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Replacing BD/DVD drives in K components

djb_rh

djb_rh

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Someone (Yetis?) posted a while back details on replacing system batteries and optical drives on K components. I *think* the posts got lost in the Great Forum Crash of 2015, but I thought maybe they were brought back. But now I can't find them.

So a pointer would be welcome if they were reposted. Or if not, does anyone have the info to re-post? Might be nice to have a DIY repair sticky for folks who want to do things to out-of-warranty devices like this, too.


--Donnie
 
Donnie,

Yes, I have replaced drives any batteries in my systems. You need to be careful as I did run into a problem with one of my drives not reading a disk. K monitors these drives and if you can you should replace the drive with the same model and firmware version that was used. Not saying it won't work to replace with a newer and faster drive (which I did), however you might run into issues on some disks. I simply wanted faster rip times and one of my drives failed. Feel free to connect with me if you have any questions or issues. Happy holidays!
 
There is no problem posting substitute components by name/model number in our Forum. This is always helpful to owner's with out-of-warranty components that are in need of repair. It is also helpful to post any considerations or issues that went along with installing and operating these replacement parts.




Jim
 
From the previous thread(s), I ordered a:

LG Internal UH12NS30 BD-ROM

From Amazon. Installed that and a fresh battery in an M500 a couple days ago. I got no speed increase ripping DVDs. The drive I replaced was a Sony BD-5300S, which interestingly is a rewritable drive. It was working fine, but I had seen reports that ripping might be faster with the above, so I tried it.

Note that if you replace yours, you will want to pop the front door off the new drive. The ones I bought remove easily by pulling out on the front edge and pushing upward (with the drive open, but I believe in both cases they drive WILL open with the front door in place, it just won't close without catching until you remove it).

I also bought a:

Sony Optiarc 18X DVD-ROM Drive DDU1678A-0B

That was based on the previous thread as well. I think it was for a K5000 or K6000 and I bought it just in case. But then when ripping a TV box set of DVDs via my K2000 stack (I have three), I *kept* finding disks that the K2000's wouldn't read but my M500 would. Probably one in four wouldn't read in any of the three. So I took a leap and popped one K2000 open and replaced its drive with the above Sony. I didn't have TOO many more to do, but no more failed to read in that drive. So my guess is newer drives do work better than the old ones in the K2000's, or the ones in the K2000's are getting dirty.

What was interesting, though, is that the new drive was also not any faster for disks that worked, anyway. Same exact speed. Guessing the K2000 hardware doesn't spin it but so fast? The model that came out of the K2000 was a TSST DVD-ROM Drive SD-M1912.

The Sony I put in doesn't appear available any longer easily, though. But I did find some IDE DVD drives on eBay for so cheap I ordered a 10 pack ($25 shipped free for ALL of them and they are supposedly new) just to try. I'll report back if they work. At this point I don't have any DVDs to rip, though, so I gotta get a few I guess.

I probably have another half dozen used IDE drives laying around to poke at if these new ones don't work for some reason.

Note that the K2000's open up really easily. The M500 is only slightly more difficult as it needs a single safety allen screw removed (allen with a hole in it).


--Donnie
 
The 10 drive pack showed up. Packaging was a little janky, but adequate. The drives are KWI Technolgy KW-1632.

I dunno, being the only drive available is the only plus here. These are LOUD when they spin up (I did have the top off, so it'll be acceptable with the top on, but louder than what it replaced). They are also barely strong enough to push the spring loaded K door open. Well, they AREN'T strong enough if you leave the front door of the tray on. Remove that and they *barely* push it open.

Not terribly confidence inspiring. That said, it reported 21 minutes to rip Home Alone 2, but I could *swear* it was faster than that. Next one I try I'll put a real timer on, too. In fact, I'll probably just delete HA2 and rip it again.

The other odd thing was this one lost its BIOS settings when I replaced the battery and wouldn't boot any longer. I had to pull the CPU board so that I could plug in a monitor and keyboard and go into CMOS settings and turn on fast-boot. Otherwise it just sat there looping the memory test forever. Not sure why, but it would just loop it over and over. Even after going into CMOS and saving settings (you need to turn off the 1.44M floppy seek and make a few other obvious tweaks). (Note: You have to pull the CPU board because there's no room to get the plugs in otherwise. It's four screws and no big deal.)

No idea why that *didn't* happen when I changed the battery in the first one. I'm fairly certain both were off and unplugged. Maybe there's a capacitor and I just didn't get this one changed fast enough, I don't know. But it's working now.

I'm gonna swap another one and I'll report back on if it seems any different.


--Donnie
 
Okay, I swapped another one. Three times. One didn't work at all (tray seemed stuck), one was even weaker than the first. Next one worked the same as the first. Timed it this time and it was the 21 minutes that it reported.

I swapped the battery really fast and didn't have any CMOS shenanigans this time, either.

I think these drives are refurbs or something. They are "UPC removed" but listed as new. The packaging looks new, but there's VERY light signs of being installed previously. The weak one also had a black face and black door, but the tray itself is beige. All the rest have been all black plastic.

So they're cheap crap. But they're also inexpensive, so that's fair. :)


--Donnie
 


I should have taken a picture of the BIOS screen when I had one apart. But now they're all back together and I'm too lazy. They are some kind of Cyrix MediaGX SBC. There was no removable storage, so I have no idea how they have the OS on those things. There must be some built in FLASH on the board. Didn't seem to be any mention of it in the BIOS, though, so that was weird. Then there's a K-specific extender board of some sort behind the DVD drive, and the K-specific power supply.

The SBC has a serial port on it. I'm guessing that the K firmware is alive on that port, because there's one flash of a K message on the console and then it goes blank once the OS boots. But like the other ports, you have to open the lid and take the SBC loose from the case to get the serial port available to plug something in.


--Donnie
 
djb_rh said:
There was no removable storage, so I have no idea how they have the OS on those things.
Click to expand...

The other option is a network boot to the servers. That way everything is nicely contained and easier to update (just signal the player to reboot when not actively in service.)
 
Transepoch said:
The other option is a network boot to the servers. That way everything is nicely contained and easier to update (just signal the player to reboot when not actively in service.)
Click to expand...

Well crap, I don't know why I didn't think of that. I didn't see any sign of that happening during boot, but that doesn't mean it isn't. But every PC architecture I've seen that can network boot also had SOME mention of it in BIOS, too. It's got to know how to TFTP something to get started. Since the network interface is integrated into the motherboard....

But still, it's *possible*. I could probably sniff and figure it out. But I'm a bit too lazy since I don't really NEED to know that.


--Donnie
 
I think they network boot as I recall somebody saying the players with a tray wouldn't even play a DVD if there was no server to connect to.

Anybody have direct experience with that?
 
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