The DIY Discman Repair Thread

[npoz]

Hello,

I have a d-555 and just pulled it out to clean er up yesterday. The player works great, display is kosher, and the line out works too, but when I plug in head phones to the headphone jack, I get a very faint volume. Even when the volume is at max the sound is barely able to be heard. Does anyone have any idea what could be done to fix this problem? If all else fails I could get powered headphones I guess.

Thank You,

Npoz

[D555]

My guess: bad headphone output coupling capacitors (surface mount, 6.3v 100ufd). Upgraded mine to 220ufd. See my posting in August 2003 in this thread. Good luck.

[tooch]

I have a Sony D-25 here, and the backlight seems to flicker quite badly some of the time. It has a little trouble reading some discs which I'm sure can be fixed by adjusting the tracking, but its only done it on one or two discs so far.

Any ideas on the backlight?

[Blue Meanie]

Originally Posted by tooch

I have a Sony D-25 here, and the backlight seems to flicker quite badly some of the time. It has a little trouble reading some discs which I'm sure can be fixed by adjusting the tracking, but its only done it on one or two discs so far.

Any ideas on the backlight?

I have a Sony d-9 with a similar problem, only the backlight flickers all the time when playing a disc. And the speed of the flicker changes as the rotational speed of the cd being played changes. Also, there are times when it can't start spinning a cd to play it. But if I open the lid on the player, and manually turn the spindle perhaps a quarter of a turn, when I close the lid and hit play, the disc will spin up and play fine (with the backlight flickering the whole time). My uneducated guess as to the cause of MY player's problem (but perhaps not yours) is a "dead spot" (either a short, or an open) on the armature of the spindle motor. And the reason the backlight is flickering is that when spinning, and the "dead spot" is encountered, the spindle motor is momentarily drawing either less, or more current, depending on whether the "dead spot" is an open or a short. Does your backlight flicker all the time, and seem dependant on the rotational speed of the disc?

Jeff

[tooch]

I thought also that mine was dependent on the speed, but it doesnt seem so. Also, it usually starts when you first select a song, but stops after maybe 20-30 seconds. It sometimes starts flickering later on as well.

[Blue Meanie]

Originally Posted by tooch

I thought also that mine was dependent on the speed, but it doesnt seem so. Also, it usually starts when you first select a song, but stops after maybe 20-30 seconds. It sometimes starts flickering later on as well.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. I hate to see a fine person such as yourself having to put up with a semi-defective D-25. Personally, I think your best bet would be to sell me yours cheap, and find another D-25 that doesn't exhibit a problem such as this one...

Jeff

[tooch]

Haha it was hard enough to get this one, dont wanna let it go just yet
I've noticed now that it seems to dim/flicker when it's having trouble reading the disc. There are some discs that it wont read at all, wont spin. Sometimes turning it upside down helps this.

Might try adjusting the laser, if I can get up the courage to do it

[tooch]

Well after a whole lot of mucking around and tweaking (read=wildly turning the pots ) I managed to get it reading a lot better now! Reads the discs it didnt do before, also reads some CDR's! Doesnt seem to skip as much and the backlight doesnt flicker anymore! Lets just hope I dont have to do it again, took me 2 days of stuffing around to get it perfected!

[Jahn]

This thread saved my D-15, i found it in my folks place buried under some pac man stickers. i twirled the orange thingies inside and now it at least plays, if i dont tap it or shake it or look at it. i tried to fine tweak it, but the best i can do is have it play all the way thru a cd if i just dont touch it - which is fine, because the sound is even better than my ipod.

the problem is the line out is very fussy - if i tap it this way or that, the entire left signal poots out. i have to twist/jiggle it just right and not breathe for 72 minutes and i get stereo. is there a way to fix this jack? if not the headphone jack is fine - but i'd rather use the line out, since i have a cmoy. btw the interconnect is not the problem - it works fine on my ipod. thanks!

Edit - i opened up the jack - i see three copper bars - i am assuming one of them controls the left signal. what can i do with it to make it connect?

[tooch]

Remove the old solder with some de-soldering wick, and then re-solder it to give it a nice clean connection!

BTW, if anyone is interested, i have an interest check on my D-25 in the Source Components section.