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[kingkornkarn]

Go to Radio Shack and buy a multimeter, two mini sets of screwdrivers (flat head and philips), and needle nose pliars..  Take out apart the DVD drive again and take the pcb with the pot off the laser assembly (unscrew).  Put the meter on Ohms (start in the 2K range) and touch the leads of the meter together until it reads zero.  

To measure the resistance, touch one lead to the pot screw and the other to the BOTTOM RIGHT silver solder pad of the pot (the drive is upside down).  Prop up the pcb if you have to, the pad if hard to get to (and REMEMBER to unscrew the pcb from the laser assembly).  Read the meter - if you get no reading ("OL"), the pot is set above 2K.  Switch the meter to the 20K range, read it, and turn the pot screw left until the meter reads below 2K.  Then switch to the 2K range. I think the normal setting is 1000 Ohms.  Repeat until you get the between 850 and 950 Ohms (turn the pot to the right if you go to low, to increase).

The lower you go, the more intense the laser is.  Too low (below 800 Ohms?) may burn your discs.  My drive is set at about 870 Ohms.  Normal games work fine, SONY DVD-R and Verbatim CD-RW.  I haven't gotten any DVD-RW or CD-Rs to work.  I suspect that most DVD-Rs work, though.

[powerben5000]

Definitely not a mod for the squeamish...I attempted it myself and wound up just reverting it back to factory settings (in my case, 1600 ohms).

On another note, those ohm settings appear to be unique to each DVD drive.  My dvd drive was originally at 1600 ohm, while my brother's was set at 1400 ohm.  I've heard multiple figures from other people on many other boards, though I have doubts about whether some of them know how to read a multimeter, much less set the pot correctly...

--BenMan

[[oMega]]

So, what would be a good ohms pot setting?

[powerben5000]

[[oMega]]

Meh, Ill just leave it as it is... no need to funk it up.

[powerben5000]

Great, glad to hear it worked for you...

For reference, the POT setting is either feast or famine:  My drive will only play media at 1600 ohms or 825, but nothing in between.  Currently at my setting of 825 ohms, I can play all DVDR/RW and CDRW media (haven't tested any CDR media, don't see the point).  From what I've read, there is no magic number that will work on all drives, most of the posts indicate that the "sweet spot" is between 825 and 950 ohms.

The best part of this mod is that my DVD drive is much less finicky about CDRW media, which beforehand required that I insert the cd multiple times, rotate it in the drive, etc...

This mod isn't for someone who can't use a multimeter effectively.  And if you don't even know what a multimeter is, you're best off just settling for using high grade media, and letting good enough be.

Happy Modding...

--BenMan

[BenJeremy]

Mine was factory set at 1170ohms. Dialed it down to 870 and that seems to be running decent now.


Reminds me of adjusting the PS2 pot.

[Adonay]

mine is 1950 ohm and doesn`t  work fine , but i got a firend who got a read originally at 665 ohm and it work great.....

""" Too low (below 800 Ohms?) may burn your discs"""""

anyone tried below 800???