mikeyp

Thank you for the tip about the clip. I avoided the issue altogether. I realise this doesn't help Petter at this point but thought I'd offer my 2 cents for anyone else reading this about to attempt the job themselves. I made sure everything including myself was earthed, I undid the 4 screws on the drive, removed the 2 grounding clips either side, left the ribbon cables connected and gently lifted the front of the drive. I then used some fine tweezers to remove the old belt and install the new one. Reinstalled the drive and everything working. Complete success. I shall keep an eye on this thread as it's certainly interesting and wish you all the best with getting your unit working Petter.

Sorry for the third post. Possibly a dumb question, but have you checked continuity of the ribbon cable and connectors. The conductors can break and lose continuity. Sounds like that’s possible. It might be worth trying fresh ribbon cables if you can find any.

Also, did you know that a JB980 with a failing eject belt will eject flawlessly if put on its side? I go for power button side but I’m not sure that it matters.

Interesting that you comment on it being especially sensitive to ESD and possibly capacitor discharge. I have an otherwise working 980 which needs its eject belt changing and am soon to attempt it. Considering the warnings above I think it wise to do the following in advance of attempting the repair. Ensure the unit is powered off and disconnected from mains for 24-48 hours before disassembling. Press all buttons on the front in a further futile effort to make sure everything is discharged. Ground yourself with an ESD wristband. Ground the chassis with a croc clip to ensure it has no potential to discharge any static to you. Normally I wouldn’t take quite such care but it seems these are really sensitive. It might also be profitable to put a pen mark on each of the ribbon cables for orientation and alignment. I’m wondering if there is possibly an issue where people are getting the ribbon slightly out of line. If the pins get misaligned/shorted it could be causing it to not come on or worse, die altogether. With enough caution, short of physically damaging something or extreme bad luck, it should be possible to repair with no issues.