Hello and welcome to whatishifi blog.
I realized that many people who experience the most common problem with a CD player - the player doesn't recognize the disk or plays it back with difficulties - try to solve this with a CD cleaner disk. They see no change, so they assume that the player has another fault.
They are not aware that the CD cleaner disk in most cases is worthless; indeed, the laser head does need cleaning but this has to be done manually. From my experience, 85% - 90% of the players I manually cleaned became as good as new - exception to this were some notorious Aiwa's of the 90's.
Having another case where the owner told me "but I used a CD cleaning disk and nothing happened, it must be something else!" gave birth to this post. It was an instant decision so I apologize for taking photos with my mobile phone and not the dSLR.
Manually cleaning the laser head is a simple thing to do, provided you have some basic skills and you are a reasonable person understanding that you should not touch the wires inside an appliance that is connected at the mains. If you feel you are such a person you can proceed with confidence, but as always, at your own risk. If you are not a reasonable person but decide to proceed anyway, it is a good idea to get someone videotaping you; you might become famous in YouTube electrocuting yourself.
First thing to do is to unplug the player from the mains and open the top cover of the CD player, this usually involves unscrewing approximately 7 screws at the sides and the back - sometimes also at the top. Please keep separate the screws so you can put them back from where they came from, for example the screws from the sides are usually different than the screws from the back.
After removing the top cover you need to locate the laser head. Sometimes you have to eject the drawer (just keep your hand out of the player while you plug it in at the mains in order to eject the drawer) and the laser head becomes accessible. If the head becomes accessible only at the middle of the eject procedure, it is OK to unplug the player at that point in order to stop the drawer at the most convenient position. Do not look directly to the laser head, there might be some laser light present and you are not a wanna be new superhero.
Unplug again the player from the mains outlet.
You can clean the head by using a cotton swab and pure alcohol (pure means not the blue one!). The cotton swab has to be of good quality so it won't leave any fibers on the head. Gently rub the head's eye in circular motion without applying pressure, just gently touch the head. The head has a kind of suspension, don't worry seeing it moving a bit while you clean it. Ready! Most probably your machine will behave like new. By the way, don't expect to see at the cotton swab any visible dirt; I mean don't get disappointed and think that there was nothing to clean of, it doesn't go that way. Just make sure that there are no fibers left on the head - if they are, try to remove them with another dry swab. Blowing air with your mouth is not a good idea, you might spit the head and we don't want that - rumors that spiting on the laser head is good luck and improves the HiEndAudiophileness of the player are not true.
Let the head dry for a minute and try to play back a CD. If the problem is not fixed, I am afraid that you need to go to a technician and most probably you will need a new laser head.
The second most common CD player fault is a drawer that refuses to open or can not close all the way in; this means that the belt of the drawer mechanism spins at the wheel from where it gets movement. Although this usually means that you have to change the overflowing belt, there are 80% probability that you can make things work by just cleaning the belt and the wheel. If I can take off the belt, I clean it with dish soap and dry it with a clean towel. I also clean the grooves of the wheels with the same means I cleaned the laser head. When I install back the belt I do it with clean hands so I won't leave any grease to the belt. If it is hard to get the belt out or you are just lazy, you can clean everything with a cotton swab and pure alcohol. For this you have to manually and gently turn by hand the wheel and simulate the move of the mechanism while it ejects and at the same time put your cotton swamp between the belt and the wheel(s) groove in order to clean them both. Remember, you do not want to leave any grease so you better wash your hands with dish soap first.
Hard thing here is to locate where this belt is. In some players I have to remove the top cover, in other cases the bottom cover, in few cases I need to take of the CD mechanism. If you are not sure if what you are looking to is the drawer belt, just press eject button and see if the wheel spins. This belt thing is more complex than the head cleaning and requires some more skills.
I realized that many people who experience the most common problem with a CD player - the player doesn't recognize the disk or plays it back with difficulties - try to solve this with a CD cleaner disk. They see no change, so they assume that the player has another fault.
They are not aware that the CD cleaner disk in most cases is worthless; indeed, the laser head does need cleaning but this has to be done manually. From my experience, 85% - 90% of the players I manually cleaned became as good as new - exception to this were some notorious Aiwa's of the 90's.
Having another case where the owner told me "but I used a CD cleaning disk and nothing happened, it must be something else!" gave birth to this post. It was an instant decision so I apologize for taking photos with my mobile phone and not the dSLR.
Manually cleaning the laser head is a simple thing to do, provided you have some basic skills and you are a reasonable person understanding that you should not touch the wires inside an appliance that is connected at the mains. If you feel you are such a person you can proceed with confidence, but as always, at your own risk. If you are not a reasonable person but decide to proceed anyway, it is a good idea to get someone videotaping you; you might become famous in YouTube electrocuting yourself.
First thing to do is to unplug the player from the mains and open the top cover of the CD player, this usually involves unscrewing approximately 7 screws at the sides and the back - sometimes also at the top. Please keep separate the screws so you can put them back from where they came from, for example the screws from the sides are usually different than the screws from the back.
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| At a first glance, the laser head is hidden at this Denon DCD-520AE CD player |
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| After ejecting the drawer, the laser head becomes accessible. |
You can clean the head by using a cotton swab and pure alcohol (pure means not the blue one!). The cotton swab has to be of good quality so it won't leave any fibers on the head. Gently rub the head's eye in circular motion without applying pressure, just gently touch the head. The head has a kind of suspension, don't worry seeing it moving a bit while you clean it. Ready! Most probably your machine will behave like new. By the way, don't expect to see at the cotton swab any visible dirt; I mean don't get disappointed and think that there was nothing to clean of, it doesn't go that way. Just make sure that there are no fibers left on the head - if they are, try to remove them with another dry swab. Blowing air with your mouth is not a good idea, you might spit the head and we don't want that - rumors that spiting on the laser head is good luck and improves the HiEndAudiophileness of the player are not true.
 |
| Gently clean the laser head with a cotton swamp and pure alcohol. |
The second most common CD player fault is a drawer that refuses to open or can not close all the way in; this means that the belt of the drawer mechanism spins at the wheel from where it gets movement. Although this usually means that you have to change the overflowing belt, there are 80% probability that you can make things work by just cleaning the belt and the wheel. If I can take off the belt, I clean it with dish soap and dry it with a clean towel. I also clean the grooves of the wheels with the same means I cleaned the laser head. When I install back the belt I do it with clean hands so I won't leave any grease to the belt. If it is hard to get the belt out or you are just lazy, you can clean everything with a cotton swab and pure alcohol. For this you have to manually and gently turn by hand the wheel and simulate the move of the mechanism while it ejects and at the same time put your cotton swamp between the belt and the wheel(s) groove in order to clean them both. Remember, you do not want to leave any grease so you better wash your hands with dish soap first.
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| Look for something like this - photo from AudioKarma. |
A nice hint for curing an overflowing belt: Till you buy a new one, you can take out the old belt and put it in a pot that has almost boiling water. Let everything cool down, then let the belt dry and install it again. This method usually gives you some extra months of proper operation.
Happy listening as always!
Christos
Christos
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ReplyDeleteI have a boom box JVC PC XT3 oldie but goody I press Play about 4-5 time and the cd starts spinning for about 3 seconds and then stops. Cleaned lens, tried three good cds.
ReplyDelete