Thanks for sending me a few USD$ if you found this page useful. It will support my repair file website and I will reply briefly to email from donors. Other repair sites are here for vaio and hotchip

Nintaus N9901 Repair

Pulling the Nintaus to Bits

  1. Take out DVD's and leave the door of the tray open. The front trim on the tray just lifts straight up to slide off, but has been stuck on with three spots of "liquid nails" glue which you can overcome by pushing up with your thumbs at the edges.
  2. Underneath, but in the middle, is a thin plastic tab which helps align the tray when it closes - try not to break this off (as I did).
    view front on
    trim from below
    trim from back looking forward

  3. Unplug the power cord and remove any other cables

  4. Remove two case screws at back with phillips screwdriver. Remove two similar screws on each side

  5. Lift off case by pulling upwards at the back.

  6. Remove four screws holding the disc drive in place.

  7. Remove four screws holding the metal cover to the drive

  8. Note the orientation of the back cables. For the big ribbon cable, the red wire is at the left near the power cable as you look at the drive from the front. Remove the drive cable and power cable at the back of the drive - power is quite stiff but they just pull off.

  9. Lift out the drive - it comes backwards and the DVD tray follows it.

  10. Place a large flat book or stiff cardboard on the top of the case to support the drive in a position resting on the case (to keep it off the electronics).

  11. Reattach the cables.

  12. Remove the top plate by unclipping the two small black clips with your thumbnails. Now you can see what is inside.

    drive on book
    drive without lid
    close-up

    Fixing the Drive

  13. Put in a DVD and press the close button. You will see the tray go in and the motor spin. As it tries to locate the inner tracks on the dvd, the LED comes on. You can see the LED through the DVD. It appears to focus it's little spot of light.

  14. What I noticed then, when running the drive with the lid on and off, was that sometimes the axel spins but does not get the disk up to speed quickly enough. I put some spit on the centre of the DVD and this helped it stick to the rubber a little bit better. With the drive lid on, the plastic spindle in the lid rests on the DVD so perhaps adding some weight to this would make it work better.

  15. No doubt you can send the drive in for a repair or replacement. At least you save the labor costs. If you know where I can get drive replacement parts let me know. I suppose any standard DVD drive could be mounted in here. This is a Hitachi GD2501.

    label on bottom of drive

  16. 6/03/2003: I called tech support (David) at QTD in Melbourne. The N9901 is not supported any more because the company which originally imported them went out of business (great!). QTD do not have parts for the serial number I have (*001863X*). Also, the new drive has different screw holes to mount it and is slightly higher or lower. I am buying it for $99 plus $10. I will add to this blog when it arrives and I install it with duct tape (fingers crossed). Meantime, today, the DVD player is working fine!

  17. 11/03/2003: The drive arrived yesterday. It is a DSL-720A (an unknown Chinese generic brand). The drive mounts are in a different place so I started by resting it on "Blu-Tac" putty to allign it correctly. Then I attached the cables.

  18. CABLES! The IDE ribbon cable is reversed so that, from the back, the red wire is on the left (away from the power cable). This is very unusual.

  19. Attach the front cover: After making sure that the thing is working, open the drawer and then place the drive drawer through the front hole. Squeeze the drive as far forward as it can go, with the back of it elevated slightly on some Blu-Tac. Open and close the door with the close button. Re-attach the front panel with some glue (instant adhesive/liquid nails - small spots). Close the drawer and make sure it all fits nicely, then open it again until it dries. Note that the cover needs to be centered (left-to-right) on the drawer. Leave it to dry for a few hours.

  20. Glue the drive onto the chassi: Now align the drive so that it all works nicely - the back end must be lifted up to the high of the chassi mounts. Mark the position where it is all lined up and works fine. Open the door and turn off the power. Now place 1.5 cm diameter balls of epoxy putty under each mount in the places shown and press the drive down on them. Check the alignment. Let it all dry with the door closed and the power off. Fingers crossed again!

  21. FINISHED: Great news. The Nintaus N9901 now works perfectly - better than when I first bought it. I believe the old drives were defective at manufacture but the distributor here changed so I am told the new distributor here, QDT Australia, does not support warranty of that drive's manufacturing defects and exact replacements are no longer available.

  22. Nintaus Manual as PDF: Click here to see or download the manual. The SECRET code for parental lock is set at "9999" on my model.

    The type of glue to use. I am holding the 'Aqua Knead It' which is a marine epoxy putty which sets hard in 1-2 hours after mixing.
    Front appearance must be correctly aligned after glueing the front panel onto the DVD drive tray.
    The front right foot. Notice how the front panel connector wires are lifted up and displaced as the drive is pushed forward.
    The ball of putty is squashed as you adjust the back of the drive to the correct hight. See how much shorter the drive is from the unused mounting holes.
    The ball of putty is squashed as you adjust the back of the drive to the correct hight. See how much shorter the drive is from the unused mounting holes.
    The front right foot. Notice how the front panel connector wires are lifted up and displaced as the drive is pushed forward.
    This close back view shows that the red stripe on the ribbon cable is on the side away from the power connector seen on the right.
    This wider back view shows that the red stripe on the ribbon cable is on the side away from the power connector seen on the right.
    The identification of the DVD drive.
Thanks for sending me a few USD$ if you found this page useful. It will support my repair file website and I will reply briefly to email from donors. Other repair sites are here for vaio and hotchip
All rights reserved, B.J.Marshall 4/03/2003

Hits since 13/03/2003