From: stuart@ee.fit.edu (William Stuart)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Help! My CD player sk-sk-sk-sk-skips
Date: 27 Sep 92 04:13:59 GMT
Organization: Florida Tech, CP/EE Dept.

In <1992Sep22.113528.25192@hp4at.eunet.co.at> wang@hp4at.eunet.co.at (Wang) writes:

>dairiki@milton.u.washington.edu (Jeff Dairiki) writes:
>: If this is a FAQ, I have been naughty.    I'm very sorry.
>: 
>: So I've had this Sony Portable CD player for three years or so.  When
>: it was about a year old it started to skip occasionally.  Now it skips
>: all the time, and its really getting too annoying to ignore.
>: (It really wasn't very mistreated either -- it's been lashed down tight
>: in a clean dry corner of my sailboat the whole time...)
>: 
>: So all the salepeople (can you really call them people?) at the stereo
>: stores around here say: "Oh yeah, of COURSE it skips.  If its three years
>: old it supposed to skip.  They all skip after a year or so.  What you
>: need is an Alignment and Cleaning."
>Hmm wonder what that is .. know this behaviour! My Sony D-100 is now in the age
>of four - and skips ...
>First I thought the CD is bad but meanwhile it skips on new CDs too!!
>I thought that's the weak errorcorrection that the early little dingies 
>had. I still have no answer ..
>I'll follow this thread.
>-- 
>Michael Zacherl, Wang Austria Ltd., Vienna         |
>E-MAIL: mza@pag.wang.co.at                         | "Proof your chances,
>PHONE:  +43 (1) 89-111 ext. 433                    |  and leave them or not."
>FAX:    +43 (1) 894-17-14                          |     

Here it comes... SUPRISE!! ANYTHING made by Sony that has linear tracking
whatever WILL fail in short order.  I am not sure why, but sony can't
make a linear tracking device for sh*t.  I have had a turntable, 2 portable
CD players, and a 3.5" disk-drive.  ALL have failed at least once.  All had
Sony's worm-geared linear tracking.  BAD design.  OK, off the soapbox...

If the CD player is of the D7 or D55 variety, then it is almost certainly
the linear drive worm gear.  On one of my units, the brushes in the motor
got warped and the motor wound up with a dead spot.  After pulling the 
motor apart and cleaning/bending the brushes, the thing has worked fine.
I did the fix about 2 years ago, no probs yet.  Opening the unit and 
yanking the motor is not hard if you have some _small_ tools, patience,
and mechanical skill.

The second CD, which I bought dead to canibalize for the other player, had
a slipped spindle drive gear.  This can also cause skipping. Again, this 
is a mechanical problem that can be fixed with glue if you feel confident 
in your skills.  The tracking motor had a failure identical to the one 
above 6 months later.  Same fix, no probs since.

In summary, it's probably the linear tracking mechanism.  They are fairly
easy to fix if you have some tools, skills, and patience.  If it is not 
the linear mechanism, it is still most likely a simple mechanical problem.
'Alignment and Cleaning' sounds like a rip-off to me.  The things are 
supposed to align themselves. I have never had a player aligned or cleaned
and they are going on 8 years without it.

Just my $0.02

 -Bill	KD4GKK
	stuart@ee.fit.edu