I purchased a Sony DVP-CX985V, 400 disc DVD changer, way back in 2004. It served me well for 4+ years. But just a few weeks ago it began having problems playing movies. I took the cover off and discovered that the problem was that the motor was unable to spin the disc. I was able to manually start it spinning and it would run fine for the night.

I knew it was not going to last though, so I started doing research and found the part I needed on Ebay. I purchased it for only $30 shipped, not bad I thought. if I can fix a $400 DVD changer for $30 bucks. But that was still a HUGE IF, LOL.

I took out the old "optical pick-up" and installed the new. All went well, until I tried to play a disc, it would spin up just fine, but it would not play the disc. I took the cover off and noticed that there was no red light being emitted by the lens like the original did. So I contacted the seller on Ebay, and to make a long story short he sent me a new one, no extra charge.


Well the new one arrives and once again I install it without a hitch. But to my horror I get the same results, not red light. I
recontacted the seller and he said no one else had complained about them, and that he was just selling them and did not know enough to help me.


Well I went on the hunt again for anything pertaining to my specific DVD player or any process for changing optical devices. I posted a thread at a TV repair forum, and got a response from someone asking if I had removed a soldered link from the lens? Well, I had no idea what he meant, so I went and did some more research. Turns out a lot of optical lenses ship with a some solder on the circuit board, to "lock" it to protect it during transit.

Under closer inspection I found what I had missed before. The new part had a good size dot of solder beside the optical hook up. I noticed that it went over 3 leads that went no where, while on the original one you could see where that had been solder, but had been separated. So I busted out my soldering iron and went to work. I was determined to fix it, or break it trying, LOL.

Once I removed the solder, well at least separated it. I re-installed the new part in the changer, started it up and SUCCESS. I was so happy, I had convinced myself that I had either messed something up during the repair, or that the new parts just weren't right. I was very relieved to have finally sorted this out and fixed it.


I must say, I have really liked my DVD changer ever sense I purchased it, but it is one of those things that you do not realize just how much, until it is gone.