CD player repair

Subject: CD player repair
From: lamarca
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 02:24 PM

I am looking for some advice about repair vs. replacement of a CD player. We have a relatively new Technics 5 CD carousel player that is starting to act up. I recently bought a couple small label British 2 CD sets, and in each case, the player won't play 1 of the 2 discs. The CD player acts like there's nothing loaded in the slot or makes strange whirring noises with the discs in question, no matter which of the 5 positions the "defective" disc is loaded into. All the discs play fine on my portable CD player.

Are there any suggestions about what might cause this? Is it repairable? Are there differences between CD manufacture in England and in the US, and why would a Technics player manufactured in Malaysia or Korea care? Why does it play one disc of a 2 CD set but not the other? Why do they play OK on my Panasonic portable CD player?

I really don't want to start thinking of a $150 CD player as a disposable that requires replacement every two years...

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: CraigS
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 08:27 PM

I don't think it's the make that matters, but I've had problems with a Technics and a Sony. The Technics skipped on some CDs, and the Sony refused to recognise almost everything after a while, but when it did recognise a disk it then refused to eject it unless tapped on the top. The key factor, I have found by asking around, is not to turn the player off - leave it connected to the mains all the time. The Pioneer I have now has a standby setting rather than an off switch, and the instructions recommend leaving the power on all the time. It has outlasted the Sony and the Technics. I haven't got a coherent explanation as to why, but the Technics did improve for a while when I left the mains on all the time instead of turning it off, then it went back on the fritz again.

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: Gypsy
Date: 26 Jan 02 - 07:45 PM

Check the lense, it is probably dirty. Not a big deal to clean, just tedious. We have a 300 foot mud driveway in winter, dust driveway in summer, so have to clean lenses frequently. Sometimes a good hard blow will fix it temporarily, then you can be sure that the lense is dirty.

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: cyder_drinker
Date: 26 Jan 02 - 08:30 PM

I use one of those aerosol dusters on mine - can see the lens when the drawer is open, and get a good aim with the straw. My place gets very dusty too. If wandering fingers have been in there (friends kids - or mine in the case of the walkman) and got a greasy fingerprint on the lens, I use a computer monitor cleaning wipe. A good overhaul can also be of value - the drive belts on the drawer can, and do, wear out. I have an old Sony which has been good for nearly 18 years service now. It still outperforms my new pioneer!

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: JudyR
Date: 26 Jan 02 - 08:46 PM

I don't remember what brand my 90 year-old mother has -- I'll have to ask (it's a very good one), but I too have a question. I think I may have broken the poor thing's 5 CD/radio/cassette player, because it won't go into Play with CD anymore. I'll have to ask her specifically what happens. She's had some local guy out there to look at it and he can't find out what's wrong. I'm wondering if it's what I did when I was there? Like an idiot (not being familiar with that kind of set-up), I put a CD in there by itself without putting it in the 5-CD holder. Stupid idiot me! Then I tried to pull it out before she came in (because she's extremely difficult and gets hysterical), and it took forever. If I told her what happened, she would never let me forget it, so I haven't. But perhaps if I knew whether what I did could have somehow broken it, I could tell her local repairman. Funny part is -- it played the CD after that! After I got home, she said it stopped working.

They sure are expensive.

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Jan 02 - 07:16 AM

If it the same type of 5 CD changer as my Aiwa - Ie a large flat drawer with five spaces you could have the same problem as I had. The drawer moves in and out and is connected to the main body by a cable. Due to lots of flexing the cable became very damaged. Had it replaced with a much heavier duty one at a total cost of 20 UKP and it has worked fine since (2 years). I did need a sound systems expert to spot and repair it though.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 27 Jan 02 - 08:22 AM

Dave thanks for that tip. I've got an Aiwa 5-disc changer which has been giving me some problems recently. Apparently condensation can cause this to occur (the player simply won't play any discs that are loaded in the trays), and usually it works OK again after the room has warmed up. The manual doesn't give any helpful suggestions as to how to clean the lens.

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: Gypsy
Date: 27 Jan 02 - 09:53 PM

Planned obsolensence. Have had nothing but trouble with AIWA, swithed to a Yamaha (ha ha ha ha ha.......) and have had no problems since

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: CraigS
Date: 27 Jan 02 - 10:09 PM

Proprietary lens cleaners are available - they look like a blank CD with a false eyelash glued to it. You put the CD in and the eyelash dusts the lens while the player spins the disk and finds nothing on it!

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: lamarca
Date: 28 Jan 02 - 03:17 PM

Thanks all - I'll try using one of those CD lens cleaners and see if anything improves!

Subject: RE: Help: CD player repair
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jun 04 - 05:05 PM

have a sanyo midi cd player but does not play any cd's just spin a fraction then stops tried cleaning the laser but didn't work any idea's pleasee help
cheers Alan

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 06 Jun 04 - 05:50 PM

Sanyo? May as well have bought Sorney...

It's likley some 'belt' problem... and any repair shop is gonna charge you so much that for the 60 or so bucks sanyo's run these days, you're likely better off just buying a new one?

Unless it's still under warrenty... in that case explore your warrenty options...

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Peace
Date: 06 Jun 04 - 06:34 PM

Sooner or later, anything with moving parts will need repair or replacement. Them's the facts, Jack.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: s&r
Date: 06 Jun 04 - 07:23 PM

On a number of occasions I have had new CDs with a very thin oily film on them which caused all sorts of problems on one machine, not on another.

Try cleaning the suspect CDs with an alcohol based cleaner (used very sparingly) and a soft cloth, wiping radially

Stu

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 07 Jun 04 - 03:46 AM

And after all that, you may find that some CD's play OK in some players, and not in others. My Technics autochanger rejects CD's that our fancy Sony player copes with, and my little portable will spit out CD's that both of the others play fine. And the PC's CD player will cope with anything, even the deally naff CD's!
I think it's all down to the quality of the laser, which is one of those things where you get what you pay for...

Cheers
Tracey Dragonsfriend
Scorch's Pyrography

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 11 Jun 04 - 05:34 AM

So, did you ever get it to work?

Cheers
Tracey Dragonsfriend
Scorch's Pyrography

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,El Maestrito erosielito
Date: 14 Jun 04 - 06:34 PM

pues lo que yo le hice al mio fue ponerle un pedacito de plastico entre el cam gear y el load gear y mejoró muchisimo la entrada y salida de charola...   me ahorre el comprar la charola completa, el flexible tambien estaba dañado...   se lo cambié y todo funciona ok.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 15 Jun 04 - 06:46 AM

Umm.... good? Or not... I have no clue!

Cheers
Tracey Dragonsfriend
Scorch's Pyrography

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Jun 04 - 09:18 AM

To see our Spanish friends contribution in English, click on the 'Translate' word 'blue clicky' and then read the screen that pops up. Open the appropriate selector box and slide down to 'Spanish to English'.

Robin

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 15 Jun 04 - 10:42 AM

Aha! Thanks you for pointing that out, Foolestroupe! I completely missed that useful little link. It comes out as :
==============================
then what I did to him to mio was to put a small piece to him of plastico between cam to gear and load to gear and improved muchisimo the entrance and exit of tray... the complete tray saves buying to me, the flexible one also was damaged... I changed it and everything works ok.
==============================
So, I think we can say "Ah, good", then!

But I still wonder whether lamarca got his CD to work...

Cheers
Tracey Dragonsfriend
Scorch's Pyrography

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,Shorty Buckwild
Date: 23 Jun 04 - 12:07 AM

well i had my little brother's cd player and i dropped it so now it won't close is there a

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,Suz
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 12:17 PM

I ordered a CD on Amazon.com. The merchant who filled the order never mentioned in his ad that the CD had a stabilizer ring on it. When it arrived he had enclosed a note telling me oh, by the way, this CD has a stabilizer ring on it. He assured me I would have no problems getting it to play on any CD player.

I inserted the CD into my player, which was a Pioneer, only 2 or 3 years, and it made horrible noises and got stuck. My Pioneer holds 25 CDs and they are loaded into the vertical position. Obviously, the stabilizer ring made the CD too thick to be played. Now, none of my CDs will play.

I am trying to find out how much it will cost to repair the player. Any suggestions for the Phoenix area?

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,Monk
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 06:01 PM

I have this Sony 3CDs exchanger stereo since many years. It has never played writable cds but when it started to get stuck with original cds (few years after new) i opened it and i applied grease over the gears and over the little rail that holds the laser device and then it worked fine with all original cds. You should buy electronics grease for your cd player, but if you can´t find it you can apply some of other device such a joystick or even grease residues of the same player you´re trying to repair.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 11:15 AM

I bought a used CD player on Ebay and when it arrived the objective lense had fallen out of its mounting. (apparently got rattled in shipping)

How can I put the lense back in its mounting so it still works correctly? I placed it in once, and apparently the laser isnt tracking right as it never 'sees' the CD and wont play.

Comments?

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 07:50 PM

"How can I put the lense back in its mounting so it still works correctly?"
Us non-experts wouldn't have a clue, most of us are musicians not technicans. Youwould need someone who knows, maybe who has teh correct equipment.


The plumber presented his bill for $50 for fixing the tap.

The customer demanded an itemised bill, because he had seen the plumber just hit it with a hammer.

The new bill read

Hitting tap with hammer:               $5
Knowing where, and how hard to hit:    $45

Robin

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 08:05 PM

hello, waht you writing in foreign for then?

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,Spacie
Date: 29 Jul 04 - 11:42 PM

I have a portable cd player and everything works fine, except the sound buttons. Is that fixable or should I just but a new one?

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,Samoansuperman
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 12:00 PM

I have a cd player that wont play a cd, how can I get it to play? Although it is a really old player.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 11:17 PM

to Suz with the stuck CD...can you open the CD player up...i.e., can you take the top and/or sides off? I have a single CD player and occasionally the CD gets stuck inside. Usually there are a few screws, maybe 4 or so that hold the covering over all the electronic goodies inside. Remove these screws and you have access (hopefully) to things like the carousel/trays, etc. You might be able to remove the stuck CD.

I have also removed stuck games from PlayStation and stuck DVD's from DVD players the same way. Just open it up and see.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,T-Sweat
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 01:25 PM

I have a sony disc changer and everytime I hit a bump in my car, the cd stops playing. Any suggestions? Many thanks in advance.

T-Sweat

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,marc
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 08:42 PM

I have a aiwa cd changer, dual cassette deck, and tuner model cfd-9888 (or something). The CD changer doesn't work. The drawer works fine, and it seems like the cds load ok too, but when looking for the cd info, the changer will come up with nothing and go to the next disk. Then it happens again until through all three cds, and the screen says there are no cds. I tried cleaning the lens with a cleaner (the cd kind with brushes on it) and nothing. I read the owner's manual which said to reset it. I did, and it worked fine once, then stopped working again. I tried again, still can't get it to work again. How do I fix this thing?

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 08:51 PM

Find a bloke that fixes CD players, and take it along. Sometimes it costs more to fix it than to buy a new one - but marc's problems sounds fixable. So does T-sweat's except that maybe you'd need someone who knew about cars too.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:54 AM

I have some dj cd players, they're the proscratch 2 and when i insert the cd i can hear it turn, but it wont play.. now it's weird how both of them did the same thing, their a yr. old, i tried taking them back and my warranty was over, can somebody help me please, thanks

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From:
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 06:53 PM

I bought a Technics Mash cd player 15 years ago, when they were new.

It sounded great for 14 years, the manual said the laser wears out and requires after 10 or 15 years - which seemed an eternity away at the time, but the past is so much quicker than the future.

So I tried cleaning the lens after it stopped recognising discs, to no avail - I have even taken the whole thing apart, (I am confident like that, especially when equipment is 14 years out of warranty).

I tried to replace it on Ebay and - guess what - bought another with the identical - undeclared - fault.

There's more moral in this story than there is on ebay, and less hope.

i am trying to find out where I can get a new lens/laser kit, I need 2!

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,rew
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 02:57 PM

My cd player reads NO DISC. It happens with all my cd's. I have cleaned everything. What do I do. This is a coby cd player and I have only used it two or three times.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,katechax
Date: 23 Dec 04 - 07:45 PM

I stuck an Avery Label on top of my CD to label it's contents. While playing the CD the label was torn in half and half is inside the CD player and the drawer won't close. How can I get to the piece of label that is jammed up inside the CD player to remove it?

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Dec 04 - 12:20 AM

Stick on labels - even ones intended for use on CDs - may unbalance the disk and cause problems beside coming loose. The only real recommendation one can offer from the info you have given is to take to to a professional repairer. As per various other threads here on 'Walmart' though - mostly such consumer items as throw-away once they develop a fault - they are designed for cheapness, not a long life, so mostly are not capable of being repaired - at least not for much less than buying a new one.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From:
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 09:31 AM

My car CD player ( Camry with JBL Sound System ) is having a oriblem with track sync, not always playing succesive trcaks, e.g. - skips from track 3 to track 9, sometime half way through playing a track skips to another, when you load a CD may start playing track 3 as an example.

Is there any way this could simply be a cleaning issue with-in the CD player. If so, how do you clean internally a CD player ?

Thanks,

Paul Shields

[phone], ext. 7306

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 09:49 AM

Buy a lens cleaning CD - use it.

Look at your CDs, allowing the light to reflect off the playing side. Are they scratched? You can get 'scratch fixing kits, but they don;t always work well. Are they dirty? Then look for a cloth or gadget for cleaning them and follow the instructions.

If too badly scratched, or too dirty, you can't fix it. Vibration and jolting may also upset the playback - that's a job for a repairer, or since the cost of fixing and the parts, if available may be prohibitive, then you need a new player.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,Chris
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 10:57 AM

My CD Player does not read all my CD's it would just spin then tell me that it cannot read and on some it does especially some MP3's and my volume button does five functions. How do i fix this?

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 09:03 PM

This has been covered in previous postings going into the technical reasons here on Mudcat.

Simply - you most likely can't fix it - you would need to buy a more modern player, unless the laser lens just needs cleaning.

You didn't tell us what player it is so we can;t really help you much either.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,Retep Yarum
Date: 31 May 07 - 06:14 PM

A CD was accidentally broken while in the ejected position from the CD player in my Scion TC Toyota. There is a broken half still in the player which cannot be ejected. Is there any basic way to retrieve the broken half without removing the player from the dashboard, and taking the play apart??

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 May 07 - 08:48 PM

Tough question, Peter. I think I might risk sliding two knives into the slot, to grip the broken CD from top and bottom - especially if I could see part of the CD in the slot.
Removing and disassembling the CD player is definitely the better solution, unless you can see the disc to grab it. But even if you disassemble a CD player, it can be tough to get into the mechanism far enough to access a stuck CD.
Good luck.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 08:01 PM

So far as cleaning the laser lens goes, if using a lens cleaner CD doesn't seem to do the trick keep repeating the process a few times. Today I had to do it four times before the lens was passed as clean.

Notes on the Troubleshooting and Repair of Compact Disc Players and CDROM Drives This site looks useful, for those who can understand technical instructions. (Unlike me - I have to learn by hands on trial and error.)

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: GUEST,rubaiyatgallery
Date: 10 Jun 07 - 06:12 PM

My Sony 5DVD/CD changer (DVP-NC80V) somehow threw a disc out of the tray into the back of the changer. I can't see the disc to remove it. The changer tray drawer does not completely close. Any suggestion for removing the disc that is lost inside the changer? The tray still revolves.

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 03:45 AM

Open the drawer and holding the player with the opening downwards, shake the player and see what happens. What went in that way should come out that way.
G

Subject: RE: CD player repair
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 04:39 AM

The CD will probably end up very scratched. The only other way is to dismantle the whole thing.