Repair of portable DVD player Goodmans G-DVD 67LCD ser.No. G-1723910698

First test. Does it read CDs ? If yes, then the most likely problem is the optical block itself. The next most likely suspect is the spindle motor not reaching the higher speed needed to read a DVD, or not spinning at a stable enough speed. After that, it's a data stream decoding / processing fault, and finally, it could be a software problem. The message " wrong disc " is usually generic with most of these players, and should not be taken as literal. All it actually means is " I can't read this disc " (for whatever reason). If you can lay hands on a genuine pressed region 0 disc - that's a test disc or a promotional demo disc - that will normally tell you if the unit has a 'genuine' soft issue with disc types / regions, or whether it is a hardware fault.

If you know the name "Goodmans" from years ago, as a manufacturer of quality loudspeakers, don't make the mistake of thinking that this comes from the same stable, and is worth doing. I see a great deal of Goodmans gear in my day to day repair life, and almost without exception, it is very cheap Chinese or Korean stuff, badged with that name. For the most part, spares or service info and assistance for these items, is at best very hard to come by, and at worst, non-existent.

Arfa

It's the same in the US with Singer, RCA, GE and many other brands. Even some 'live' brand names are rented out to crap outfits.

It's a bit of a shame really, as all of these brands built up huge amounts of respect over the years, and they are firmly ingrained in people's memories from when they were kids. Our family had a Bush TV set, and I had a Bush tranny radio (which I've still got - no PCB's - it was built on a real metal chassis !! ). Both were top of the range products. My parent's first colour TV was also Bush, and again, was a superior product. Now, sadly, it's just a name shoved on pretty much worthless supermarket fare, but I still get customers ringing me up and asking if I will look at an item, and then proudly telling me " It's a good one - it's a Bush !! " Just goes to show what power there is in a name, and how clever the current owners of them are, to have bought them up in the first place. There is basically no indiginous mainstream consumer electronics manufacturing in the UK at all now. Sad after all the quality brands that we did have.

Arfa

The first company to do that was Packard Bell. Packard Bell was a well known brand name in the U.S., probably made up by combining two other well known brands Packard (automobiles) and Bell (telephones). They died out in the 1950s or 1960s.

In the late 1970s there were many name brands for Microcomputers (the term PC was not coined yet), for example, Apple, IMSAI, Altair, Sorcerer and so on. There were also brand names such as IBM (yes, the had a desktop computer before the IBM PC) and so on. There were also names like the Kaypro, Osborne (named after Adam Osborne), COMPAQ (a play on the word compact) which was a PC compatible, but not an exact copy (clone).

When PC clones became possible and they became common items, someone bought the name Packard Bell from whomever owned it and used it for computers. They were smart, they never claimed their computers were descended from the radio company, they just disclaimed it had anything to do with the Bell System, and that "America had grown up with Packard Bell" which implied it was the same company.

Not all brands names were diluted as they are today, about 10 years ago I bought a stereo system made by "Sherwood Newcastle". It was supposed to be made in Newcastle, England by a company that was descended from the original Sherwood company, while the name Sherwood was used for Korean products.

It was robost and well made, however it suffered from component failures after about five years. I eventually found someone localy who could fix it, but it was never 100% after that.

Geoff.

Right on there Arfa. This has actually beeen discussed before ages ago here. I have certainly noticed this resurrection of well known Hi- Fi brands of the 1970's being slapped on Chinese or Turkish junk - KLH, Sansui, Akai etc. Even now Grundig's name has fallen prey to this!

Last year I saw a cheap Asda TV branded Dual, obviously no relation to the former German Hi fi company. Also apart from Goodmans, other old English electronics names like Wharfedale, Dansette (!), etc. ahev been used on tacky imported electonics.

-B.