Won't play (by 5 users)

I have the SA-HT70 (three years old) and experienced the "No Disc" message, rendering it useless for months - until today.

<For another stereo, the authorised repairer charged £30 just to make it worse and tell me he'd have to replace (by coincidence) the five disc changer just because you couldn't buy a small specific part separately. He really expected me to go for it (another £100+) when that stereo only cost £150 to start with.>

So, with the above in mind, I took the SA-HT70 apart myself:
Four side screws + three on the back enabled removal of the metal casing with just the front (LED unit) left in place.

It became apparent that the laser/lens is at the front and the five disc storage area is at the rear.

Before going on, bear in mind that it takes at least twenty seconds from selection of disk to play, to the "No disk" symptom. In this period four or five "0"s appear one by one on the unit's LED.


During the twenty second period, with the unit open, nothing was happening, but merely jogging the disk lightly with a finger set it spinning. This happened over three or four tests.
Speculating, I wonder if something like a rubber belt has stretched and needs a little help? Or Something holding a cog to something else is loose enough to slip?
N.B. The problem has disappeared so I don't know the answer.

After the <bump start> The LED was still showing "0"s, but trying for a lot longer before giving up (maybe a minute or two).

Then, with no disks in the unit, I spotted a huge piece of fluff on the lens surround (possibly made of the hairs of my disk-cleaning CD and cotton buds I'd previously used through the open door :o).. The ball of fluff was easily removed with tweezers.

At this point the player became temperemental - i.e. a significant improvement.
The disk started up by itself every test (perhaps the fluff had been stopping it - surprising if so).

I used "Mr. Muscle" window cleaner on the lens.

Would you believe, my other half was so excited on reinstalling the unit with its many speaker wires, she forgot she'd given me a REGION 1 disk to try!?!?!?!? This is a Region 2 only player which is why we bought another one for Region 1 - not so good without 5.1 speakers. Before I got too percussive with the unit, however, she diagnosed the problem and all was well.

To get better access to the further encased lens - possibly to look at alignment issues, Remove the front of the unit. This assumes you've taken the main casing off as above.
1) Open the disk draw, remove the very front of the open door simply by sliding it vertically up (really easy).
2) Under the front of the unit, remove the relevant screws and, keeping the draw open, carefully pop the sides of the front and bring the front of the unit forward.
N.B. You can open and close the door to experiment with access to the lens/testing etc., but always align the loose front of the unit so that the draw comes through where it should instead of fouling and putting strain on the draw and connector strips holding the front in place.

Now, has anyone got an "engineer's" disk/ISO image, or another means of making the SA-HT70 multiregion?
Please do not suggest the hoax solution found via Google mentioning a non existent ' "Menu Display" buttom' as this does not work or is for another model.