Repairing a broken front-panel display on a
Raite or Yamakawa DVD player

The Problem

Raite/Yamakawa DVD players have a common problem with the front panel display, where the display will simply stop working. The DVD player itself will work fine, but it won't display anything on the front-panel display. The problem is caused by two transistors that are underdimensioned for their job, and eventually burn out.
Fixing the problem is fairly easy. All you need to do is replace the two transistors. This webpage (in German, but Babelfish does a reasonable job) recommends replacing them with BD135, however those turned out to be a little hard to come by. My hardware engineer girlfriendwife found a compatible replacement, the MJE521.

The Repair

If you have no experience doing hardware repairs, do not attempt to do this yourself! The following assumes you have experience with this kind of thing, and intentionally does not go into much detail. If you don't know what to do, don't even try it!

Step 1: unplug the unit and open it up. High voltages are present in the powersupply, so be sure to unplug the unit before opening it!

Raite 715 DVD player with cover removed

Step 2: locate the faulty transistors, labeled Q5 and Q6.

Closeup of the powersupply. Notice the brown staining around transistors Q5 and Q6, caused by overheating.

Step 3: remove the faulty transistors. Since the transistors are broken anyway there is no need to de-solder them in one piece. I find it easier to cut them off and then remove the remaining pieces of wire individually.

Only a few wires left to desolder

Step 4: add new transistors. Note the orientation (they face opposite directions)

The new transistors are in place.

Step 5: put the unit back together. You probably removed the powersupply circuitboard for easier access. When putting it back and hooking it back up, take care to plug the right cable into the little socket on the front. The cable from the front panel should go there, however there is an identical connector attached to the bigger powersupply-output cable. DON'T USE THAT! See the picture for "step 1" when in doubt.

Success!