Sony CD player problem

May 15, 2005 5 Replies
E

I recently acquired a used Sony CD player, model CPD-291, manufactured in 1991, S/N A715803 - history unknown but clean and not beaten up on the outside. It has started to show the following faults on one CD only, the ABBA"Gold" volume:



  1. Often shows "no disc" when starting and on "shuffle" play
  2. When it does play there is serious break up and garbling of the sound.
  3. Has become worse over last few weeks (before it was intermittent.)

However, my other CD's seem to play OK on the Sony (I tried 6 of them, all play OK in all modes.) However, the "problem" ABBA "GOLD" CD will still play OK on both my PC CD drive and on my main audio CD player - a Technics PD-SL687, 5 CD changer. This seems a bit odd and suggests that the ABBA CD is not defective - yet the Sony won't play it anymore.



I have carefully cleaned the ABBA CD - no change in behavior. Any idea's as to what may be wrong? I am thinking that the SONY laser, optical sensor and/or lenses may be dirty but, if so, why do all the other CD's play OK on it? Anyway, could these components be cleaned? If so, what's the best way to clean them?



Other than that, what else may be going on here? Thanks for all replies. Cheers, Roger


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N

Well, if it was a Britney Spears CD I would say it was an intelligent player. Have you tried running the CD through "Exact Audio Copy" on your PC? That'll report errors.

N
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E

Ha, ha.... agreed, nice point!

No, I've never heard of that function or software. What is it?

Anyway, it plays fine on the technics and on the PC's CD... Cheers, Roger

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N

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You don't know that until you try the above.

N
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M

If the disc is somewhat heavier than normal, it might indicate a fault with the spindle motor. Sometimes the motor will be shorted through 1/2 it's rotation. I do think cleaning the lens and cleaning off old lube and re-lubing the gears, sliders etc is in order. Don't forget to lube the shaft of the spindle motor as well. The one disc might not be clamping correctly - this could be confirmed visually.

Mark Z.

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J

Maybe it is a dirty laser... Your ABBA Gold CD is probably the most full or highly compressed CD you own. In other words it probably has the most material squeezed into the usual amount of space while still conforming to CD standards. So the laser needs to work harder to read this. If the laser is dirty or weak it will have trouble reading this disc. Your other players probably have better or cleaner lenses. Start with a cleaning. The procedure is at

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