I've just replaced a bad Blu-Ray Laser + Deck (KEM410-ACA) and now my PS3 is exhibiting a new malfunction:
It accepts a disc, but the feeder motor runs for about double the time it normally does. While doing this, the blue light flashes rapidly (normal) but then the motor stops without the blue light staying on. When I press eject, the disc is immediately ejected with three short beeps.
To make sure this problem isn't associated with the new laser/deck, I reinstalled the broken one and now it behaves this way too, where it would formerly accept the disc and acknowledge it's presence but not read it.
Notes: While putting the new laser/deck in, I removed the aluminum wing from the back of the drive before knowing that wasn't necessary. When I went to put it back on I forgot how it's pegs were oriented in the curved slots; I put it back so the pegs were between some black plastic bars such that when I moved the wing the bars moved and some other assemblies moved in the drive. That's the only abnormal thing that I did.
If anyone has some ideas about what I did and whether or not it's fixable, I'd appreciate it very much. Thanks in advance for your attention.
I've resolved this problem after some tinkering with the drive. When watching the drive with the cover off, the disc was not centering itself over the rotating motor and not allowing the magnet to descend and secure it. I took the drive apart and put a disc in properly and closed it back up. When I turned it on the magnet was released properly and thereafter accepted and ejected discs and was able to mount them correctly.
Kevin, I am having a very similar problem ending up with the disk not centering over the rotating spindle thing. So you just took it apart, put the disc where it needs to be, re-assembled, and it worked fine?
Question for you though: Does the CD actually fit down on top of the rotating spindle like semi old fashioned portable CD players do, where the hole in the center of the CD actually fits perfectly on top of the spindle and is thus held in place by it? Or does the cd just orient itself directly above it? It seems like the spindle itself isnt high enough to allow the disc to sit down on top of it.
I disassembled the drive and worked the mechanism myself a few times just to see what smooth operation is supposed to look like. I'm going to try to describe what I saw to you from memory (my drive is assembled and working so I don't want to tempt fate lol).
Looking down on the drive, you will see the magnet on top of everything, held by some white plastic arms. When the disc is properly inserted, these arms will be far apart and the magnet will be resting (centered) on your disc. When the disc is ejected, the arms swing together and scoop the magnet off of the disc, they hold it there until you insert another disc. The arms have small pegs hanging down into the area where the disc travels on it's way into the drive. When it contacts the pegs it moves them away and thus causes the arms to spread and drop the magnet.
This is where my problem was: The disc was not completely moving the pegs through their range of motion (you can see some arcs on either side which the pegs sit in) and as a result the magnet couldn't drop onto the disc. The purpose of the magnet is to hold the disc over the drive rotor so that it can spin the disc, so if it isn't centered on the disc or not touching it at all there will not be sufficient friction force to allow the rotor to spin the disc. To answer your question, I am not positive that the rotor physically contacts the disc as I could not observe that from overhead. I do know that the rotor does not enter the hole in the disc.
I fixed this problem by taking the drive apart and physically placing a disc in it. This took a little bit of work because the disc would not enter the drive in a centered way, I stuck my finger in the hole in the disc and physically placed it in the center, which didn't require much force to do. A few jiggles around and it stayed in the middle. I then set the magnet in the middle and turned the PS3 on. The disc spun and worked properly. I then ejected the disc normally and watched the arms scoop up the magnet and properly eject my disc. After that point the drive was aligned the right way and worked fine.
I hope this was helpful for you, good luck with your troubleshooting!
Wonderful answer, thank you for being so thorough and so prompt! Ill give that a try this evening after work. One other question, Ive seen videos where people have the Bluray drive hooked up but with the metal cover off so you can see the inner workings of the bluray drive while its on. Do they remove the metal cover and then screw the motherboard (I believe thats what Ive heard it called in videos, though its tiny compared to a regular computer motherboard. Its the circuit board that all the ribbons from the laser and such attach to, its on the bottom of the bluray drive but can accessed while the bluray drive's metal cover is on) back on and plug all the ribbons in? I just dont want to fry the drive but Id like to look at it while its on
Ok it looks like its those two arms on the top that are supposed to widen some to let the circular magnet drop. They arent moving out to let the magnet drop. Im searching now for a solution to why but havent found anything. Do you know?
If you split the drive in half you should be able to move the arms yourself. This could unjam them if that's the problem. That's what I did before putting the disc in and aligning it myself.
Ok! I got it to work! It was exactly as your problem was. But Now Ive got another one! I cant get the bloody top cover of the PS3 to snap back on correctly in the front. I dont see any cords that are in the way, just the front wont snap down all the way, even with the screws in. It still works, I just have to push really hard on the Power and Eject buttons to get them to work. Probably no tips for this as its just messing with it until it goes back down, I guess. But I spent literally about an hour messing with it and still couldnt get the cover to go all the way down. Damn PS3, but at least it works! Thanks again!
Keep in mind that the top cover of the system is hinged in the front. So try sticking the front edge in first and then dropping the back down (where it should snap closed in the right rear corner if you're facing the front.
