The DIY Discman Repair Thread

[D555]

Hi Mairltk,

The flat thin ribbon cable is susceptible to breakage:

1. From repeated flexing.
2. From environmental conditions (exposure to heat and UV rays from direct sunlight, for example, can hasten the breakdown of certain plastics making it brittle). I've seen that exposure to smoke can have a negative effect on plastics as well.

If you *really* like this unit I would suggest that it be repaired again and speak with the repair shop about the problem -- it may be that they can reinforce the ribbon cable or perhaps make a small alteration to the player so that the bend radius isn't so great.

I see those ribbon cables and cringe. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the ones used in my D-555 never break.

Best regards,

Paul

[faustian bargain]

i just bought a sony d50 mkII, which apparently is the same as a d7. so far it makes a very pretty paperweight. it's in excellent aesthetic condition.

symptoms:
no disc spinning. when i press 'play' the display shows '00' for a second then it goes away. there is a tiny whining or grinding sound which i think comes from the laser transport, but it doesn't move. nothing moves.

any initial thoughts before i crack it open? anybody see this problem before? has anyone opened a d50 mkII / d7 before?

/andrew

[D555]

Might be a tracking issue. Have not cracked open an early PCDP (like D5 or D7). Early home CD players have additional adjustments in addition to the typical focus and tracking -- adjustments requiring the use of a frequency counter.

As with any adjustment, mark the original settings with a "sharpie" so you can get back to the original settings.

[mairltk]

Hey Paul,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I'll try that.
I don't *really* like the unit but I haven't got any other pcdp... :P

[faustian bargain]

opened up my d50mkII which had been not playing. i knew there was power getting through the machine, as the lcd would briefly show '00' and then turn off, and there was some whining/grinding sound coming from the transport, although no spinning whatsoever.

everything was clean inside - the thing is built very solid and whoever owned it kept good care of it.

removed the 'upper' (really lower, but i had the thing upside down) PCB to expose the inner PCB with the pots. located 4 pots, correllated their labels roughly with the descriptions given elsewhere on this site, and started tweaking. i used the daredevil style of playing the disc while everything was open (it even played while upside down), and got it to an acceptable level of non-skippiness. it still skips when tapped, so there is room for improvement, but right now i am just happy the thing works.

i don't have enough listening practice to have golden ears, but it sounds nice to me. i briefly played a cd of test tones last night, and through the HP-out it covers the low end fine, seems to start rolling off at 40-60 Hz, but it will play 20Hz softly. the extreme upper end suffers from noise or distortion though. i expect the lineout handles it better, but my portapros didn't have any sound from the lineout last night so i couldn't test it.

my grado 60's are plenty loud through the lineout, however. almost too loud, for in-office listening anyway.

hope this is informative to someone.

/andrew

[D555]

Congratulations on the fix! There are some posts in this thread on how to adjust and what to listen for, in particular, the "drive noise", to much noise and it is working too hard, too little and it will easily skip.

[StvnHarr]

D-303

Just purchased D-303 arrived today. Unit was packed well in bubble wrap and should have withstood travelling well.

First disc played for 20 seconds or so and stopped.
Tried another disc, and wouldn't read. Took several other discs before I found one that it would read. Then played for 39 seconds and quit. Did this 3 times.
Gave it a rest, looked everything over went at it again. Reads the same disc quickly but now won't play it. All other disc just get the flashing disc.

Unit was said to work perfectly before.
Unit seems extremely sensitive to any movement of any kind.
What might have gotten slightly out of whack in shipping?
And any ideas on fixing.

Only got 39 seconds of play, but they did sound good.

[D555]

Possibly a focus and/or tracking adjustment. Good batteries and power supply right? Make sure the contacts for the AC adapter plug and battery contacts are clean.

[StvnHarr]

Unit has power and will start when I depress the little lid switch. My guess is that something got slightly out of align in shipping. Just hard to know how to get it back in proper alignment. Any ideas on that?

[faustian bargain]

i say crack that puppy open and find the trimpots, mark their positions, and start turning the ones relating to focus and tracking. for the labels of the pots, look elsewhere in this thread and the one by lamerdeluxe (see the first page of this thread for a link).

as electronics fixes go, it's really one of the more simple things you can do. no soldering or tricky stuff, just turning a little knob with a jeweler's screwdriver. just be careful with the various little wires and ribbons when you're lifting out the top PCB, not to dislodge any connections. but if it's anything like my d50mkII, it's pretty sturdy.

if tweaking the pots doesn't work, you can always set them back to their original positions and close it up. no harm done.

oh, and don't lose the tiny screws - work over a smooth surface, not something like carpet.

/andrew

[StvnHarr]

I read about the trimpots last night, and will do so again if I think I need to do that.

I think the problem may have something to do with the laser block not moving along the worm gear thing inside. I got the good disc to play for over 10 minutes before it quit, then it would only go 50 seconds into the next track and quit. I could hit the back button once and play would start over at beginning of track and play for 50 minutes. After 3-4 times of this I hit the stop button, lifted the lid and notice the laser block was stopped way out there, rather than moving back to start. It moved back to start when I closed the lid.
Now only plays first 30 seconds or so of track 1, but hitting the back button will start it over again.

I'm thinking it's a lubrication problem, or something is preventing the laser block from properly moving down the gear.

How do you get in there? And what do you use for lubrication?

[faustian bargain]

if it's built like my model, just take out the 4 or 5 screws that hold the bottom panel on. they are labeled with an arrow, and there might be another one located on the back panel near the DC/lineout. that'll expose the transport a bit, but you'll probably have to remove the first PCB as well.

again if it's like mine, there will be 5 or 6 screws around the perimeter of the PCB - take those out and gently maneuver the PCB until it's relatively free. mine had some wiring attaching it to another PCB in a couple places, so it didn't exactly hang totally clear. but it was enough to deal with the worm gear and the trimpots.

you should be able to clean the gear pretty well from there. i didn't need to clean or lubricate mine, but i've read you should use grease on the gear, as opposed to oil. and just a tiny bit, not a lot. you don't want it getting dispersed around the interior of the case. others probably have more specific advice.

one note which might be relevant - when i was adjusting one of the tracking pots on mine, i could turn it far enough that when played it would skip rapidly all the way to the end, or to the beginning if i turned it the other way. so if cleaning the gear doesn't help, you could look at that as a suspect.

hope this helps!

/Andrew

[StvnHarr]

Thanks Andrew.
I'll get to it all next week as I have to go away for a few days.
What you describe is very similar to my D-7, which I've had open a few times. Hopefully the D-303 will not be too much different.

Steve

[faustian bargain]

my understanding is that the D50mkII (my model) is the same as the D7. maybe it's the model name for the non-US version? I don't know. if someone could enlighten me i would appreciate it.

[akubacki]

Sony D-25 stopped working: Help needed
I bought a Sony D-25 a year or so ago when that big stash left over from some airlines was discoverd in a warehouse in CA. I invested in the lead-acid battry from Sony and a good wart plug etc.

I love this device and its sound. Suddenly, for unknown reasons, it stopped working.

Press play (with a CD installed)-nothing.
No spin, no LCD display, Nada.
Took the battery out. Nadda.

I checked my transformer and its output is fine; steady at 9.13 v
I checked the Battery, and it shows 0.9 v which is well below its rated 4 v.

Will this unit run without the battery installed. Mine won't.

Has anyone else had one fail like this and what did you do to fix it?