[sharon]

I bought a Panasonic DVD-LS850 and it came up with the Panasonic Error 02
within the Costco 90-day warrantee period. Now the new Panasonic DVDLS850
portable DVD player comes up with Panasonic Error H03.

When I put a movie DVD into the Panasonic DVD LS-850, it says "Reading" and
then "Error H03". The motor does not seem to spin. Nothing plays.

Any ideas what the problem is with this Panasonic DVD LS850 dvd player?

 

[charlie]

I bought a Panasonic DVD-LS850 and it came up with the Panasonic
Error 02 within the Costco 90-day warrantee period. Now the new
Panasonic DVDLS850 portable DVD player comes up with Panasonic Error
H03.

When I put a movie DVD into the Panasonic DVD LS-850, it says
"Reading" and then "Error H03". The motor does not seem to spin.
Nothing plays.

Any ideas what the problem is with this Panasonic DVD LS850 dvd
player?

what does the instruction manual say about it? if it doesn't, what does
panasonic say when you call the 800 # in the instruction manual?

 

[Tony Hwang]

The fix is pretty simple - Don't buy Panasonic or any other MatsuSHITa
brands. I've had extensive experience with a lot of their equipment and
similar equipment from more reputable companies like Sony, Hitachi, etc.
and have found the MatsuSHITa brands have problems at 100X+ the rate of
other brands.

Hmmm,
Quite opposite here I had lots of grief with Sony, no trouble with
Panasonic. My HT has Panasonic Plasma, Blue ray player. Never had trouble.

 

[Mike S.]

I bought a Panasonic DVD-LS850 and it came up with the Panasonic Error 02
within the Costco 90-day warrantee period. Now the new Panasonic DVDLS850
portable DVD player comes up with Panasonic Error H03.

When I put a movie DVD into the Panasonic DVD LS-850, it says "Reading" and
then "Error H03". The motor does not seem to spin. Nothing plays.

Any ideas what the problem is with this Panasonic DVD LS850 dvd player?

H03 means the laser sled is stuck.

The sled motor may have failed, or more likely the sled which moves the
optical pickup is gunked up with dried lubricant.

Slide it back and forth see if it comes free. If it does, try re-lube
with light oil.

 

[William Brammer]

H03 means the laser sled is stuck.
Slide it back and forth see if it comes free. If it does, try re-lube
with light oil.

Mike is right. Calling Panasonic will be a waste of time as they'll just
tell you to send it in.

H03 in a Panasonic DVD player almost always means the laser sled is stuck
on the worm gear. When you open the DVD player, the laser sled is supposed
to be near the spindle.

What happens is, for whatever reason, the laser sled gets stuck near the
outskirts on the worm gear. You won't be able to slide it inward because
it's on a worm gear, but, all you need to do is move the little tiny 5mm
wide plastic toothed gear on the end of the worm shaft to move the sled
back to the spindle.

You'll need to remove the battery, open up the bottom of the DVD player
(about a dozen small phillips screws), and then rotate with a small
flathead screwdriver the little toothed plastic gear on the far end of the
worm shaft.

Rotating that plastic gear will move the sled back to near the spindle
where it belongs. I'm not sure how to lubricate the worm shaft when you're
done, I guess a dab of automotive grease might help, but that's about it.

You'd think Panasonic would make smarter equipment but if everything were
this easy to fix, life would be a breeze!

 

[William Brammer]

Automotive grease is too heavy for this job.
use instead a light synthetic oil [that] has excellent 'cling' properties
on both plastic and metal ... to lubricate laser slides and drives.

Arfa is right. I stand corrected.

The gears in the Panasonic portable DVD player are really small. The worm
shaft is metal but it's only about a mm or two mm in diameter and about
half a DVD diameter in length. The little tiny plastic toothed gear which
spins the worm gear is about 5 or 6mm in diameter and only a half mm or 1
mm in thickness, with correspondingly tiny plastic teeth which can't handle
much force.

If you put automotive grease on all that, it might gum up the works. I just
noticed Mike suggested a "light oil" as did Arfa so let's all suggest a
light oil of some sort that works with plastic and metal.

Maybe simple household 3-in-1 oil might be best.

 

[bud--]

H03 means the laser sled is stuck.

Is there somewhere you can look up error codes (Panasonic and other)?

 

[sharon]

Hi Everyone,
It worked! The Panasonic DVD LS 850 "laser sled" was stuck on the outside
circle. Moving the sled back to the center fixed the problem! Thanks!

 

[Jules]

If you put automotive grease on all that, it might gum up the works. I just
noticed Mike suggested a "light oil" as did Arfa so let's all suggest a
light oil of some sort that works with plastic and metal.

Anyone remember the name of the stuff they usually use for small gears?
It's more like a cream, looks like yoghurt (it's a very light grease, I
suppose). I used to see it on things like floppy drive mechanisms all the
time.

cheers

Jules