So, I come home yesterday, and my roommate is all excited…her sister-in-law just gave us a DVD player. How cool is that?
Okay, I hook it up, slap in a DVD. It makes some noise, then displays “No Disc”.
Huh? I try a different DVD…same result. Hmm…I must be doing something wrong. Since the sister-in-law didn’t supply the manual, we call her up.
“Oh, yeah–it’s been doing that for awhile, so we bought a new one.”
And then you give the non-functioning one to us? Are you too lazy to throw it away yourself or what?
Un-friggin’ believable.
While I agree that sucks, I’m guessing you never got any passed down underwear.
Hahahahaha. I’m sorry but this is really funny. The nerve on that woman!
Seriously though, DVD players are like 5 dollars now (ok fine, $20 to $30), surely, you could’ve bought one whenever you wanted. Not sure why you were all giddy and excited when you got one as a gift.
That’s hilarious! You need to find some good looking, but broken stuff from Goodwill or the Salvation Army to give her for Christmas. Gift wrap elaborately!
I heartily second this.
How wasteful. I mean, everybody can use a second DVD player. This is how family traditions start, people!
Throw it out but tell her you just switched a button on the back and it’s working fine now 
Brilliant!
I had an X-Box that died, it was power related. I gave it to my brother, explaining to him what was wrong with it and if he wanted it, he was free to keep it (I bought a new one in the meantime). He was able to look up the problem on the net, open it up and fix it as he is much more technically inclined than me, and for $30 or so, get a working X-Box.
It’s okay to give folks stuff that doesn’t work as long as they know it ahead of time. Maybe they thought you could fix it?
and
I swear, if the world ever looks like running out of evil geniuses, they can always come here for replacements. 
Replacing a power supply on an Xbox is a trivial matter. Just swap the old board out with one you bought on Ebay. If you can work a screw driver, you can do it. It’s well worth the money when you consider the price of a new Xbox ($150).
A $20-30 DVD player that doles out constant read errors is an entirely different animal. The optical drive comprises the bulk of its cost. When the laser goes kaput, it’s time to write the machine off as a loss. It would cost more to fix than to buy a new unit.
I’ve already got a DVD player in my room, but my roommate doesn’t…thus the excitement on her part…
Well, actually, I was able find a forum that DID discuss this particular brand and problem. But the simple solution that they posted didn’t work for this player–into the dumpster it went!!
Upon further discussion, it turns out that the sister-in-law “Does this kind of thing all the time, my brother really married a nut-job!” Oh, okay…that explains it, then, I guess… 
Take an opened bottle of wine with you the next time they invite you over for dinner.
Have some imagination, why stop there?
The same switch turned on the player’s DVD-R capabilities, and also reveals all the hidden content on discs that normal players can’t see. It explains all this in the user manual your sister-in-law didn’t read.
This reminds my of my step-grandfather, who wanted to get rid of this crappy couch. Called all the donation places, they wouldn’t take it. Call different trash haulers, he didn’t want to pay for them to take it away.
So then he calls my mom to see if she wants it. Nice.
Usually, the underwear still works.
And often times is washed first.
People never cease to amaze me. Sis-in-law probably still thinks that she’s done a huge favor.
Back when I was in grad school, I lived in a house with a few other students. A neighbor was moving and wanted to get rid of a couch so he offered it to us. We didn’t have room for it so I declined his offer. He actually got angry with me, insulted me and stomped off. He was pissed because he had to pay to get in hauled away and didn’t get to dump it on us. What a tool.
Pull the guts out of the DVD player, fill it with candy, hang it from a tree by the cord and invite her over for a pinata party.
Perhaps she washed the DVD player first?