Polaroid DVD player reads "Bad Disc" every time?

We have an RCA home theater system. Not expensive. We've had no problems with it, love it, until now. "Bad disc." I found the videos on how to take it apart and clean it. We got it apart. But the T shaped piece over the laser doesn't seem to be removable. We can't find any screw! Ergo, we can't clean the laser.
Any ideas? Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Karen
March 2017

I just opened it up with a Philips screwdriver and applied Vaseline on the bars the laser lens rides on, moved it back and forth, put it back together and it worked. also clean the discs, its a very touchy machine, I have 3 dvds that still don't work cause their scratched, even mildly.

Steve E
July 2014

My cheapie Digitor player was similar, spitting EVERY disk out after about 20 sec, without even any spin-up sounds. Cleaning the optics made no difference. Then it caught my eye that the laser was aimed somewhere towards the middle of a disc, not the inner edge where the index is. With the power off I wound the gears until the laser drive hit the inner stop. Power up, insert disk, hey presto spin-up and plays fine again!

shythylacine
January 2008

I have the same problem....well ALMOST....it doesn't happen EVERY time but almost. I called their "tech support" and they told me:
...."that the unit appears to be working fine."
...."try cleaning the discs"
...."the disc must be bad"

Here's the only hope I have found. I am going to try what M Norton says in this post.

http://www.amazon.com/no-disc-error/forum/Fx2EF9NC47LS3JN/Tx3TGUABVZR5R1A/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0002DG0OA

which is...

"the eye or lens gets very dirty. try a otc cleaning product for dvds if that doesn't work take a q-tip and rubbing alcohol dip q-tip in alcohol squeeze excess out and with a circular motion clean the lens repeat the rubbing with the dry side of the q-tip and then wait about ten minutes. it should do the trick, it's always worked for me I refurbish systems and this is one of the most common problems"

Jason
August 2007