Routine maintenance for your DVD player

[silversubaru]

Hi guys
This is just a shout out to anyone that runs an Onkyo DVD player.
I have the 503 model and its about 2 years old. I use it constantly for both music and movies and I estimate that I must have run it for somewhere between 750 to 1000 hours.

Should I be thinking about cleaning the laser? Would these amounts of running hours warrant some sort of DIY service?

Bear in mind that I'm sitting in sunny South Africa so any chirps about running down to Radio Shack for something is going to be amusing:)

[Emlyn]

Unless it's malfunctioning (skipping or not reading discs) no maintenance is needed. Tinkering with it may do more harm than good if there's nothing wrong with it now, but the process to clean a laser assembly itself is easy--turn the player off, pop the top off the player and use a swab and isopropyl alcohol on the lens. DVD drives should last for tens of thousands of hours of use and if there is a malfunction dust usually isn't the problem unless a drive is used in an unusually dry/dusty area. Over here in the US, places like Best Buy like to sell service contracts that provide yearly laser assembly cleaning...which isn't needed but helps to sell service contracts sometimes.