Date   : Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:25:48 +0000
From   : julesrichardsonuk@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: VP415 Service Manual

Joel Rowbottom wrote:
>> I'll have a dig around tomorrow though as I *might* have scanned in some
>> of  the data about the player fault codes which might be of use (unless
>> you're  certain it's a laser alignment problem already!)
> 
> No, I'm not. The issue is: it powers up OK and appears to work, but when 
> a disc is inserted it won't spin it up.

Hmm, check the obvious first (if you haven't already). Whip the case lid off, 
clean the lens with some isopropanol, and check that the tiny black felt pads 
that are normally stuck to the disc tray haven't come loose and gone somewhere 
they're not supposed to (the glue used doesn't seem to age well - I've seen a 
few players where the pads have vanished into the innards of the machine). 
Check for any other obvious dust / debris.

Aside: There's actually nice diagnostic firmware built into the machine - from 
memory, stick a disc in there, turn off at the back, then turn back on with 
both eject and standby held down. It'll fall into a diag loop and display any 
error information on screen. (I think this only works with one type of disc, 
but I can't remember if it's a CAV or CLV). Unfortunately that's not much use 
to you without the table of fault codes from the service manual! :-(

I've just trawled my scans here and I'm afraid I don't have scans of the 
service manual with me other than a few pages of the schematics (I've got the 
operating instructions, but they don't detail error conditions at all).

cheers

Jules