Intermittent problem with Philips DVD player

[marmaladerag]

Hi,

 

My parents bought me a DVD player for my birthday last November. Quite a snazzy Philips one, with HDD in it for PVR features, USB slot etc. Been really happy with it.

 

However recently it has developed an intermittent fault after it has been on for a while and you pause it, then unpause it a few minutes later (like you might do if you were watching a DVD and went for a drink/toilet etc.)

 

What will happen is it will start randomly pausing itself all the time. 'Pause' appears on the screen exactly as if you'd pressed 'pause' on the remote. I had thought it might be a problem with the remote itself sending signals randomly so I tried taking the batteries out, but it still does it. If you unplug it at the mains then plug it back in it will work fine for a while again.

 

It's still within the years warranty so I decided to take it back to Currys where it was bought from.

 

The problem is, because it is intermittent and only occurs under certain circumstances, they couldn't find the fault. I told them to leave it on for a while and try pausing and unpausing it a few times which they did, but the fault didn't appear.

 

Obviously from their point of view there appears to be nothing wrong with it. It's frustrating for me because I can't get it to replicate the fault on demand to demonstrate to them.

 

What can I do?

[dx100uk]

there are circumstances where energy saving bulbs or even sunlight being refracted CAN imitate remote IR codes, or make and IR controlled device go scatty.

 

just to confirm it is NOT being caused by such an issue & it is a device fault.

find the IR sensor on the front of the device [should look like a front panel LED but it will not light up] and cover the area with black tape.

 

you should be able to detect that you have covered it by trying your remote. if it stops working via the remote you know you have it!

 

if the malfunction goes away, it just could be as above, if it keeps doing it, then you know its the device at error.

 

as for getting it fixed, these faults can be a pain to trackdown.

 

have you searched on the net to see if anyone else is suffering randon faults.

 

dx

[marmaladerag]

Thanks for the response.

 

It's definitely the unit.

 

I've done loads of searching on the net and cant find any mention of similar problems experienced by other users.

 

So what's the deal? I have to show/prove the fault to the shop before they can do anything? I don't even want a refund or exchange for a newer model, just a straight like for like swap, so they have reason to think I'm up to anything.

[dx100uk]

so sorry, you did the test i mentioned?

 

yes sadly int faults are a real pain, and it will be a return to manufacturer for repair job too, i doubt currys will replace it [as the guarantee is with the manu]

they will prob just confirm it is faulty then go from there.

 

unless you have been told diff?

 

mike