CDs not reading (or spinning) on Sony CDP-C27 5-CD changer

[+thegoldenband]

As the subject says, my Sony CDP-C27 CD player (with 5-CD changer) appears to have given up the ghost. (Actually it gave up the ghost months ago, but I've only just gotten around to checking it out.) Here's a video of what it's doing:

 

http://youtu.be/y400vySZIlE

 

It's clearly taking longer to fail when there's a disc in the mechanism, but it's still not spinning the disc up. There aren't any grinding noises or signs of mechanical failure, so I'm not sure what to do next. I've cleaned the lens with 91% isopropyl and a Q-tip, twice, but it didn't help.

 

I got this player for free at a yard sale, and it's always been a little flaky, but it had been well-behaved for some time before it finally, abruptly stopped working. I have other ways of playing CDs (i.e. my DVD player), so it's not the world's biggest tragedy if it's toast, but I'd still like to resuscitate it.

 

Any ideas?

[Wacara]

I'd suspect the driver IC as a likely culprit, although its not the only possibility (could be the IC's power source, the spindle motor itself, logic control signals to the driver IC, to name a few). Often the same driver IC also controls the laser tracking and the focus coil. From the video it seems the focus movement is alright, however the laser assembly never moves. Typically the laser assembly will move, whilst attempting to focus, in an attempt to read data from a disc. If you manually move the laser assembly (with unit unplugged) away from the centre of the disc (spidlle), if tracking drive is good, it will/should move to the centre again, since CD systems read data from discs in the same fashion as vinyl - centre of disc to the outer edge. Dirty laser lens/optics will not prevent the spindle motor from spinning. The system always fires up the spindle motor when it goes to read a disc. If the optics were dirty, the disc would spin in varying speeds (including very rapid speeds) and the laser assembly would move in tiny (jerking) motions, in an attempt to get a read. In some systems, the laser will actually travel up and down its entire track quickly. The system would eventually give up after several failed attempts (typically) and raise an error flag ("no disc", typically).

 

In all honesty, it probably is not worth bothering with, unless the unit holds some collectors/sentimental value to you. There are service manuals available on the net (though I have not found a free one), although such systems can prove to be complex to troubleshoot.

[+thegoldenband]

Wow, thanks for the reply, Wacara! I was expecting this thread to forever languish in the one-and-done category...

 

I haven't worked on this since I took the video, but I'll take another look based on your comments. My hope is that, since this player always been a bit flaky, it might be a problem with the spindle motor that could be fixed with added lubrication or something similar. It doesn't have any real value, sentimental or otherwise, but it's a pretty good-sounding CD player -- it sounds noticeably better than my DVD player -- and it's partly just the principle of it, i.e. keeping things from ending up in the landfill.

[Wacara]

I wish you the best, and hope you have some luck. Its been a while since I ever really messed with CD players, but I figured I'd throw out some ideas when I saw this topic unreplied to. You are totally correct about the landfill, that is a nightmare to me, not just death to electronics, but also a history killer. Not to mention that a lot of the old school stuff is so much better built then things you find the stores these days (and that it was servicable and well thought out). You always can try to fix, and in my case, when I have no luck, I usually save the item for parts, or just in case I end up with a similar unit that I can swap parts and make one working unit. It seems like only yesterday electronics service was the big deal, especially TV repair. I've worked on so many, I never thought it would die off, let alone most service period.

 

None the less, hopefully you can get that player going!