Skipping - help!

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No, not with a rope. The CD Player of my main stereo system is playing up and driving me mad. It's about 10 years old, and has started to skip occasionally. Usually it will skip forward a minute or so in a track, but sometimes this sets it off into a lurching multi-skip where it will jump four or five times in succession.

Some CDs seem more prone to skipping than others although all of these will play perfectly on the other 3 CD players I have in the house (kitchen stereo, computer and CD-Walkman), so it's not the CDs. Sometimes by cleaning a CD which has skipped I can get it to skip less, so it seems that the laser is very sensitive to minute amounts of dust and fibres.

Anyway - what's likely to be wrong? Is the laser on its way out? Is it expensive to replace a laser? Is it likely to be just dirty? Is a thorough professional clean of the whole innards worth having done? Is the disc reading mechanism out of whack somehow?

Let me know what you think - any ideas/experiences/solutions gratefully received!

― Dr. C, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Er I think sometimes it's just the lens type thing, and you can get fluid for cleaning that in Virgin and HMV. I have a theory that cd players just go shit after a few years and theres nothing you can do. I got mine serviced and it still takes ages to read Cds when you first stick them in.

― Ronan, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Congratulations, Dr C, you've just invented glitch.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I've got the same thing - both with my portable cd player and the one in the stereo system. Both now are quite old. I think you'd probably be best of with a replacement, myself.

― Sarah, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

My boyfriend's cd player does that too - it refuses to play the first track of any cd and then gets stuck at other random points. Cleaning sometimes helps but i think the only solution is to get a new one, unfortunately.

― liz, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

YEAH, I GET TO USE MY JOB SKILLS HERE! I'm a electronics tech, and here is what I would tell you if you brought it in....Based upon the age of the unit, get a new one. 10 years for a commercial piece of audio equipment is quite amazing, actually. Your problem (from your diagnosis) is most probably the laser and lens alignment, either from dirt, or I would think from a fractional difference in alignment over time and usage. If you took it to a repair shop (like my job), we would tell you to get a new one, it's not worth the repair. You can try cleaning it as best as possible, and see what happens. If that doesn't help, think about trashing it.

― Gage-o, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Thanks all. Decision made - I'll open the bugger up, poke about a bit, clean it and see what happens. If nowt different, I'll get a new one. What's good for, say £200?

― Dr. C, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

deep disappointment: I thought this thread would be about the Associates song!

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Sorry to let you down, Robin. Nothing to stop you having a thread about the song though ;)

― Dr. C, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Dr. C, my 5 disc carousel totally stopped working. I had it cleaned for $30 and it works perfectly now. The cleaning even cleared up a long-standing problem with some discs that it had.

― Josh, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It could need a cleaning, yes. If you use it constantly, 10 years is a fairly average lifespan, though. Since CD technology has advanced in the last 10 years, buying a new one would likely give you better sound.

― Sean, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The cleaning even cleared up a long- standing problem with some discs that it had.

[insert hilarious speculation here as to which discs these were, exactly...]

― mark s, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"What's good for, say £200?"

Richer Sounds are doing a fairly well-regarded Marantz model (6000 something) for under 200 at the mo'; Marantz (along with Audiolab, Micromega and a few others) were stung by a batch of sticky Philips- sourced transport mechs a few years back, so they, above most others, should've sorted their act out re: CD drives that don't skip by now. I see RS are also flogging a Sony SACD player (plays CDs too, natch) and a good NAD model for 199.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

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