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 Post subject: VP-1000 intermittent button failure
PostPosted: 14 Aug 2020, 14:44 
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Hello! I'm very new to this forum and LaserDiscs in general.

I recently acquired a VP-1000 (I know, ancient) as well as a dozen or so LDs. I hooked it up to my TV and plugged it in, switched the power on and 2 green lights for CAV and CLD lit up. When I pressed the button to open the lid, nothing happened. I waited a bit, tried it again, and it popped open. I threw in a LD to test it out (one I wasnt worried about getting trapped in there) and it played!

I pressed "pause" to test the other features and nothing happened, the movie kept playing. I tried to eject the disc, again, nothing happened. After a while I pressed the button to open the lid, and the disc slowed down, stopped, and the lid popped open. That was it for the night so I left it alone.

The next day I felt adventurous and wanted to try Star Wars, the lid opened up instantly this time. I put the disc in, then hit play. nothing happened. I tried again a few minutes later and it played. I pressed "pause" and it worked. Then I tried to open it up and no response.

I'm at a loss as to what could be causing this. It doesnt seem to be time related or anything physically wrong with the buttons (I tried pressing them from each side, each corner, and the center) and it happens with more than one button. They eventually work, but it could literally be 10's of minutes before they do, or it could be seconds.

One last piece of info. I ran into another person on another forum that said they had the same issue with their VP-1000 but didnt know why it was happening either.

I appreciate any and all comments. Any ideas?
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 Post subject: Re: VP-1000 intermittent button failure
PostPosted: 14 Aug 2020, 16:02 
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These are older than dirt and I know Grasshopper couldn't fix these.
Only a very small handful.

Blam may chime in to help if he can.

My guess is that its dirty contacts or you need some contact cleaner.
Non playing sounds like it could be slipping?? Wonder if there are any rubber pieces that could have disintegrated
over time?

Good luck.
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 Post subject: Re: VP-1000 intermittent button failure
PostPosted: 14 Aug 2020, 19:17 
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rein-o wrote:
These are older than dirt and I know Grasshopper couldn't fix these.
Only a very small handful.

Blam may chime in to help if he can.

My guess is that its dirty contacts or you need some contact cleaner.
Non playing sounds like it could be slipping?? Wonder if there are any rubber pieces that could have disintegrated
over time?

Good luck.


Thank you. I've ordered some contact cleaner, I was a bit nervous about flipping it over. As it is, it "works" and I didn't want to mess up any thing.

When I turn the power on, I get those 2 green lights and standby blinks once. I can hear a noise (see EDIT #2) and it's consistent.

I don't think it's a belt because I don't hear anything when I press a button. Once in a while, the button will work, the disc spins up fine and the movie plays. No skipping, it'll play for at least 30min (Just haven't tested longer than that) with no issues (other than the buttons not working most of the time).

EDIT: I've actually paid more attention now. With a disc in there, when I power it on the disc moves a tiny bit (VERY small rotation about 1deg)), when i power it off it spins noticeably (maybe 90deg? Clockwise).

EDIT #2: well I kept playing with it and heard a loud clunking sound after power cycling a bunch of times so I figured that was permission for me to flip it over and open it up. I have more to report. Looking at it with the bottom cover off, turning the power on turns on the laser and moves the arm to the right (left if looking at it upside down as I was) about 0.5" then it stops. If I cycle the power again, it will keep doing that. I did it enough times and it eventually hit a hard stop and tried to keep moving (solved what that clunking sound was). I turned it off and GENTLY pushed the arm back to the left (right when im looking at it upside down). I was able to get the lid to open (I had it resting on two pillows upside down), but not consistently. I noticed there is a switch on the arm and a ramp of plastic that triggers it when its a certain distance, but I havent tested anything yet.

EDIT #3: I ended up flipping it back over and playing a disc (eventually), so its still functional. I now know where the solenoid is that triggers the lid so I'm no longer worried about getting a disc trapped in there. I previously tested the VHF Out, this time I tested the Monitor Out (with RCA cables and an adapter), it worked. The button issues still persists. I was hoping to see something obviously wrong when I opened it up, but nothing jumped out. There were so many capacitors in there and the space was so confined, boards stacked on top of boards, about 10 adjustment screws for the laser, etc... I didnt want to mess with too much. I wonder if I could program a universal remote to it and see if that works??? Someone's selling a remote for it on ebay for and I'd buy it if I was 100% it'd solve the problem, but I'm not.
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 Post subject: Re: VP-1000 intermittent button failure
PostPosted: 16 Aug 2020, 12:01 
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When you notice that the buttons don’t work, is the red light on the front of the player on? I have had issues where the last button pressed sticks (like PLAY) and no other buttons will work. Try pressing the last button a couple of times to see if you can get it to free up. The light on the front should light whenever a button is pressed. If it remains on, that’s your issue. If this is the case, the buttons themselves are sealed So contact cleaner won’t help, but the plastics could be binding. Disassembly will be required to clean them. If the buttons are bad, that’s a bigger project.

You can use a remote for all functions (except reject/open). If the buttons On the player are sticking, the remote will behave the same until the offending button is freed.
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 Post subject: Re: VP-1000 intermittent button failure
PostPosted: 16 Aug 2020, 16:01 
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blam1 wrote:
When you notice that the buttons don’t work, is the red light on the front of the player on? I have had issues where the last button pressed sticks (like PLAY) and no other buttons will work. Try pressing the last button a couple of times to see if you can get it to free up. The light on the front should light whenever a button is pressed. If it remains on, that’s your issue. If this is the case, the buttons themselves are sealed So contact cleaner won’t help, but the plastics could be binding. Disassembly will be required to clean them. If the buttons are bad, that’s a bigger project.

You can use a remote for all functions (except reject/open). If the buttons On the player are sticking, the remote will behave the same until the offending button is freed.


I dont think its the buttons they have very small movement and dont "seem" to be sticking. Its also happening on all controls which would be highly coincidnetal. The red light I see flashing is the "standby" light up top next the to the CAV and CLV lights. I'm not sure if thats the light that flashes when a remote control is used. I wonder if IR codes for that exist online? I doubt its a very common thing to program into a modern universal remote. I can only hope Pioneer kept the same settings for their LD players as time went on.

I video will speak loads, I'm going to work on posting one.
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