CD problem

[jackg]

Cambridge CD 4SE from 1999.
I have not used it much.
The output was getting slowly worse over the past 6 months.
Intermittent pick up and sometimes only one channel.
Now on inserting a disc I get no disc error on the panel.
Removed the cover and tried again, the disc did not turn and no disc on the panel again.
So cleaned the laser with a cotton bud and clear meths.
Tried again.
Of the four three I tried all spun before the panel said no disc.
One CD did show 18 tracks on the panel so I plugged the player into the hifi and got intermittent pick up as before on both channels at the start and by the end it was playing fine, only a short disc of grade 4 piano pieces.
So I tried a CD which showed no disc before, and this one worked, one or two dropped notes initially but generally fine.
I think it is down to lack of use, I may have used it 20-30 times over the past year but no more and that to play short grade 5 piano pieces which last a minute.
So presumably the solution is to use it?

Are there any tips for cleaning CDs with anti static cloth to improve pick up?

[colin.hepburn]

Hi Jack
I read in a hi fi mag some years ago that antistatic plague furnisher polish was good for cleaning Cd's and I can confirm it works
I uses it with a cloth you would clean your eye glass,s with just a light spray and clean in strat lines from the center out and then use a dry micro fiber cloth in the same manner center to out side cheap too
I once used liquid brasso on a CD when I was building my WD Valve phono stage I had a cd sitting on the work bench which got a solder splash on it surprisingly the solder came off the CD but left a dark mark on the surface so thinking the CD is wrecked thinking I had nothing to lose I tried the brasso which worked a treat I am still playing that CD today

[bencat]

I may well be wrong so do not put too much faith in this but I used to own a Cambridge Discmaster which I think used the same transport and display as your CD. It was oftne temperemental and would not spin or recognise a disc on insertion but a short sharp bang on the lid would rectify this. I did get sick of this and traced the problem to one of the plug in leads from the transport to the circuit board . It was one of those white 4/5 pin plug in sockets and it was making intermitent connection a full solder replacement cured the fault .

If as you say this unit has not been used then there may well be the chance to cure this by first getting it to recognise a disc and play then put it on repeat and leave it over night playing the disc which should clear all the pathways and get the unit both mechanically and electrically in the groove. If this does not work then you may need to look and see if the above is the casue fo the problem . As far as I remember Cambridge use a Sony transport so they should be reasonable .

[Richard]

Hi Jack,

Yes, could be lack of use, caps in particular like to be used. Have a look round at connectors as bencat said and for obvious faults like bulging/split eletrolytic power supply caps also, just had similar on my pc motherboard, not too hard to replace.

What I think may be happening though, mainly as you say it improved after cleaning the pick up lens, is that the laser is dying. The problem sounded like a dirty laser but meths should have fixed that completely if the laser is still good.

I use a copy burned music cd to check how good the pick up is on mine. Even with 20 Year old Marantz machines off ebay a good one will play copy discs no problem.

You will know if it's worth chasing much, or whether you might be better off with a replacement machine, lots of goods one around secondhand now, or a move to data stream perhaps if you're a computer type.