate more, if there are some other components in the potentiometer circuit - just to make sure it's not some other component that affects it the potentiometer work.