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Troubleshooting CD Players

dr*audio said:
The pickup sounds like it is in the home position; otherwise it would not do focus search. If the disc doesn't start spinning after focus search and you don't hear a sizzling sound (meaning a bad disc motor) the pickup or the pickup wires is bad, or bad power supply to the laser. There may be a resistor or fuse in series with the laser supply on the main board that opened when you ran it with the solder short in place.
Click to expand...

Ok sweet I'll get my tester out again and start tracing.

Yep, no sizzling sound at all. The only reason why I don't believe it's in the HOME position, is the way you descibed the home position:
With no CD in the player, turn the player on and watch the laser pickup (don't look directly at the lens!) If the pickup moves toward the disc motor then moves back, the switch is ok. If the pickup moves toward the disc motor and doesn't move back, the switch is dirty and doesn't close.

It CLEARLY does not move back, which would suggest a bad switch as you pointed out, but i've ruled that out. Do you think that running the CDP with that 210B in there might've F'd something?
 
damager said:
Ok sweet I'll get my tester out again and start tracing.

Yep, no sizzling sound at all. The only reason why I don't believe it's in the HOME position, is the way you descibed the home position:
With no CD in the player, turn the player on and watch the laser pickup (don't look directly at the lens!) If the pickup moves toward the disc motor then moves back, the switch is ok. If the pickup moves toward the disc motor and doesn't move back, the switch is dirty and doesn't close.

It CLEARLY does not move back, which would suggest a bad switch as you pointed out, but i've ruled that out. Do you think that running the CDP with that 210B in there might've F'd something?
Click to expand...

It may just be that your player has different behavior by design. Most other players find home and then jump back a bit. I guess that's how they know the laser didn't jam up against the stop.
 
dr*audio said:
It may just be that your player has different behavior by design. Most other players find home and then jump back a bit. I guess that's how they know the laser didn't jam up against the stop.
Click to expand...


Dr*Audio.... is there a possibility that the new KSS-210A laser pickup that I bought might be crap? Is there any way to test it with just a multimeter?

Unfortunately, testing beyond that kind of goes beyond my sphere of technical knowledge, so I may have to just accept it and take her in to the nearest shop. (man i wish i knew HALF the sh1t you know about electronics) I wouldn't know where to begin as far as testing these components one by one. And I'm CERTAINLY not going to ask you how to do that. hahah I think that would probably be downright impractical not to mention a pain in your a$$. :)

And by the way, thanks ever so much for all your help once again. What little i was able to do, i learned alot with!!
 
damager said:
Dr*Audio.... is there a possibility that the new KSS-210A laser pickup that I bought might be crap? Is there any way to test it with just a multimeter?

Unfortunately, testing beyond that kind of goes beyond my sphere of technical knowledge, so I may have to just accept it and take her in to the nearest shop. (man i wish i knew HALF the sh1t you know about electronics) I wouldn't know where to begin as far as testing these components one by one. And I'm CERTAINLY not going to ask you how to do that. hahah I think that would probably be downright impractical not to mention a pain in your a$$. :)

And by the way, thanks ever so much for all your help once again. What little i was able to do, i learned alot with!!
Click to expand...
There is no way I know of to test the laser with a DMM. Measure the voltage on pin 1 of CN105. You should have at least 0.6V during focus search. If you have voltage there, the laser is probably bad.
 
Great sticky here and thanks for posting the transport check-out info! I have a CAL Icon Mark II that suddenly quit years ago and still have it. Don't remember the symptoms, but I will run your check-list and report back. I do have an O'scope to check waveforms and will have a look. I'd really like to have the Icon back to working...it's a great unit. My guess is it's a transport issue.
 
Hello dr*audio,
I was directed to this Thread after I posted about my Nakamichi CD4 quit working suddenly. I have gone through all the conversations between you and damager. It seems that my problem is similar. In mine, the switch was not closing. After cleaning, it does close after the carriage has moved to extreme forward position. But it never moves back and forth like other CD players (Sony) that I have observed. On power up the lens moves up withe the laser on. And then moves down once the laser turns off. The voltage on pin 1 of CN105 is 1.99V. After the laser shuts off the voltage slowly decays.
Do you believe that the laser unit (KSS-150A) is bad where even though the laser is on, lens moves up and down but does not send the correct signal to the uP? Are there some signals that I can monitor on a scope to verify?
Thanks in advance.
Veej
 
Hello dr*audio,
A follow up of my previous post.
Audiojones, a member with whom I have been in contact, has similar problems. He wrote back stating that he has already changed the laser unit without success. Therefore, it seems certain that it is a mother board issue. A discrete component or maybe the uP itself??
 
Hi Dr*Audio

I have an Onkyo DX-C500 - it uses the 6 disc cartridge, like some of the Pioneers.

I load the cartridge and the player begins checking each tray of the cartridge. When it does this check, the CD is placed under the clamp spindle, but there is no spin up of the disc. After it has checked all 6 trays, the player acts as if there are no discs to play - no table of contents, etc. Is this the way it should be? If it should be spinning, then I'm guessing I either have a dead motor or laser?
Are there voltages I could look for on the motor?
 
quartermoonp said:
Hi Dr*Audio

I have an Onkyo DX-C500 - it uses the 6 disc cartridge, like some of the Pioneers.

I load the cartridge and the player begins checking each tray of the cartridge. When it does this check, the CD is placed under the clamp spindle, but there is no spin up of the disc. After it has checked all 6 trays, the player acts as if there are no discs to play - no table of contents, etc. Is this the way it should be? If it should be spinning, then I'm guessing I either have a dead motor or laser?
Are there voltages I could look for on the motor?
Click to expand...

This player is basically a Pioneer. The disc motors do go bad a lot on these, and also the lasers were crap. Could be either one. Listen closely when it attempts to read the disc. If you hear a sizzling sound, the disc motor is bad. If you hear nothing, the laser is bad. You can get to the pins on the disc motor easily because it is upside down right on top, so you can measure the voltage on the motor to see if there is any. Due to this player's age, it is likely the laser is bad and they are no longer available. Boat anchor.
 
Update:
Upon power up and inserting a CD, it spun it and played!? I'm puzzled though as surely it couldn't have fixed itself? While in there I cleaned the laser using a q-tip and lens cleaner, cleaned the single metal sliding rail for the drawer with alcohol and re greased with the thinnest layer of white lithium grease, put a single small drop of sewing machine oil on the top chuck bearing??...where the top disk clamp fits into when a disk is loaded. Evidently this point was quite dry because the disk spins down much longer than before. Previously, it would stop within 1/4 sec. Now it takes > 5sec to spin down to a full stop.

I also lub'd the very dry loading tray drive belt using 303. I removed the belt and gently pulled it through a paper towel saturated with 303.

I relubed the sliding drawer tray surfaces. Thought about disassembling the transport down to the board, then decided not to press my luck....after all now it IS playing. I put a disk in, and set it on repeat play overnight. This AM it was still going, so I take that as a good sign! I wanted everything powered up for several hours since it hasn't seen VAC in over 10 years.

Thanks for the list of things to go through Doc! BTW, do you know whos transports CAL used in the Icon Mrk III?
 
I'm new here and just realized I posted a msg to you, hijacking someone elses thread! Sorry about that. This forum SW is a bit different that what I use elsewhere....

I have a CAL Icon Mrk II I bought used back in the late 90's?? Can't remember. Worked fine for awhile, then one day would no longer play. Took it to a local shop, they said the transport is dead and not available and probably wasn't worth fixing. I was really bummed as this thing is built like a tank and laid out beautifully inside. So I removed it from the rack and stuck it in a closet for the next 10-15 years.

After stumbling upon this thread, I decided to investigate further. Upon power up and inserting a CD, it spun it and played!? I'm puzzled though as surely it couldn't have fixed itself? While in there I cleaned the laser using a q-tip and lens cleaner, cleaned the single metal sliding rail for the drawer with alcohol and re greased with the thinnest layer of white lithium grease, put a single small drop of sewing machine oil on the top chuck bearing??...where the top disk clamp fits into when a disk is loaded. Evidently this point was quite dry because the disk spins down much longer than before. Previously, it would stop within 1/4 sec. Now it takes > 5sec to spin down to a full stop.

I also lub'd the very dry loading tray drive belt using 303. I removed the belt and gently pulled it through a paper towel saturated with 303.

I relubed the sliding drawer tray surfaces. Thought about disassembling the transport down to the board, then decided not to press my luck....after all now it IS playing. I put a disk in, and set it on repeat play overnight. This AM it was still going, so I take that as a good sign! I wanted everything powered up for several hours since it hasn't seen VAC in over 10 years.

Thanks for the list of things to go through Doc! BTW, do you know whos transports CAL used in the Icon Mrk II?
 
Sled_Driver said:
I'm new here and just realized I posted a msg to you, hijacking someone elses thread! Sorry about that. This forum SW is a bit different that what I use elsewhere....

I have a CAL Icon Mrk II I bought used back in the late 90's?? Can't remember. Worked fine for awhile, then one day would no longer play. Took it to a local shop, they said the transport is dead and not available and probably wasn't worth fixing. I was really bummed as this thing is built like a tank and laid out beautifully inside. So I removed it from the rack and stuck it in a closet for the next 10-15 years.

After stumbling upon this thread, I decided to investigate further. Upon power up and inserting a CD, it spun it and played!? I'm puzzled though as surely it couldn't have fixed itself? While in there I cleaned the laser using a q-tip and lens cleaner, cleaned the single metal sliding rail for the drawer with alcohol and re greased with the thinnest layer of white lithium grease, put a single small drop of sewing machine oil on the top chuck bearing??...where the top disk clamp fits into when a disk is loaded. Evidently this point was quite dry because the disk spins down much longer than before. Previously, it would stop within 1/4 sec. Now it takes > 5sec to spin down to a full stop.

I also lub'd the very dry loading tray drive belt using 303. I removed the belt and gently pulled it through a paper towel saturated with 303.

I relubed the sliding drawer tray surfaces. Thought about disassembling the transport down to the board, then decided not to press my luck....after all now it IS playing. I put a disk in, and set it on repeat play overnight. This AM it was still going, so I take that as a good sign! I wanted everything powered up for several hours since it hasn't seen VAC in over 10 years.

Thanks for the list of things to go through Doc! BTW, do you know whos transports CAL used in the Icon Mrk II?
Click to expand...

I have never worked on one but I found a photo and it looks like a Yamaha mech to me.
 
I am doing a little tune up on a newly acquired Sony CDP 520ES. Got it recently as a throw in on a package deal. Door would only open an inch so I got it sorta cheap. I cleaned some sticky grease off the two tray rails and now the door opens fine but I think I should lubricate the rails. I have seen a few suggestions but I want to confirm best lubricant product for this application. Light machine oil (probably not Teflon based) or Teflon based stuff that looks thicker? Tolerances are so tight that a light oil on the rails like sewing machine oil makes sense.

Opinions?

Thanks
 
CAL Icon Mrk II:
Servo100001_zps81d24c8e.jpg
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Servo100002_zps8e5e443e.jpg
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I recently got a Sony CDP 507ESD for cheap, and encountered this CD transport issue. The sled was weakly opening and closing, so I tried to close it with the screw at the bottom. This caused the sled to be locked and I can't get it to open or close.

If I press the open/close button, nothing happens because the sled is locked somehow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov5yos_AwsI

Additionally, if I turn the screw in the bottom of the chassis, I can't get the sled to budge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYHiStje5kg

I'm not sure what to do to get the sled unstuck.
 
Last edited:
I figured pictures would also help. Click for bigger. Let me know if any other pictures are necessary.

Also, here is the service manual with explosions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2scgavy756fir5v/Sony CDP-227ESD_507ESD sm.pdf

Transport with the cover removed.


Close-up.


Bottom with the plate removed. (not much access here)


Bottom of the transport.


Another picture of the bottom of the transport (not much to see).


Dual TDA1541As!


Elna caps!


Thank you for any help any of you can provide! :)

I suspect it thinks the tray is slid in, but cannot change out of this state to unlock the tray.
 
Got it to work!!! It was a matter of pushing the optical pick-up assembly down so the tray can slide in and out. I was hesitant at first because I know the optics on CD players are fragile, but I was gentle without forcing it down and got enough clearance so the tray could slide in and out.

I know now why these players are so desirable! It sounds an order of magnitude more musical than my Nakamichi MB-3 (which is no slouch either with a Burr-Brown PCM1700P).



 
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