Hello,
as I'm new to this forum, I'm not new to the LD-Community at all... I'm into LDs for almost 35 years now - just re-ignited my love for vintage players and formats.

So I got a used DVL-700 for free (just paid for the shipping) with the comment, that the tray won't open. (Thought I could change the belt and be done with a little grease here and there...)

When I plug it in, it comes alive but it goes click-clack-click-clack and the display changes from open to close until it stops a few seconds later - the same when I press "open" or "on/off".

I popped the hood and tried different things but I can't get the Laser-assembly to drop down to free the tray for ejecting. I manually turned the flipping-mechanism and got the LD-laser to move on the rail... so now it does its alignment protocol but the spindle/motor stays in playing-position and I can't get it to disengage and drop down, to free the tray for ejecting, so I can examine the gears below the tray. The whole mechanism seems to be stuck. I also tried to get the front panel of, but it's blocked by the bezel of the tray and can't be taken off.

Anyone got a hint, where to start here or oh to get the tray out?

Sometimes the units were not shut down properly or were bounced too hard during shipment. When this happens the arm that signals the mechanism position jumps out of place. Unplug the unit and then the best way to fix this is to take the metal bar held by 4 screws off the back of the tray so there will now be an opening. Then you can find the best position you can grab the back of side of the tray and then force it out which takes a lot of force!! Once out make sure the tab sticking up on the slide tab at the front on top of the large rotating gear did not break off. With the tray out power on the unit and hopefully it will then cycle to the down and position. Push the front slide tab to the right to initiate a load sequence and then press open LD tray for the unit to open in LD mode. Then reinstall the tray. Hopefully this works for you.

Thanks a lot for the answer.

By turning the laser right up to the spindle-motor and raising the laser-carrier to the top I was able to eject the dvd-drawer. Turning the pulley-wheel for a while managed to drop the whole laser-assembly and freed the trays. After powering the unit up and pushing some buttons the player retracted the dvd-tray and ejected the LD-tray... after pulling the plug I was able to take the tray out and can now look inside the mechanics...

Everything seems to be (mechanically) fine.. butI think I got this problem shown here now...

If you take the front off you'll see under the big gear at the front wires going to the three micro switches and one of those supplies the signal when the mechanical assembly has reached play position. I'm guessing that one or the fully open switch may have issues. It also could be the signals not getting to the mechanism control microcomputer IC101 correctly. Make sure all your wires are completely plugged in on the switches and on the main board. This same mechanism control microcomputer also receives the signals of where the lasers are at (TURNA/TURNB). The V+5S power line provides the power for all these switches and the signal level makes a difference.

Thanks again, I will try this next...

Hmm... got the frontplate off without problems and checked the switches and cables... nothing obvious here, though.

Are the microswitches the brown ones on the left?



can't really see to good down under the mechanics...

There are some arms that press the switch pin in which you could watch when trying to operate. Yes those are the switches.

Got the whole Laser array out of the Player and checked all the wiring everything is fine.

I then took the geartrain on the lefthandside of the player apart and found a broken pin on one of the levers to push one of the microswitches…

Fixed the Pin (glued and fortified with a steel axle inside) and got the thing back together… same problem…

Gears seam to get stuck as soon as the laser array comes up and the white wheel on the right side interacts with the big black wheel…

Perhaps there is a special way to put in the gears? Didn't find anything about that in the service manual…

There are specific groves on the bottom side of the gear to control those arms. So either you didn’t get the arms in the correct grove or you have issues on the main board reading the switches. I agree there is no instructions how to reassemble the gear and arms.

I checked the repaired pin if it would ride in the correct grove (even filed down some of the hard edges, to make it go smoother...) but I didn't check the other pin... I think the little tip that rides inside the grove might have sheared off as well... have to fix that next. After that it's back to the gears.

(The instructions show the big black "cam gear" wheel with the distinctive grove for the "cam plate" to the left side (mine was installed to the right side)... might try this position next... Come to think of it... There's a position on the cam gear, that has no teeth on the outer edge, I think this position must meet the forward "twin gear" wheel when the "Servo Mechanism" tilts up engaging the "tilt cam" wheel to the cam gear to prevent the mechanism getting stuck in that position.


Found this awesome video on how the mechanics of the Pioneer-Player work together:

So... I cut off the other broken Pin and made a new one from a piece of scrap plastic... fixed it with a steel axle to the lever (as with the other one) greased everything down and installed the gears as shown in the video... and... the player lives again!!!

Mechanically everything works perfect now. It plays CDs, DVDs, CDs, changes Lasers and the sides of the LDs with no problem at all... I'll hook it up to a TV and check out Picture and Sound quality. Fingers crossed there's no further tweaking necessary.

(But the Video-Service Guide Video does cover this as well.)

Thanks again for all the help here in the forum.