LiteOn 5025 dvd drive problem, replacement?

Hi,

I have a 5025 that is 6 months old, it has developed a strange fault where it is extremely fussy regarding what pressed (commercial) dvd's it will play. For example I have a 2 disk copy of the godfather 2, brand new commercial dvd's, one will play, the other cant be read. The same is true for various other commercial dvd's. I am not interested in sending the set to liteon, it be away for a month and have the same unreliable burner replaced.

Having looked inside and disassembled the burner and cleaned it up, I had hoped I may have cleared the fault. But no. I have tried burning more because the thing had only been used a couple of times since I bought it and suprisingly, it seems to be recognising more pressed dvd's. However, my question is, the burner inside seems non-standard in size and fitting but I have seen links here recommending liteon pc dvd burners as replacements. So, is it possibe to "slot in" a standard burner? or would it be necessary to modify the bracket or create one? why only liteon drives are recommended, the oem of the drive in my 5025 is sony!??? I would like to put a solid reliable drive in this set and IMHO that would be a Pioneer or Plextor.

I would appreciate any thoughts you guys may have.

Thanks

Sorry, forgot to mention, it plays and burns all other media just fine, the only problem is with some commercial dvd's.

This is the first case I've encountered with a Lite-On having issues playing pressed DVDs, as generally the issue I frequently hear about is Lite-Ons failing to read or reognise recordable discs.

As you mention you have dismantled the internal writer, then you may be able to re-build the burner using parts of an IDE Lite-On DVD writer. I have rebuilt an LVW-5045's internal writer using the laser/tracking mechanism and two base circuit boards from an sohw-812s IDE drive with success, however the process is more complicated than with the more basic LVW-500x series. Unfortunately, as I have not dismantled any later IDE drives since, I'm not sure if this is still possible with later Lite-On IDE models and I'm fairly sure the parts from other brands will be shaped differently.

If you do try changing the writer's internals, be sure to leave off the tray's cover, as the tray loading motor's cables may need to be swapped. For example, after I swapped the components, the tray would keep trying to go inwards when pressing eject, until I changed the motor's wires around on its connector. Finally, do not change just the tracking/laser mechanism (leaving the original bottom ciruit boards) as the laser module's ribbon connectors are generally different between models.

Thanks for the reply Sean, I used a pioneer drive in there and it would read but not write disks, I have slightly modded the case so a "standard" writer will slot right in, the question is what drive should I buy? I assume the commands are different from the pioneer to write although it reads flawlessly, was a little noisy though, seemed to spin up the disk faster than the original so a quiet drive would be nice.

The problem is not limited to only commercial disks now though, some burned disks wont read.

Any suggestions for a replacement drive would be welcome

Thanks

guys, I really need your help trying to choose a standard writer that will work in this recorder, I know my Pioneer will read, but not write. Will the liteon drives work? are the commands that are sent to the burners different?

I would try a LiteOn SHW-160P6S, low cost now; I have them in my 2 LVW 5005s, connect and test first then hope you can make them fit into your case. if the 5025 is much like the 5045 it should fit as the SOHW-1693s fits.

well, I today successfully transplanted the laser assembly and pcb's from a Sony DRU-700A into the 813 drive that was in the 5025 and it went very well indeed, the drives are identical inside. The original liteon drives pcbs and laser assembly was a version newer than the sony but the fit and design was exactly the same, it does everything perfectly, read write cd and dvd's and rw's, preps and finalises without a hitch. The only thing as sean says above the wires to the motor that powers the draw coming in and out have to be reversed, but that was very straight forward. I bought the Sony drive used from ebay for £17 inc delivery and have to be fair, the drive was well looked after. So I can confirm the sony dru-700a laser and pcb's are a direct replacement part for part. Thanks for all your help guys, couldn't have done it without you

sorry forgot to mention, I changed my nick, i'm the old jmpmjmpm

Having read through this forum, I am getting the indication to repair a LiteOn 813 dvr, one has to replace the laser device??? because there is no physically compatable dvr available today??? I have a Accurian adr 3223 (Radio Shack) that I understand is like the 5025 DVR, it also has a LiteOn 813 dvr. I also have problems with commercial dvds and my personal recorded dvds,,,they play randomly and when they won't play, the error message "invalid disc" appears at the top left of the tv screen.... I am new here and would appreciate some help.

I just posted in the newbie thread before I found this forum.

I cant seem to format DVD-R discs, in that I put disc in, machine "reads" for 2/3 minutes, before opening the drive door again.

Is there a solution?
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