Arcam 5 CD - tray problems

[detractsm]

Hope you can help, received the AA5 CD player through the post (big mistake as Arcam cant be transported like this) and when inserting a disc an awful racket is made and the disc is unreadable (err msg).

On opening and trying to see whats going on the white plastic disc on top of the platter mechanism doesnt seem to settle down against the platter spindle and spin uncontrollably.

The mechanism itself moves smoothly and the drawer opens with no problem. Also the spinlde is constantly spinning when powered up.

Any ideas???!!!

[DBCGMartin]

Hi-I have just bought an Arcam CD Player and had it delivered from France-big mistake ! It has exactly the same problems that you experienced with yours and I wondered how you rectified them ? From what I have read it may be a damaged laser and/or the platter may have shifted on the spindle due to being dropped-Any assistance with a cure would be greatly appreciated-regards Martin.

[marcelnl]

tiefbassuebertr may be the member that might be able to help you out as from what I've seen he has a wealth of info on laser pickups.

Looking at the various pics of the Arcam I notice that it is a front loader using a disc clamp. On my own CD player I removed the clamping crap and use three tiny (and I mean tiny) blobs of blu-tak to keep the disc stuck onto the spindle while the opening and closing mechanism (tray) still is functioning (working that way since 1990).

You could try this whilst keeping the clamping mechanism open with a pen or something like that to see if the disc is then being read or it is the laser unit itself that may be at fault(laser burn out or the logic driving the system). If the disc is not spinning the laser pickup can not read the data, the error message is the result, I get that a lot when the Blu-tak is picking up more dust and needs to be replaced.

[DBCGMartin]

Marcelnl-thanks for the advice. Excuse my ignorance but where would the blue-tac be best used in the mechanism-does it sit on the central platter just to keep the disc in place ? If so wouldn't it alter the tracking of the laser on a slightly uneven, slightly higher surface ? Regards and thanks for your interest and the contact-Martin.

[marcelnl]

it should sit on the central platter that spins the disc, in the original design the puck above clamps the disc against the platter.
As not all CDs are equal the laser has room or a system to accomodate that and focus so if you use three tiny speck that you flatten by pressing the CD on them when newly applied it works just nice (been doing that for over 20 years now).
Just get in there and try, it may work yet your problem may be more severe...

[DBCGMartin]

Many thanks-I'll get some blue tack tomorrow and give it a go-Can I ask what prompted you to do this at the start ? Martin.