From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.music.cd,rec.audio
Subject: Re: Problems playing two newer releases
Date: 18 Nov 92 19:58:40 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <BxH6BE.7zv@news.orst.edu> murtaugh@stat.orst.edu writes:
|In article <1992Nov9.204010.20925@news.cs.brandeis.edu> weitzman@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Adam J. Weitzman) writes:
||
||I have a problem with two of the newer CDs I have purchased, but they both
||have the same problem.
||
||I own a Technics SL-XP2 portable CD player, and I've had it for about three
|         ^^^^^^^^
|
|Here's your problem, IMHO.  I've owned two Technics CD players and have
|been most unimpressed.  The first, the thankfully discontinued SL-PJ11,
|had a skipping problem that really never was resolved, even after two (2)
|replacements of the optical pick-up assembly.  When the warranty expired
|and the skipping continued,

*sigh*, I should write a book.  Matsushita needs to buy a few cases of
WD-40, do their engineers know ANYTHING?  I had a SL-P300 (I think) and
it, too, developed a skipping problem.  First time was barely in-warranty,
they replaced the entire innards.  Two years later, it messed up again,
skip, skip, skip.  Out of warranty and more-or-less, out of a CD player,
I had little to lose.

Here's what to do:

UNPLUG IT!!!

Open up the CD player, be careful, there are dangerous laser beams
inside ... mine even had a warning on the inner cover.  Find the
mechanism that moves the head around.  The laser beam rides on some
metal rods (tracks) and I assume some electromagnet moves it around.
The deal is the lubrication on those rods/tracks gets old.  It skips
because it can't move freely (or more accurately, free enough).  Get
a plastic bag, a can of WD-40 and a Q-tip or two.  Spray the WD-40
on the plastic bag to generate a small pool of oil.  Dip the Q-tip
in the oil and apply lightly to the rods/tracks.  I also applied
oil to the rod with the electromagnet on it.  Move the mechanism
around by hand (but don't touch the lens!) to distribute the oil.
Put it back together and try it out.  Mine's been working for over
three years, no problems.

Disclaimer:  Anything you do, you do of your own volition.  I take
NO responsibility for your actions.  If you injure yourself or
destroy your CD player, sorry bub, you're on your own.

|I raised holy hell with Matsushita until
|they agreed to replace the SL-PJ11 with a 5-disk model, the SL-PC15, for
|about $100.  It's a big improvement, but I recently discovered that, about 
|30% of the time, it refuses to play a certain disk that has played without 
|problems on several friends' players.  I'm just waiting for it to get worse.
|Also, the 'random' play algorithm is laughable (it is random with 
|replacement!).

Hmmm, I've had a 5-disc for about a year now, so far, it's fine.  I've not
played with the 'random' option very much, though.  Once it did have a
problem with 'search' mode, though.  I'd hold it down, it would start
scanning through the CD, move about 30 seconds, and stop.  Weird, later,
it worked fine ... no problems since.  Maybe it was just me that day.

|It's the most frustrated I've been since I owned a Ford Escort.

I've heard about those ... so far, I'm crossing my fingers on my CD
player.  BTW, I drive a Mitsubishi Mirage :-)

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com
Newsgroups: rec.music.cd,rec.music.misc,rec.music.newage