Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 596, 598 DSL-720 drives from China

Hi Richard

Yeah, that's my recollection - and concern - too. Infrared laser for CD, red for DVD - and the latter seem to fail more often. Darn.

I guess another way I can prove that the DVD laser is/is not working is by plugging the "new" drive into a legacy PC that supports the EIDE interface. I knew there was some reason for keeping those ancient PCs...

Sheesh

-Ed

ED;

DSL 710 and DSL 720 use the same laser to read CD and DVD. IF the drive is reading CD but not DVD then there is a very large chance that the fault is the drive, and a very small chance that the fault is in the DVD decoder board (< 10%)

Sound like you have been given a re-worked drive. I have seen a lot of these on the market finding actual new non used drives is hard. several will be re-worked, meaning that the laser assy in the ROM has been changed with a new one, not hard to do but rarely actually fixes a ROM assy. (my experience is about 5-10% of the time.

Most of the failures seem to be on the controller board on the bottom of the ROM assy. and that makes it a write off...

Best

Hi Marc,

Thanks so much for your insight, I can stop beating my head against sundry brick walls then!

So really this supplier in China is being a bit less than honest, and what she's selling isn't worth anyone buying it. That's a bit depressing, but at least I didn't talk anyone else into wasting their money!

Do teeth have skin?

I did perform some more experiments at the weekend which might help make up for it. Maybe. On to the next post: trying random DVD ROM drives!

OK, so the replacement DSL-720 drive I bought from China played CDs very well but DVDs not at all. Wasted a lot time tinkering...

Hang on, I have a number of old DVDROM drives lying around, from old PCs. Would any of them be any good?

Drive 1: Wrong interface (SATA). You want old-fashioned IDE connectors.

Drive 2: Connected, didn't work at all. (Ancient drive)

Drive 3: Connected, played CDs and DVDs. Hurrah? DVD playback seemed faultless. CD playback seemed OK except that the display didn't show track numbers, just track time. Almost good enough but when I paid proper attention, audio through the 596 DAC crackled several times while the time froze - maybe the 596 had got a bit damp, maybe the drive power demands were too much? (This is a Hitachi drive from 2004.)

Drive 4: (Drum roll). Everything seems to be working - played a DVD all the way through with no issues and an excellent picture. CDs played all the way through with track numbers and times, track access etc all working just fine. I haven't actually listened to the audio yet so not 100% certain but I'll connect it to my office system tomorrow so it gets a good work-out and update accordingly.

So my new aim in life is to trawl through skips and find which DVDROM drives work well. I suggest you do the same rather than attempt to buy a "new" DSL-720.

And the highly promising drive that seems to actually work is the... LiteOn HDP118, manufactured in 2010. Just be sure to use an IDE (or P-ATA) drive - not a SATA drive (HDS118).

I suspect that many other recent EIDE drives will work too. You'll just need to make some mounting brackets.

I'll update this post tomorrow evening after a day of critical listening and occasional viewing - while I work at home! Here's hoping.

Excellent work.

Thanks Ian!

I've played a number of CDs on the 596 with the LiteOn DVD-ROM drive today, and it's perfect. I haven't played any more DVDs on it as there isn't a convenient video-capable screen in my office.

I think I'm done exploring.

Executive Summary

Don't buy DSL-720 drives, they're going to be old and at best unreliable.

Try an old-style PC DVD ROM drive with an ATAPI, IDE or PATA interface (not SATA). They're cheap and work to varying extents.

There are so many available, but the LiteOn HDP118 worked best for me.

No obvious firmware issues, but I suspect more recent drives are the best bet.

You'll need to make some brackets. I drilled some L-shaped aluminium strip from B&Q or maybe Homebase.

Any easy questions? I'm happy to help if I can.

Well done Ed, it's efforts like yours that make this forum great. Chris

Hi, I've got similar DVD problems with my G91A. In my case inserting a DVD or a CD gives the message NO DISC

So after finding this thread I've just ripped apart an old PC and tried the Sony AW-G170A DVD/CD REWRITABLE DRIVE I found inside.

Initial great excitment as it started playing a music CD. Then the G91A froze! Had to turn the power off and back on before it talked to me again. Same with a DVD. Put the original DSL-720A drive back in and I'm back to NO DISC messages. Interestingly the G91A does not work at all if there is no drive connected. Not even the radio! I also checked the Laser using a smartphone camera and it seems to be doing something. Initially it's flashing red then violet/blue. So maybe it's the detector. Or something else completely!

So "Hello eBay" where I've just taken a flyer and bought a LITE-ON iHDP118-18 4 DVD-ROM DRIVE IDE I/F. Should arrive Thursday so I'll let you know what happens.

Hi Adrian

I think I may have started a cult.

Read-write drives obviously do a lot more than read-only drives, I would be quite surprised if they worked in a device that's only expecting a read-only drive. Then again I'm quite suprised when the light switch works.

I think you've got a lot better chance with a read-only drive, certainly worth a go for eBay prices (�15ish?).

And think of the fun you'll have making brackets for your new purchase...

Good luck and welcome to the Church of the Moderately Optimistic. (Tricky blighters, acronyms. COTMO seems safe.)

Here's hoping we've discovered the secret of eternal adolescence for Meridian DVD players!

Something else to try?

Amazon - ATA SATA to Parallel ATA PATA/IDE

It doesn't cost much and may be the answer when all the PATA DVD ROM drives disappear.

OK, time for a status update.

The LITE-ON iHDP118-18 (�12.99) arrived on Thursday as promised. Plugged it in to the G91A and it plays CDs OK. It trys to work with DVDs but fails. The disk is recognised but just messes up when you try to play it.

So to validate that the new drive is OK, I put it into an exteral caddy, connected up to my iMac and it works a treat. CDs and DVDs all play fine. Put the G91A's DSL-720A drive in and it doesn't load the disk, same as in the G91A.

N.B When trying different DVD drives check that if they have jumpers on the back, they are set to the Master position. Or it definitely won't work!

So I've tried something else. I recovered my 598 which was on loan and swapped the drives between that and the G91A. Result, G91A works, 598 doesn't. So that is conclusive proof that the G91A's drive is faulty as the same symptoms move with the drive. Good old A-B-A test.

Next I tried the LITE-ON in the 598 and joy, it works perfectly. So it looks like the LITE-ON iHDP118-18 is a suitable replacement for the DSL-720A for 500 series kit. But not for the G91A.

I've also tried a drive made by BTC - BCO 52321B. It tried by didn't play properly

So if I graft the LITE-ON into the 598 then I'm back to two working DVD players.

That is until the original 598's drive fails sometime in the future - probably next week knowing my luck! So I still need a backup replacement suitable for the G91A.

I've just found replacement DSL-720 laser assemblies on www.aliexpress.com so I've bought a pair. And as an alternative I've also bought one of the SATA PATA/IDE adapters found by TimC - not that I've got a SATA DVD drive yet!

When these bits turn up I'll let you know what happens.

Well done Adrian, very glad to hear you had success with the 598 at least. The G91A is a complete mystery to me.

I tried replacing the laser assembly on my DSL-720 drive, but it didn't work at all. I found the ribbon cable connecting the drive to the laser very fiddly, might have broken it. There's also the challenge of identifying and removing the anti-static link (blob!), which I wasn't too clear about. So many ways to do things wrong!

While I'm tempted to keep experimenting, I think I'm going to hang up my earth strap and reassemble the 596 case.

But I'm going to keep an eye out for another iHDP118 drive. Just in case...

-Ed