Before giving up on the original assembly, have you tried cleaning the laser with something as benign as a lense brush with a spurt of air? Even a clean looking laser may be “bothered” by something you can’t see and costs next to nothing to try. Fwiw, mine is probably ten years old and no problems.
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Blimey! I am feeling blessed then. I bought my CD5 in 2003 so around 21 years old now and still working. I did have a problem with not starting up and reading the number of tracks when you first put a CD in but that was mostly solved by buying a new puck. It does still occasionally refuse to start especially when it has been switched off for a while when away on holiday. It gets going after a few stabs at the play button.
I guess it cannot go on forever so putting in a CD does now feel a bit like a gamble each time these days.
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In the interest of trying something that is cheap or free first, it may be worth looking at the puck.
I fixed my skipping as I said above by buying a new one but before that, I could reduce the issue by plumping up the 3 rubber pieces under the puck. Over time, these can flatten and cause issues although just 3 years seems a short amount of time. Wort a try as it cost nothing to do.
They are small hollow cylinders of rubber-like material and as well as gently pulling on them to raise them again you can try and rotate them to get a different surface against the CD.
There are not many places that sell replacement pucks these days but Tom Tom Audio in the UK does and if you can get one they are relatively cheap.
On the Cd5si there is no rubber under the washer…
OK, I thought they used the same puck as the previous CD5s. Oh well.
It may be still worth looking at a replacement to try, it’s a cheap option. The puck is there for a purpose.
Good evening,
After cleaning the lens for the moment I no longer have reading problems.
To be monitored
Thanks for your help
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When i had my CD5si i kept a CD permanently clamped inside the drawer to help prevent any dust from landing on the mechanism.
We do something similar with our CDX, but not clamped as I believe the puck cushions go slack
Regards
Martin
No cushions/rubbers on the CD5si puck. It’s just a magnet.
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Ah, I’d not thought of that. I’ve always kept my CDX2’s clamp out of the machine and with the rubbers not touching anything when not actually playing a disc. This was my dealer’s firm advice, based very sensibly on the principle of not squashing the rubbers. I like the idea, though, of keeping the mechanism covered with an unclamped disc to reduce dust.
Presumably the fact that the mech will spin up and try (but fail) to read the unclamped disc when the door is closed doesn’t cause any problems?
My CDX2 is 21 years old this year, still on all original parts, including the puck, and never a single problem. When it comes to CDPs, I would seem to have been born under a lucky star!
Mark
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