# DVD player repair question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163 "2003-03-09T23:05:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/1 "2003-03-09T23:05:03Z")
We have a Panasonic RV31 dvd player…worked perfectly fine. When my wife went to take the dvd out of the payer this afternoon (pressing the OPEN button on the unit). nothing happened. The unit says “OPEN” on the display…but nothing happens…no noises…nothing. Same with all of the other buttons, they display a message on the unit, but no actual action. We turned off the unit…turned it on…unplugged it…etc…same thing. Any suggestions before trying to get a repair estimate? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/2 "2003-03-09T23:08:47Z")
You didn’t say how long you unplugged it for, but if it was only for a few seconds, that might not have been long enough. Leave it unplugged overnight and try it again. If that doesn’t do anything, there’s nothing for it but to take it to a repair shop. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/3 "2003-03-09T23:49:29Z")
Yep. A minute or more unplugged should be the first thing. I do that sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Oy\_Vey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dbc845/32.png) [@Oy\_Vey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy_Vey)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/4 "2003-03-10T00:52:58Z")
A similar thing happened with our Toshiba a month out of warranty… we twisted arms to get it replaced, but had to jump through hoops first. Essentially we were required to leave it at an authorized repair shop for a month even though there was no chance in hell they’d actually get the part to do so. After that, we were required to send it in to their service depot and waited a few weeks whie they shipped us a refurb’d unit (which, incidentally is still running fine after a year). ---
**Author:** ![Oy\_Vey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dbc845/32.png) [@Oy\_Vey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy_Vey)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/5 "2003-03-10T00:54:04Z")
The moral of the above story - go ahead and buy the replacement plan at Best Buy next time. ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/6 "2003-03-10T01:05:36Z")
According to the reviews on the model at [amazon.com](http://amazon.com), this is a fairly common problem for this dvd player (no link, as I can’t get the page up without my customer id). Apparently, annecdotal evidence supports hitting the top of the unit. -lv ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/7 "2003-03-10T01:33:35Z")
Actually Q.E.D nailed it. I had unplugged it for a few seconds before…with no success. I left it unplugged for a couple of hours today per Q.E.D’s idea…and voila! Thanks for the suggestion…I guess unplugging it for awhile causes some sort of “reset” or something? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/8 "2003-03-10T01:36:51Z")
Pretty much. Modern electronics are heavily dependant upon little computers inside them, and sometimes, just like your desktop PC, they can get some funky data in memory that can cause erratic behavior. Unplugging the device essentially clears out the memory and starts everything fresh, kind of like rebooting your computer. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/9 "2003-03-10T01:58:28Z")
Following LordVor’s suggestion…I looked this up on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005AR4L/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/103-5364374-0451025?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846&vi=customer-reviews) Now I’m really pissed. When i was shopping for dvd players, I did my homework…and this model was one of the better ranked ones. Apparently after a year or so of use, a large percentage of the units have a “H02” problem. Where the unit essentially freezes. There are dozens of comments about this at amazon. There is a reset sequence (Hold the RESET, OPEN, PAUSE buttons together until “INITIALIZE” appears on the screen…then power off and on). But even that doesn’t work for many. There are suggestions ranging from smacking the thing, to taking the case off and manually engaging the gears on the dvd drive. Apparently I have a lemon-in-waiting. Apparently Panasonic seems to have gotten lots of phone calls about this…but no help or recall, just $45 diagnostic fee…$90 labor fee and shipping charges to us suckers. I won’t be buying another Panasonic. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/10 "2003-03-10T16:16:12Z")
“Thanks for the suggestion…I guess unplugging it for awhile causes some sort of “reset” or something?” Yep, I have mentioned it a few times, this resets things inside. One minute should do the trick, it seems the player didn’t like the disk. Works great for other appliances too, tvs, vcrs, computers etc. Gets a lot of stuff back on its feet quickly. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/11 "2003-03-10T21:11:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Oy Vey \* > The moral of the above story - go ahead and buy the replacement plan at Best Buy next time. Extended warranties are a big money maker for stores. Big. If the store is making a lot of profit off it, guess what that means for consumers? A much better idea to to buy better quality electronics in the first place. _Consumer Reports_ is a good place to find out which DVD players and such are better quality (and also tells you why extended warranties are a bad idea). Spend money to get something that lasts longer and therefore won’t need to be replaced so soon, thereby actually costing less over the years. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-player-repair-question/160163/12 "2003-03-10T22:29:39Z")
" Extended warranties are a big money maker for stores. " Perhaps but what about visa cards? You can get one from them. But best of all, if you bought a player with your visa card & you register it with them, free, you get a double time guarantee. Like a player I got comes with one year parts & labor guarantee but now has two years & it was free. They offer longer warrentees than that too. e.g. On $450 electronics, about $56 for three years.