Hi everyone,

I have this Pioneer LD player that shows this error code, H2 -( 5V power supply line abnormality)which is I understand to do with the power supply, has anyone tackled this issue before? Basically it has power, flashes briefly with display when you ask it to come on, green lights show and then enters standby mode.

I am no expert with fixing technical matters like this, should I put the matter in the hands of my local hi fi shop who still offer a repair facility on Laser Disc players, or is this a simple fix?

Please help.

Thank you.

I haven't come across that error before. Given the age of the player, it's most likely a bad capacitor in the power supply or possibly one shorting somewhere else on the board. Unless you are comfortable with a soldering iron, I'd sub-contract that particular task.

I also have this model with the exact same fault. Haven't had time to inspect the power supply but will eventually at a later time when I got the time and resource.
Hope you will get it fixed!

Many thanks for the advice, I will get the local dealer to have a look at the player and hopefully solve the issue, I wanted an opinion if the issue was worth tackling but it sounds like it may need an experts attention.

Thanks

Keep us updated on the thread if they can make something out of the player.

I don't agree. I think this is an ideal candidate problem for a non-expert. There is a very good chance it's just one or a few aged capacitors on the power supply board.

Open it up, find the power board and look at each electrolytic capacitor in turn. If the foil cap is bulging, or the rubber bottom cap is pushing out, replace it with another of the same capacitance and equal or higher voltage rating.

This is easy enough. You need a soldering iron, a solder sucker, some electronics solder and the new capacitors. Youtube is full of videos showing basic soldering like this. Just put the new capacitors in the right way round and have a bit of a practice first.

A repair shop will charge you absurd sums for this. By the way, there is no need for the repair place to advertise LaserDisc repair capability. Any back-street place would take it on - a power supply problem is a power supply problem, not some obscure LD-related mystery.

My CLD-D925 just had the same problem - H2 error when it was cold and shutting off immediately after power up. When getting warmer, it managed to stay on. Turned out the C208 (1000uF/10V) was dying and drawing the -5V down to -2.5...-3.5V (temperature dependent). No visible problem with this capacitor, but with heat gun and ice spray the problem could be quickly tracked down to the C208. After substituting C208 with a new 1000uF everything works fine again, power at -5.1V as it should.

Nice to hear about this. I have a similar error with my player and I might check out this capacitor!

That's great news. I'm glad my guess re the OP's H2 problem may well have been right!

Just for the improvement of all of us, could you add a few details about how you used the heat gun and ice spray to identify the culprit capacitor?

Although my 925 was fully working when I recapped the power supply a few months back. I noted that c208 which should be 1000uf was reading around 600uf. Which is obviously out of spec. Perhaps this cap is due to fail in all 925's? All caps were replaced with high quality Panasonics as a matter of course.

I saw that the H2 error occured mostly when switching the player on from cold state. After some time, the player started working again. That was correlated to the -5V supply being between -2.5V (cold) and -3.5V (warm). The -3.5V are obviously enough to make the player working, although it should be -5V. So I warmed the power supply board up, turned the player on and measured the -5V power while cooling certain areas of the power supply board down with ice spray. When targeting the right component, I could see the voltage dropping down to -2.5V instanteneously. Warming it up brought it immediately back to -3.5V. After a few iterations, it was clear which capacitor was the culprit. After substituting it, I got a clean -5V again.

Just want to add my CLD-D590 had the same issue. H2 when cold. I found the C208 which looked fine but I replaced it anyway. FIXED! Out of interest in my player it was a 470uF

I just joined today to say the above and thanks to all those helping to keep the LD players going!

Did you happen to see voltage on that cap.
I don't have this issue but for others please make sure you get voltage correct.

Its been a while but you must have the correct uF and you can't go lower than the voltage from the correct one otherwise it will
blow.

But this is at your own risk.
When I was fixing games I remember the voltage on a cap was higher and my cap guy said it would be OK but you don't want to go lower.
Or that's what I remember, been over 20 years now.

If you're not sure then it's best to stick to the same uf when changing caps. You can increase the uf of the filter caps a bit if you want, it wont hurt. When I pulled c203 from the 925 psu it was reading 2200uf instead of 1800uf. I just replaced it with a 2200uf. Its within the original caps 20% tolerance anyway.

You can increase voltage no problem. Just don't go lower than the rated value. Sometimes higher voltage caps have better specs in terms of ripple current and esr etc compared to the lower voltage rated cap. So it may be worth going up in places. Just don't go too high because the higher the voltage the bigger the cap. Limited space on the circuit boards will minimize the amount of choice you have anyway.

Hello.

I have 5 boards with the same issue.
After a full recap on one board the H2 error re appeared soon after.

The CLD-D515 Blew at least one up. I heard a pop form one of the boards ( unrepaired, original). And a second and then on the third I stood over the player and when it got to the same location on the disk ( I believe), pop, and it was gone too.

No visible burns, tested all the diodes, transistors, recapped with Rubycon, and two other with larger sized caps and different brand and still I get H2 ERROR.

I am sure it was a common fault with a simple part solution.

The board is now in one of the CLD-S310 players to avoid any potential issue that might exist on the 515 machine.