How to fix a Sony DAV-S550 and maybe similar laser!

brandondwardcht

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Hi All, I am stunned I have got this to work on my model as it is such a common fault, that cannot usually be repaired on these units. My unit had 96 laser hours for DVDs and 50 minutes for DVDs in 2016, and it already started playing up. It took forever to read DVDs, it didn't read hybrid SACDs as SACDs - just standard CD.
To fix this you will need the original remote and a TV connected to it's video output. This will allow you to operate the necessary functions in the engineers menu.
1. Enter the engineers menu by holding the display button and the stop button whilst turning the volume knob right.
2. Service In should eventually appear on the front panel display and your TV screen will say "Test Mode Menu", and there will be lots of numbered options.
3. Select 2 using the remote number buttons (Drive Manual Operation).
4. Select from here 7 using the remote number buttons (Disc Memory Check).
5. Insert a guaranteed working DVD and then press on the remote, 1 followed by 3. This resets the disc memory check data which can be a cause of the slow reading disc problem.
6. Press RETURN on the remote twice to return to the Test Mode options menu.
7. Select 2 using the remote control buttons again (Drive Manual Operation).
8. Select 6 using the remote control buttons (Memory Check).
9. Press the CLEAR button on the remote, a message should appear.
10. Press RETURN twice on the remote and then power off the player.
Test your media to see if it plays it all quickly and most importantly properly. Please note it is normal for SACDs to take a while to be read as they contain 2 disc layers, and the unit has to find the encryption header of the SACD layer before it can read the disc. This is perfectly normal.
You should notice now if your unit did not play SACDs before it will now (be patient with the loading times for this, it will play it eventually) and it should play your standard DVDs much quicker. Another notable improvement will be browsing through DVD menus will be much more snappy and intuitive to use.
I cannot fully explain what this does as I do not know myself; all I know is it fixed my unit and I would like to share it with everyone else so they can hopefully fix their unit.

Brandon.
 
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