My Polaroid PDM-0742 portable reads "Bad Disc" every time after trying to load a disc, even with new DVDs right out of the box. Any tips ?

Ben Williams, April 2007

We have an RCA home theater system. Not expensive. We've had no problems with it, love it, until now. "Bad disc." I found the videos on how to take it apart and clean it. We got it apart. But the T shaped piece over the laser doesn't seem to be removable. We can't find any screw! Ergo, we can't clean the laser.
Any ideas? Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Karen, March 2017

I just opened it up with a Philips screwdriver and applied Vaseline on the bars the laser lens rides on, moved it back and forth, put it back together and it worked. also clean the discs, its a very touchy machine, I have 3 dvds that still don't work cause their scratched, even mildly.

Steve E, July 2014

My cheapie Digitor player was similar, spitting EVERY disk out after about 20 sec, without even any spin-up sounds. Cleaning the optics made no difference. Then it caught my eye that the laser was aimed somewhere towards the middle of a disc, not the inner edge where the index is. With the power off I wound the gears until the laser drive hit the inner stop. Power up, insert disk, hey presto spin-up and plays fine again!

shythylacine, January 2008

I have the same problem....well ALMOST....it doesn't happen EVERY time but almost. I called their "tech support" and they told me:
...."that the unit appears to be working fine."
...."try cleaning the discs"
...."the disc must be bad"

Here's the only hope I have found. I am going to try what M Norton says in this post.

http://www.amazon.com/no-disc-error/forum/Fx2EF9NC47LS3JN/Tx3TGUABVZR5R1A/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0002DG0OA

which is...

"the eye or lens gets very dirty. try a otc cleaning product for dvds if that doesn't work take a q-tip and rubbing alcohol dip q-tip in alcohol squeeze excess out and with a circular motion clean the lens repeat the rubbing with the dry side of the q-tip and then wait about ten minutes. it should do the trick, it's always worked for me I refurbish systems and this is one of the most common problems"

Jason, August 2007