I have a CLD-79 that I just acquired, works fine after its been on for 5-10 minutes but before it warms up it has picture distortion and faint flashing black areas? Do capacitors need to be replaced or what should I do to troubleshoot?

You're having good luck with players aren't you? Sounds like capacitors but if it is, good luck finding the culprit. Bulging caps are obviously bad, bud not every bad cap bulges.

Is it 5-10 minutes on, or 5-10 minutes spinning a disc when it gets better?

Is it black bars in coloured areas of the image as that's what I just had with my 2950. It didn't go away after 5-10 minutes but mine only affected the start of the discs and I just wonder if you are experiencing something similar. Anyway long story short I tired everything and it turned out to be a dirty laser lens. Something simple to try I used a few cotton buds and gave the lens a good going over. Another thing that helped me was to increase the rf gain slightly but I would start with cleaning the lens.

Replace the capacitors in the power supply

Thanks for the replies guys. If I just turn it on with no activity for 5 min before playing a disc everything starts normally.

I hurt my shoulder on Sat so I have not had much of a chance to mess with it, I will pop the cover soon and see if this is something I can tackle. All I would need to do is order identical capacitors and de-solder the old / solder the new? Probably all depend on how difficult that board is to access, might be over my head.

Question - are power supplies interchangeable? I have a CLD-M301 that can be a parts doner, can I just swap something out?

As far as getting lucky with players I just picked up a DVL-90 locally, that one works perfectly though and I seem to prefer the picture from that over the CLD-79 (kind of hard to judge though as I dont have a 79 remote so no way to adjust the DVNR which could be off).

Also thanks especially to Kurtis, just based on your posts I have repaired 3 players on my own. Just knowing that there is an expert willing to answer questions gives me the courage to tackle some of this stuff that would normally be very intimidating. I went from just starting out to having multiple players with multiple backups and the knowledge to maintain them in a short period of time, believe me it is appreciated.

Not interchangeable with that model. CLD-D704, CLD-99, and CLD-79 have the same supply. The CLD-D503 and CLD-D703 have older revisions of the supply.

Ok I opened up, I am guessing this isn't normal and this is what you are talking about? This is power supply.

Yikes!
Get those out now before they catch fire.

that looks like glue, I've seen that on PCBs with caps, for some reason, possibly warranty they would put glue so
people didn't mess with the insides.

anyway don't know what the real issue is.
Good luck.

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Ok I got the power supply out and I count -

1 - 200v 390uf
1- 10v 470uf
1 - 50v 100uf
1 - 16v 10uf
3 - 10v 100uf
2 - 50v 10uf
1 - 10v 1000uf
1 - 10v 3300uf
2 - 25v 2200uf
1 - 100v 1uf
1 - 50v 47uf

Should I replace all these? There is glue on just the two, none look physically damaged, buldging, or leaking though there is a faint odor coming from power supply when powered on? Should I buy exact matches or something different? They have capacitors packs on Amazon, will those work? Are both V and uf values crucial?

I also broke the plastic ribbon connectors any idea where I can buy those or should I just solder ribbon cables right to the board?

Thanks in advance.

It's OK to go up in voltage rating if you have (or want) to, but keep the capacitance (uf) the same. I would suggest ordering the exact ones you need from digikey or mouser. I've had good luck with Nichicon PW series capacitors.

Higher voltage & temperature ratings are almost always better -- they improve durability, but you have to make sure you don't buy a cap which is too big for the physical space available.

Are there any other things I should recap while I'm in here or just the power supply?

Just start with the power supply. It's completely removable on the 79 right? That makes things much easier.

Bad caps won't always show signs of bulging or leakage. Just replace them all in the power supply section first and if problems persist the rest of the board.

So I got all of the caps swapped out put the power supply back in and got a puff of smoke very briefly from power supply. The picture issue is gone, everything works perfectly except the front display does not light up? Everything functions including the front buttons just no display? Possible I burned out a bulb or something? Is the smoke anything to worry about as long as everything is fine now?

That "puff of smoke" was the HV supply (100 volts? low current) to the fluorescent display blowing up. Open it back up & replace whatever you destroyed.

Is it OK to run like this if I don't feel like messing around with it?

I'd say no. There's a possibility that it could be, but that's not the way to bet. For instance, an exploded capacitor may have spread caustic goo all over the inside of your player...

It was not a capacitor exploding, I had the cover off when I first powered it on to test. See attached image, that is where the smoke came from (not sure if it is that exact part or just that area). I ran it all day yesterday without issue, I would like to fix the new problem unless it is complicated as obviously I am not the most capable repair guy -