Vizio VBR200W dead unless I freeze it

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JustGreg
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:30 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Vizio VBR200W dead unless I freeze it

Post by JustGreg »

Hi folks. First post as a new member.

I bought a used fixer-upper Vizio VBR200W Bluray DVD player for $20 on ebay to tinker with during the long winter months and the thing has me stumped.

When the player is at ambient temp it powers on but freezes at the Vizio logo and won't budge. Power indicator and bezel logo are lit. It won't do a laser carriage alignment at POST and the tray won't open.
If I throw it in the chest freezer for an hour or so it will power up, the tray opens (verrrrry slowly :lol: ) and even let me navigate the menu's but refuses to play a disc. I can understand that because the lenses are frosted over; or at least foggy and the disc can't be recognized?

I've checked voltages and everything is as it should be. I've been unable to find a service manual for it and learned that even Vizio's User Manuals don't ship with their players; they have to be downloaded from their site.

I've reflowed solder joints that are accessible but don't have access to a reflow oven to make sure the hidden joints are good. It may very well be toast from an internal chip failure (memory, GPU, ???) and unrecoverable but I just can't seem to let it go. :lol:

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Thank you in advance.

Greg
zaphod7501
Posts: 537
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 7:07 pm
Location: Peoria Illinois

Post by zaphod7501 »

You might look for bulged tops on power supply filter capacitors.
Reflow soldering of digital processing chips is not even possible in the field.
Just call me Zaphod (or Steve) --- I never should have started using numbers in a screen name but I just can't stop now.
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