Typical maintenance for CDM/4 based transports ?

[rbroer]

I own a couple of these +10 year old Philips players with CDM4 and would like some tips to extend their lifes some more.

I have the adjustement procedure for tracking & focus with the two test points (50mV and 400mV).
I normally clean the lenses with a soft cloth with a drop of water on it.

What are typical failure modes of these players ? (Apart from failing display LED segments...)

Thanks,

[jean-paul]

Hi Rudolf,

The typical failure mode is that the laser deteriorates because of usage or age. I think that they last very long despite the fact that their lasers were officially less in quality than the lasers produced today. I just love that they even play CDRW's when they are in a good condition. If you look at modern Sony's you'll see that they sometimes fail after a few years.
Cleaning is OK but when it still skips it has reached it's lifespan. They are obsolete nowadays ( unfortunately ) so keep a small stock of used spare lasers just in case. I recently heard from a collegue that he cleaned the laser with water with a drop of soap and the player still skipped. He decided to clean the laser with WSel ( a kind of glass-cleaner for photocopiers ! ) because the player was to be thrown anyway.
It plays CDR's for one month without problems now. BTW This was a Denon DCD-1560 and not a CDM.

It is always safe to use a drop of soap ( Dreft is the best for this as it is the least agressive ) in the water for cleaning. Most of the time it is nicotine that is very difficult to remove without damaging the lens. When clean it has an blue oily kind of shine over it. Be careful not to spill water in the coils. They hate water.

Apart from this they don't like dust so please check if the ball bearing runs freely ( the one from the swingarm ). The swingarm should be able to move very light.

Please clean the spindle as well with some water to avoid it slipping when it spins up.

Maybe a new fact for some of us: lasers and especially the old ones are very sensitive to low frequent vibrations so transport in a car or placing it or dropping it can be the final stroke for them.
After transport it is better to leave them unpowered for an hour or so.

When replacing these lasers always use an ESD strap and put a paper-clip on the flexprint to avoid static discharge !!!!!

Maybe not the exact answer you want but hey, you got some info ! BTW it is still good practice to buy a spare laser for whatever a cdplayer one has now they are still available. Recently I ordered a spare one for my CDP-X3000ES and it only costed 41 Euro's. Better to have one now than to discover they are obsolete when you really need one.

Another failure mode that I saw frequently is bad solderings / joints. Even new they had that strange "mat" look which was a bad way of wave soldering I heard once from a Philips engineer.
It does not harm to resolder all parts with Fluitin or another good solder. And to replace the electrolytics doesn't hurt either. Please use an OSCON to decouple the good old garbage transmitter SAA7220PB


Regards,

JP

[capslock]

I tried everything on a skipping CDM-9 unit. Then MrFeedback advised me to oil the ball bearing the laser arm swings on. Even though the arm had a feel of moving very easily, this is what did the job!

[Blitz]

I have a CD-16e with a CDM4. It died 2 times after3-4 years where I used the PLayer seldom, but let the power on all the time. Actually the local support was exchanging the last time all chips around the transport as they had these issues oftenly with this model and that was the only thing they could influence...

[zygibajt]

The typical failure mode is that the laser deteriorates because of usage or age. I think that they last very long despite the fact that their lasers were officially less in quality than the lasers produced today. I just love that they even play CDRW's when they are in a good condition. If you look at modern Sony's you'll see that they sometimes fail after a few years.
Cleaning is OK but when it still skips it has reached it's lifespan. They are obsolete nowadays ( unfortunately ) so keep a small stock of used spare lasers just in case. I recently heard from a collegue that he cleaned the laser with water with a drop of soap and the player still skipped. He decided to clean the laser with WSel ( a kind of glass-cleaner for photocopiers ! ) because the player was to be thrown anyway.
It plays CDR's for one month without problems now. BTW This was a Denon DCD-1560 and not a CDM.

It is always safe to use a drop of soap ( Dreft is the best for this as it is the least agressive ) in the water for cleaning. Most of the time it is nicotine that is very difficult to remove without damaging the lens. When clean it has an blue oily kind of shine over it. Be careful not to spill water in the coils. They hate water.

Apart from this they don't like dust so please check if the ball bearing runs freely ( the one from the swingarm ). The swingarm should be able to move very light.

Please clean the spindle as well with some water to avoid it slipping when it spins up.

Maybe a new fact for some of us: lasers and especially the old ones are very sensitive to low frequent vibrations so transport in a car or placing it or dropping it can be the final stroke for them.
After transport it is better to leave them unpowered for an hour or so.

When replacing these lasers always use an ESD strap and put a paper-clip on the flexprint to avoid static discharge !!!!!

Maybe not the exact answer you want but hey, you got some info ! BTW it is still good practice to buy a spare laser for whatever a cdplayer one has now they are still available. Recently I ordered a spare one for my CDP-X3000ES and it only costed 41 Euro's. Better to have one now than to discover they are obsolete when you really need one.

Another failure mode that I saw frequently is bad solderings / joints. Even new they had that strange "mat" look which was a bad way of wave soldering I heard once from a Philips engineer.
It does not harm to resolder all parts with Fluitin or another good solder. And to replace the electrolytics doesn't hurt either. Please use an OSCON to decouple the good old garbage transmitter SAA7220PB

Jean-Paul

In another thread you mentioned something about mechanical adjustment.The procedure of it was suppose to be in some Philips doc.
I asked you where can I find it but didn't get the answer from you.
Can you please tell more about the adjustment of those old CDM's and where to find instructions.

Bartek

[jean-paul]

It's in *every* Philips service manual of types with a CDM4.

[Bricolo]

Originally posted by jean-paul
It's in *every* Philips service manual of types with a CDM4.

Hi Jean-Paul,

Did you recieve my email?

Alex

[jean-paul]

No.

[Bricolo]

Originally posted by jean-paul
No.

I asked dave to forward it, he certainly didn't have the time for this now.

Please send me a mail, I wanted to give you something (in return of all the times you answeared my questions ) I know you lost much data with your hard disk problem...

[Yomanze]

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