History of my CD Player - Purchased second hand from ex-forum member Hemant Waghe in the year 2012. Hoping it to be atleast 5 years old then. I have used this player for 6 years now without any issues and am quite satisfied with its performance.
Past 2 to 3 months, this cd player started giving me intermitted "No Disc" error and also in some of the CDs the tracks was skipping even though there was no visible scratches on my disc. Even after cleaning my lens with alcohol and cleaning the connecting cable from the lens to the control board did not resolve this issue and was driving me nuts. Then after some search in the net took the below approach,
- There is a small trimpot on the lens PCB which is used to adjust the lens beam current and over time the lens become weak and the beam current needs minor adjustment. I grabbed my multimeter and checked the trimpot resistance from the center to the left end and it showed the factory set value as 1.2Kohms. I then tried making it 1.4Kohm first and tested again but to no avail and the "No disc" was still present in all the disc. I then moved counterclockwise and adjusted it to 880 ohms and tested again. Hoorah - The "No Disc" error and the cd skipping error was resolved and now working perfect. I have now used it for 3 days with this modification with no visible chance of the issue repeating.
Disclaimer - you shold be doing this only if you have a multimeter and can read the original factory setting. Go no more than 20% of the set value else you may increase beam current and damage the lens diode beyond repair. This method can be adopted only if the CD lens is at the end stage life cycle and needs a replacement sooner or later.
Increasing the beam current would eventually reduce the life of the lens and maybe it would now last for 6 months to an year - who knows.
Thanks for looking.
Past 2 to 3 months, this cd player started giving me intermitted "No Disc" error and also in some of the CDs the tracks was skipping even though there was no visible scratches on my disc. Even after cleaning my lens with alcohol and cleaning the connecting cable from the lens to the control board did not resolve this issue and was driving me nuts. Then after some search in the net took the below approach,
- There is a small trimpot on the lens PCB which is used to adjust the lens beam current and over time the lens become weak and the beam current needs minor adjustment. I grabbed my multimeter and checked the trimpot resistance from the center to the left end and it showed the factory set value as 1.2Kohms. I then tried making it 1.4Kohm first and tested again but to no avail and the "No disc" was still present in all the disc. I then moved counterclockwise and adjusted it to 880 ohms and tested again. Hoorah - The "No Disc" error and the cd skipping error was resolved and now working perfect. I have now used it for 3 days with this modification with no visible chance of the issue repeating.
Disclaimer - you shold be doing this only if you have a multimeter and can read the original factory setting. Go no more than 20% of the set value else you may increase beam current and damage the lens diode beyond repair. This method can be adopted only if the CD lens is at the end stage life cycle and needs a replacement sooner or later.
Increasing the beam current would eventually reduce the life of the lens and maybe it would now last for 6 months to an year - who knows.
Thanks for looking.