I knew what I was getting into when I bought it. Seller noted it as non-functional with a "no disc" error, but it was cheap and I thought why not give repairing it a shot? I've seen enough YouTube videos to know that the fix for the "no disc" error was simple – just some basic cleaning and a bit of tweaking of the laser's potentiometer. Hell, one video I watched even had this exact model and the numbers on the multimeter I needed to match to get it working.
Unfortunately, even after attaching a meter and mirroring what was shown in the video (and afterward a whole lot of playing around with other values), it still stubbornly refuses to read discs. The laser and the transport mechanism is verified as working (it moves normally and attempts to focus), but so far I've had no luck resuscitating it.
I did note that someone else had already been into it. The screws that hold the top plate of the bottom half of the unit in place all but fell out when I went to remove them, so who knows what's been fucked around with? (Says the guy who's fucking around with it.)
I'm half-tempted to seek out a working unit and just throw this one in the donate pile. I do rather like the styling of this lil' nugget.