I bought a player off eBay and it was dented and damaged in shipping. The top was dented in enough to keep both trays from opening. I'm an electronic genius but I'm fairly capable of figuring things out. I fixed all the dents and was able to get the trays to open. The DVD's nor the LD's will spin. I hear noises but nothing moves. Any help would be appreciated.

I'd recommend removing the outer case and taking a look inside at the mechanism when you try playing a disc.
Don't insert one of your most treasured LDs in case it gets scratched.

You could take some photos of what you see and post them.

If you are within the window for a return, that is the route I would have taken.
Because you attempted repair that option may be invalid.

I have returned several players in New York minutes due to damaged exteriors and doa related improper padding.

There are plenty of people that know how to ship working players so that they arrive ready to spin up.

Had one guy ship a player with an LD in the tray cause he thought it would stabilize the mechanism.
What logic ! ? !
Good thing it worked ok. NOT THE RIGHT THING TO DO FYI ! ! !

Unless you received compensation for the damage or a 100% refund, RETURN IT if possible ! ! !

I agree with Firehorse, DVLs go for high costs and if you didn't receive yours in described condition, I'd get in touch with the seller first thing.
It's a risky business shipping these players, very few people do it well.

I've received compensation. I just thought I'd try and figure out what is wrong with it and see if I could find the parts and maybe fix it.

top off and press "LD" play with no disc in the tray. You should see the pickup move forward to the disc detection position, the lens will move up to try to get a reflection and then it will move to the CD position to try to get a reflection. If this doesn't happen you have more serious issues. If your spindle motor is bad Pioneer quit supporting the DVL-700/90 spindle motor years ago.

It moved the laser and read no disk.

Yes and the weird thing is it plays vertically. It does not want to eject horizontally or play. But I turn it on it's side and its working.

sounds like maybe your spindle is out of alignment?
Kurtis probably can help you out.

Get it to the point you can put in a DVD and see if it can play that sitting down normally. If the unit can play a DVD or CD then the spindle centering is good.

Ok so it will close the drawer and then open it right back when I try a DVD. After a few times it finally started. It plays DVD and LD but not every time.

You do have some type of mechanical alignment issue if both the DVD and LD playback is working the same as you have two different pickups with separate controlling electronics having the same issue. Would have to see the unit or have pictures of the mechanical assembly with the unit open tray out to know more.

Played with it at lunch today. DVD played. CD played. LD would not. I did have to hit play 2 or 3 times for the DVD and cd to play. When nothing is in it it read no disc. ID







Pictures of the damage I fixed:

That one rail got pretty bent, might still be giving you clamping issues, I would put a level across the top of those rails to check them (if you didn't already)
the frame needs to be pretty spot on to make a good clamp I think.

Agree, take the rails off that hold the top clamp, and straighten all the tabs out to be straight and then straighten the frame. See what happens then.

Pulled the top frame and one tab was still bent a little. I straightened it and made sure the frame was straight as I could get it. LD's are still just ejecting. The DVD only took a second time to get it to load. I can hear a noise in the player before it starts to spin. Indecently if I turn the player on the right side it will play a LD.

One last observation. It had a blue light on the front that blinks while its trying to load. It also appears to be lower on the spindle when it comes right back out. It's almost as it the top spinner is not retracting enough with the LD's. I can see a difference between when it loads and spins and when it does not spin.

Sounds like you need to pony up some money to get that sucker working.
You did get a refund, either partial or full.

And the symptoms sound worse than just a bend here or tweek there.
Good luck with it, worth the risk to repair and have a nice LD player if you do chose to.

Since it loads on the side but not sitting down try sitting it down and while the assembly is coming up with your hand gently help the mechanical assembly raise up with a LD loaded. Thinking maybe the load process does not finish, it you do that and it plays LD's sitting down then maybe all you need is a new load belt. Also when it doesn't load do you hear a motor running until the ejects the disc back out? Also another signal that the load belt needs replacing.

Yes I did that actually. It does make noise but not appear to be moving anything. Where is the load belt located and how hard is it to change? Is this something you would do if I were to ship it to you? I assume you are the guy I saw mentioned in another thread. I'm in South Carolina.