Our Toshiba SD 1300Y DVD player has recently gone wrong - whenever we put any DVD disc in to try to play it, it says "Loading...Loading...Loading..." and makes a funny grinding sound, but the disc menu never comes up! It is also difficult to eject a disc once it is in the machine, because it still tries to load it when we press the eject button.
There is no support for this model on the Toshiba website any more - please help!

J. Roberts, December 2004

These units had one crucial problem which is that the drive gear get hairline splits in them after substantial use due to the pressure that was used to press them on the motor shaft from factory.This causes same problem and there is no quick fix as you have to pull it down to get at the gear and remove it of the motor shaft. At the same time (be-careful) of twin adjacent gears as they are loaded with a shockabsorber spring which tends to fly out if disturbed.
Inspect the gear for splitting using a magnifying glass as it is so small, if so, the smallest amount of superglue to the inside of shafthole and gently squeeze togeather with small pointy nose pliers.
Re-check for superglue overrun between gear teeth, a little bit of fine wet and dry sandpaper fixes that.
Also ream out a small amount of the center hole so it is a sliding fit on motor shaft and the end of a pin dipped in superglue to bond it back on.
Re-assemble and test.

Frank, March 2007

No rattle, no kids young enough to try putting other stuff in the player, and we've only had it for 3 years. We'll try and get a lens-cleaning kit and see what that does. Thankyou for your help!

J. Roberts, January 2005

You could try a DVD cleaning disc in it, but it sounds like there may be a foreign object in the player (kids??) which will require servicing. Does the unit rattle if (gently) shaken? Or maybe the drive gearing has worn (bad possibility).

Ken, December 2004