Posted by Bill Haenel on 12-Jul-08

Initial DVD DMA-710 says "no disc"

A couple of years ago we bought three, yes three, DVD bookshelf units from Wal-Mart. THe model? THe Initial DMA-710.

We loved these units because they were a great price. We didn't expect the height of hi-fi performance, we just wanted something to put in our offices and bedroom. At first they were great. Then things went downhill. Here's the letter I just wrote to Initial Technology, Inc., about these units and their "problem":

"Hi -

I have three Initial DMA-710 units. They all exhibit the same symptoms. They were fantastic for a while, then after time passed eventually they would all start to say "no disc" when a DVD disc was inserted. CD's would play fine at that time. But then eventually these machines all started saying the same thing for CD's as well. As even more time passed, the occurrence of the "no disc" message became more and more frequent, until now, none of the players will play any discs at all. They all say "no disc" when any disc is inserted.

How can this be fixed? I can assume that this is a flaw in the system design as I have three of them that all did exactly the same thing in exactly the same manner. I've also found that many users have written about this same problem in various places online, so it appears to be common. Is there a known remedy for this obviously known issue with these units?

Thanks,
Bill Haenel"

I don't have any really big complaints with the company or anything. After all, we paid only $89 for each unit. However, I think it's worth writing this post and following it up with any suggestions offered by Initial, as I have seen lots of folks online not knowing what to do about the problem when it happens to them. So if I get any good info on the problem, I'll be sure to come back here and post what I've learned.

Bill

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