Unusual problem with gdrom drive. Ideas for elegant solution?

I recently bought a jpn DC off of ebay. It was advertised as broken, and true to form, it did not boot up discs, or even spin discs when I closed the lid.

I've opened it up and analyzed it, and found out exactly what the problem is. The black lever on the gdrom board which registers that the lid is closed is malfunctioning. If you push it back all the way until it stops (which appears to be its normal pushed back position on a working console), the console thinks the lid is open and won't spin or read the disc. BUT if the black lever is pushed back only 3/4 of the way back and held there with my finger, the drive will boot up discs and the console runs perfectly.

When I have the case on, I can't keep the lid closed, as the plastic 1/4 gear part that pushes the black lever actually pushes the lever too far when the lid is closed. But, if I keep the lid open a few mm by holding it down with my hand, this logically allows the lever to be 3/4 pressed down, and work like normal.

I figure I can be a caveman and carve off part of the plastic 1/4 gear on the lid so it does not press the black lever down 100% of the way when the lid is fully closed like normal... but I thought I'd check here and see if there is a more elegant solution before I do this. Is there some way I can adjust the black lever so that it functions normally again?


In case it helps, it is a samsung drive, and the black lever I'm talking about is shown in the bottom right corner of the device in this picture (not my picture)

 

that happened to my 1st DC so i just got annoyed and superglued the lever and added a switch. not an elegant solution you were after. not sure if its possible to transplant in a lever from another faulty DC,

have you tried cleaning it? / checking the contacts and or pins on the board?

 

Upon further experimentation, it seems like the switch is being pushed back only the tiniest bit too far. I think it makes sense to file the lever or gear the tiny bit that it would need.

 

I'd just file it to fix the problem. Be sure to file the lever and not the case should you finally need to replace the lever.

 

Clipped off a tiny bit of the lever and it works perfectly with the case back on, screws and all. I'll test it a bit more for luck, but otherwise I'm ready to put it out there for sale after I swap the clear lid plastic piece with a generic one (wanted a clear piece on the lid for my silver DC project, trying to make a replica of the rare $500 official silver DC on a budget). The world's working dreamcast supply just got a new unit today