I have been looking all over the internet for any help with my Pioneer DVL-700 and I came across this forum. Finally, a place with an active LaserDisc community!

I got the player from ebay about a week ago advertised as broken; when it arrived I found it actually mostly worked!
It went downhill fast, but hope it it just needs the gears and switches to be reset for it to work again. Or, maybe this behavior is related to a faulty capacitor or two?

When I got it, the DVD part would not respond but it would play laserdiscs and auto "gamma" flip would work fine. The timeline of faults:
1. The player froze when it was ejecting a laser disc.
2. The laser disc eye (there are two on this player) would only respond at power up. I could see it physically move back and forth on the rail and it would focus.
3. As it is now, the only signs of life are an amber message that can say everything from Open, Stop, Play. The Laserdisc button no longer activates the tray. The fan for the DVD underside PCB board still activates. Video (composite) output is not working (just a quick flash on my TV).

I downloaded the service manual for the DVL-700, but it is not much help. I did not get a remote with this player.

I can move the laser eye on the track by using the spindle (as the service manual tells me). I can also spin the tray gear to open the tray manually. I removed the main tray at one point to get a better look at things, and put it back. I have not disassembled anything further or reseated any of the ribbon cables. The gears all look okay.

Any help is appreciated! I feel like I killed my player.

You may have to replace the cables going from the turn assembly to the circuit boards, may have to replace the DVD pickup.

You'll have much more invested in this players verses buying a working one. I believe I have a working DVL-909 if interested with remote and anything I sell is guaranteed to work. $250 + shipping. Email me at kbahr@comast.net if interested.

Well, I have seen single non-flip players on ebay for as little as $50-$60 dollars shipped, if this one is toast I would just do that. I have plenty of DVD players around the house.

I am still hoping for some tech support with this player since it was working mostly. It is very clean inside and I have hope that the LD portion should still be okay after some tweaking or cap replacement. I have not even reseated the ribbon cables yet (I fear they are very fragile)!

This is tech support, this is not just a cap replacement or something like that. When I have ran into this the cables are one of the first things to look at. Take off the back cover that covers the mechanism. Look at the excess cable in the turn mechanism and try moving it a little. When the mechanism is in the up position there are a couple smaller gears at the back, turn them to start the flip the mechanism and then turn it back and see if it responds. There is a side turn switch at the back that could be intermittent, I have seen that. But I still feel that since the DVD didn't orinigally bad you are going to find cable issues.

I reseated the cables on the power board, and the upper most logic board (which I assume controls the laser disc). No luck. As you suggest, I will remove the rear cover for the flip mechanism and reseat those cables too.

I find it very odd that there is no laser or tray activity any more. I removed and reinstalled the power board but I did not see anything like a cold solder joint or a burned component. I do see a lot of surface mounted caps on the logic boards, and I know those fail all the time (but I did not see any leaks).

Now you have to get a volt meter and start checking voltages everywhere using the service manual to find the measurement points. Then check the smaller cable coming out the lower side of the turn mechanism to make sure it reads properly for the switches, then you have to check the ribbon cables for the two switches on the side of the turn mechanism, then there are two switches along the bottom for LD or CD position as the pickup moves toward the spindle motor.