DVD-Drive LITE-ON Repaired !!!

This DVD-Drive brand LITE-ON model iHAS224 Y was brought to me and the complaint was the tray never open and therefore it was unused.

This kind of malfunction is typical in these kinds of PC-units. The culprit of this defect is the magnetization most of the time.

Note: magnetization, magnetization (in British English) or magnetic polarization is when the magnetic molecules or magnets’ unit are aligned in one direction, creating uniform molecules that pull force in the same direction. When you consult the literature there are three ways of demagnetization:

By hammering or striking the magnetized piece (for the electrons change their orientation).
By applying a strong magnetic field CA (putting that body within a coil fed with alternating current)
By applying heat (given by the Curie Law, up to the temperature where it loses its magnetism).
Of course that method numbered as 1 can’t be used in this kind of units. But methods numbered above as 2 and 3 are more practical, in my specific case I always opt for the number 3.

The device was dismantled in the top (of course, in this kind of model) till get to the mechanism. The clue is to find the magnetized piece due to the magnetic top that pushes the disc onto the motor rotor wheel (the permanent Magnet has often just become too strong to elevate and free the disc) will not leave each other.

Temperature was applied to the magnetized piece by means of an Electric Soldering Iron (an efficient and easy method) for some minutes, as shown in the figure below:

Once the metallic piece is retired from the tip of the Soldering Iron, you should leave it to refresh.

Later on comes the isolation process, I always use the Correction Fluid used to erase the ink on the pens’ writing. It dries fast, so both pieces were painted twice. The black one was painted for both sides, all this to avoid quick and future magnetization. Look at the photos below.

All the system was mounted again to check on the drive and look at the result. The tray was opening fine.

So far so good, but something else had to be checked yet: could this drive read CDs or DVDs? Then it was connected to a PC as an external unit and when some CDs and DVDs were inserted to read, the result was 100% satisfactory.

Mission accomplished.