CDP, Skipping at 18 seconds.

davstev

Well-Known Member
On track 1, played on my late-80's Denon DCD-1700, the CD skips at exactly 18 seconds (regardless of the CD), and skips to about the 1 minute mark, and continues playing. Track 2 also skips, but later tracks do not.

What is the best way to troubleshoot this? Clean the lens? Does the lens need realignment? Is the laser failing? Pardon my dummy questions here.

I looked in the forum but didn't find an answer to my dilemma. If anyone has advice or can point me to an existing thread, thanks in advance!
 
To me it sounds like more of a mechanical issue. Unplug CDP and look inside for slipping belt, gear issue, something in the way of laser's travel path. After removing cover, plug into power and play a CD to see if you can see anything. Let us know what you find, if anything.
 
I think Olsen may have hit it. The laser cart slides on a track on both sides. Clean up the old grease and get some white lithium grease and put on a nice thin covering and see if that helps your issue. While in there it would be good to clean the lens. I use a strip of coffee filter and isopropyl alcohol 92%. The coffee filter is soft but the material is lint free.
 
its the buffer time. CDP reads track(s), buffers into limited memory, then skips. you hear buffer's worth, then nothing.

follow all the posted suggestions - keep CDP and CDs.
 
Hey Folks, thanks for the ideas and sorry for the delayed reply. I appreciate it all. I'll be getting into the player later today, and will follow up on the possible issues and solutions you've presented. More to follow!! Thx.
 
Hi All,

Honestly, it all looks great to me. I cleaned the laser with a lens tissue and isopropyl. I mostly looked at the two rails holding the laser mechanism, along which the laser mechanism slides. It is clean as a whistle inside, however the rails have no lubrication. No grease, or such. But it moves freely and very smoothly. I will still lube it up with white lithium grease (gotta go buy some) hoping that it'll help with the skipping problem, although I'd be surprised if that's the issue. It still skips as before after my little cleanup of the rails and lens. Would sewing machine oil be ok as lube on the rails, instead of lithium grease?
 
Hi All,

Honestly, it all looks great to me. I cleaned the laser with a lens tissue and isopropyl. I mostly looked at the two rails holding the laser mechanism, along which the laser mechanism slides. It is clean as a whistle inside, however the rails have no lubrication. No grease, or such. But it moves freely and very smoothly. I will still lube it up with white lithium grease (gotta go buy some) hoping that it'll help with the skipping problem, although I'd be surprised if that's the issue. It still skips as before after my little cleanup of the rails and lens. Would sewing machine oil be ok as lube on the rails, instead of lithium grease?

I had a Sony CDP-302 that would skip also and used sewing machine oil on the pickup rail and it solved the problem. Use it just to see if it fixes the your skipping problem, then you can try the lithium.
 
I had a Sony CDP-302 that would skip also and used sewing machine oil on the pickup rail and it solved the problem. Use it just to see if it fixes the your skipping problem, then you can try the lithium.
I will put some sewing machine oil on, careful not to get sloppy, see if it helps.
 
Oil drips away. The white lithium is best for staying in place.
No! Oil is best. Grease attracts dust and animal dander and hardens up. A light machine oil is best. Also put a few drps of oil on the top bearing of the disc motor, which in this case is most likely the problem
 
Also you have to clean the posts first with alcohol before lubricating them. The reason you don't see any grease is because they used oil.
 
1 drop, Mobil1 0w30, on a Q-tip, on both rails, after NASA-dictated military-hazmat cleaning
to start.
 
its the buffer time. CDP reads track(s), buffers into limited memory, then skips. you hear buffer's worth, then nothing.

I don't recall when digital buffer memory first hit the market, but I don't think it was in use in the late 80's. Even then, it was only a feature of portable players. Your hi-fi home component players were all real-time.

More than likely it's old grease/oil/lube or some mechanical issue that's hanging the laser assembly up. The lens is actually floating and is focused/adjusted by electromagnetic servos; the stepper motor just coarse steps positions while the servos keep the beam tracked. Even this didn't require the buffer you speak of as the player can make those adjustments fast enough.
 
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