Disc Read Error fix for Samsung DVD-N501, N504 and N505
By T_T

I have some great news for Samsung N501, N504 and N505 users who are having problems reading either CDs, CDRs, DVDs or Nuon discs. I've discovered that the disc drive inside the machine is a standard unit used by Samsung worldwide in multiple players at the time.

If your Nuon drive gets flaky, you have only one choice really, and that's buy a new Nuon player - with prices increasing on Ebay and the Nuon players themselves becoming more scarce, you may be tempted to give up on the problem altogether.

So here's the soluton:

In my case, I bought a Samsung DVD-M105 (the M104 is the same too) from Ebay for the princely sum of eight UK pounds (about $15). You can see from this pic that it is a similar size to my N504, and the DVD drive tray is in a similar position:

Remove the covers (3 screws and some clips - easy) and you'll see that the drive in the M105 is identical to the drive in the Nuon player, and the connectors to the motherboards are the same:

Remove both drives (again 3 screws, a ribbon cable and a wired small plug):

Swap the drives over, rescrew your replacement drive into your Nuon, reinsert the ribbon cable and the plug, and away you go:

Here's my N504 with the new drive from the M105 playing a DVD:

A CD with VLM enabled:

A Nuon Disc:

All working with the drive taken from the different model. I have tested this in a N501 also, and it works perfectly.

There are undoubtedly other models in the Samsung DVD player range that will provide identical drive units - I guess you'll need a bit of investigative work to find other models. You are looking for a model that looks similar physically to the Nuon players, with the drive tray in the middle, towards the top of the machine and above the LCD display. Just search on Ebay for "Samsung DVD Player" and take a look at the pics.

Ebay Link

This is a great way to replace your broken Nuon player - standard Samsung DVD players are going for peanuts on Ebay over here in the UK (and I suspect elsewhere). So I now have a spare Drive unit for my N504:

And it cost me £8 plus postage - the player I bought has been trashed, which is a shame - but hey, for a few pounds I now have some security about extending the life of my Nuon. And the great thing? You don't need to solder anything or be a technical whizz to do this. Just use a bit of common sense and take your time. The trickiest bit is removing the front casing from the Nuon - its a series of clips so be careful not to snap them off. And before you start, eject the tray in your Nuon, leave it open and remove the triangular covering (it "snaps" off in an upwards direction).

Hope this gives some of you guys with disc reading problems a tidy and cheap solution!

Anyway, any questions, post here and I'll try to help.