The DIY Discman Repair Thread

[Duncan]

akubacki

Does the battery charge when the PSU is attached to the player, but no playback functions active? (the scrolling bar on the top left of the display)?

If not (and i'm guessing not) then there could be a problem with the DC jack on the player, maybe its been wiggled around a bit, and that 13 year old solder now has a dry joint... try, with the PSU on and the battery in the case, moving around the jack plug whilst its in the socket, push down on it (although not too hard), push up on it, left, right, you get the idea... and if at any point, the little battery icon pops up, you're in business... and then just need to open up the player, and (fingers crossed) solder up a dry joint etc.

Although, worse case scenario, your D25S could be like my D311, where one of the regulators has gone, and now all I get is a whistling noise (quiet) out of the headphone output as soon as the batteries are inserted, and the unit is otherwise completely unresponsive...

[mairltk]

Hi guys..
I have recently acquired (v.cheaply) and am trying to restore a D-33 to working condition. Ran into a couple of big problem(s) right off the bat.

First and foremost, I found that there's a gear missing a few teeth in the motor assembly. That makes it impossible to operate as the laser cannot move beyond/back to a certain point.

Does this mean this unit is truly busted? Do I just need a new gear or do I have to source for a whole new motor assembly? How do I remove the gears anyway?

Secondly, it does not seem to be picking up any discs I put into it. (I have manually pushed the laser diode back to the starting point, where the broken teeth are not of an issue)
The disc spins and the diode can be seen bobbing up and down slowly, seeking data. After a few tries, the player just powers down.

Am I attempting the impossible? Should I just commit this D-33 to the graveyard?

[StvnHarr]

The D-303 seems to be fixed. Finally got to it this evening. There was a loose wire going to the motor that moves the gears that move the laser. I resoldered the wire and everything works perfect now.
Nice little player.

[mairltk]

Alright! I went down to the spare parts centre today and got a new switch unit for the D-F525. Used lots of sticky tape to 'brace' the ribbon cable and put everything together. It works like a charm. Just hope the ribbon cable does not break again...until I manage to fix the D-33, that is.

[FAI_E888]

Hi!
I want to fix my skippy D-335 by adjusting it's tracking,but i cannot find the pots of Tacking Balance (502) .Any help out there?

[gaijin]

I recently got an xp-55 and it worked fine until yesterday. The right channel out of the headphone jack now has a very low volume (no problem with the line out).
Any suggestions ? Could it be the jack itself that needs replacing ?

[D555]

Could be headphone jack or right headphone output coupling capacitor.

[beerguy0]

I recently ran into a problem with my Sony D-245, in that it would not play the first 1-3 tracks of a specific CD, to wit, the Pink Floyd "Echoes" collection. I could skip forward to track 4, and sometimes I could skip back to track 2 and play it, but no joy on track 1.

I went into work today, after stopping at Harbor Freight for a set of precision screwdrivers ($3.99). (I have oscilloscopes, soldering equipment, microscope, etc. available there). I opened up the unit and first cleaned and re-lubricated the guide rail. This helped a little bit (track 2 would try to play w/o having to go backwards), but still no joy on track 1. I marked the TG pot with a sharpie, and began adjusting the pot CW, a fraction of a turn at a time. After about 1/8th turn, track 1 tried to play. By the time I got to 1/4 turn, track 1 was playing without any problems. So, for $4 and an hour or so of time, I fixed my CD player. Thanks to all who posted info in this thread, and hopefully this will help someone else.

Cheers,

bg

[insomniac]

I'm looking for someone with some good experience repairing vintage Discmen to repair my D-303. There will be a fee involved of course. Please check out the thread linked below for more details.


Link

[Achtunghoy]

So I got it off of ebay, and I was hoping I could fix it with the help of my Head-Fi peers. It spins up, but it won't start playing the track. This is with a redbook cd. Not burned. While it is spinning up, I heard sets of a *rrrrr* followed by a click (reminded me of when my Karma died!) and then after 15 seconds, the unit shuts off. Any thoughts?

*rrrr*..click..*rrrr*..click..*rrrr*..click....

It shows track 00 while the cd spins.

Please help!!

[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.