I now have 2 CD players that won't read music CD's - you load the CD's and you can hear them spinning but the CD player never stops and the number of tracks never appear on the display. PS2 had a similar problem and a good cleaning of the laser helped but doesn't help the CD players - any thoughts?

p.s. genuine factory CD's, all in good nick

 

dirty or the optic assembly is fubar'd

 

Agreed - if you've tried a couple of different discs, and they're not scratched or covered in muck, then your CD players are both knackered. Sorry

 

happened to mine. if you play alot of "back-up" cd's, the laser could be out of line

mike

 

There are a number of things that can cause this. The bottom line is usually that the player is on its way out. However, when the player does this try letting it sit for a while as it tries to read the disk and see if things improve over time as it warms up. If so then it is possible that the little arm the assembly sits on has just become "sticky" with time. This does happen as the lubrication dries up, gathers dirt or becomes "thick." This is often a quick fix.

In saying that by the time it has got to this stage there are usually several other things waiting to fail and unless it is a very expensive CD player tasks like replacing the laser assembly are rarely worth the effort.

 

Can sometimes be alignment of clamps and things. I had an old CD-ROM drive that ceased reading genuine audio CD's. Took it to pieces on a "nothing to lose" type basis. The problem was that something had twisted slightly on the retaining clamp (bit of metal that drops down over the disk, engages on the spindle drive thing. As it was bent, it was forcing the CD out of alignment. I played with the slightly bent metal with a pair of pliers, it then worked perfectly for several years.

If you're down to them potentially being knackered, I'd take 'em to bits, try and clean the laser assembly (IPA and a q-tip or similar). If they have a clamp, try playing the CD with the case open and holding the clamp up by hand - if it works like that, the clamp is bent, and can be bent back straight. If it still doesn't work, you haven't lost anything, if you fix it, that's a bonus. Admittedly, if it's only a £20 bit of kit, not worth the effort unless you're interested to play with it - buy a new one!