The DIY Discman Repair Thread

[fureshi]

Originally posted by was ist los?
I just got a D-555, but during startup and changing tracks, i can hear the mechanism move. Also, i can hear the motor during pauses and at low volumes. What'w wrong with it?

My D-350 did that also but would eventually tell me that it had no disc in it. Adjusting the focus bias helped in that instance.

As for my D-350, after all of the adjustments to the 501-505 pots (minus the 504), there was still a lot of static. Does anyone know of the cause for this and how to fix it?

Also, it only seems to work in the vertical position and in the horizontal position, spindle wobble would keep the laser from reading the cd correctly. Has anyone changed a spindle motor before or know of a way to fix this without changing the motor?

[was ist los?]

Which pot is the focus pot in the 555?

[Duncan]

Oops

Good job I prefer the sound of the 211 to that of the 311... the 311 officially died at 21.00BST 09/25/2003

It sounds like the power regulator has failed... pops when the PSU is plugged in the back, and whistle through the headphone out when batteries are plugged in... regardless of whether the lid is open, closed, disc inserted or not... the whistling stops when you press play, but nothing happens... Also the whistling is at a constant volume regardless of what the pot is set to...

R.I.P. D311

[Duncan]

Oops...

I actually meant that as more of a question...

To the other Discman repairers around here - does that sound like what has killed my D311 - the regulator? - I guess if so, that it could be easily repaired, but - SMD... haha, you've got more hope of me winning the next ten IndyCar tournaments in a row, than what there is of me sorting that out

Any ideas?

Thanks

[PeterR]

Man, that sucks, sorry to hear that.
I'm afraid I know too little about the innards of a 311 to help with a remote diagnosis...
What does the lineout say?

[Duncan]

Peter...

The lineout is silent...

Duncan

[D555]

Hello Duncan,

Sorry to hear that the 311 failed. Don't know the circuit either. All I can say is get a schematic and start reading voltages. If it is an internal 311 power supply failure (not the external PSU) and the failure hasn't taken out the other components it may be an easy fix for a technician.

Does the 311 have a recharge circuit? If so, what do the voltages at the terminals read if the player can be used in recharge mode? That reading may provide a clue.

It may be possible that only a surface mount electrolytic capacitor has gone bad.

Best regards,

Paul

[Duncan]

Paul...

To be honest, its a little beyond me to try and diagnose SMD components...

...I'm not sure where to go to get it fixed, Sony UK don't really want to know, with it being 'so old' - Hmm... I guess its just going to the great PCDP scrap heap in the sky...

[Sugano-san]

I am in possession of a D-311, which is not working. If anybody's interested in this unit for DIY purposes, the following is the link:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=48516

Thanks for your interest.

[Earwax]

I got a D-5 in the mail today ( to join my D-14). I had no intention of buying another one, but I stumbled across the picture on an ebay listing and couldn't stand to see it go for $2.50, so I bid. It was in the wrong category and had almost no description, so I got it for $2.75.

Anyway, to the point as far as this thread is concerned, the D-5a arrived today and it actually worked - more or less. Bad static. Used MCL on the volume pot, that didn't do much. Checked the line-out, it also had static. So I opened it up, adjusted the FO Bias (501) and lo and behold, it cleared up! ( No I didn't actually know what I was doing, it was pure dumb luck. )

Seeing how well that went, I then adjusted my D-14 and was able to improve it's skip resistance and ability to read CDRs a little by adjusting the Tracking Bias and Tracking Gain as described earlier in this thread.

[edit - scratch the part about reading CDRs better, that wasn't fixed]

Yee-ha!