Sugden CD21SE strange logic problem. Design fault ?

[Mooly]

I was asked to look at a Sugden CD21SE player,
Sugden Audio: A21SE

The owner knew what had happened, they accidently closed the tray with the disc upside down.

Now that shouldn't be any problem for any player, the player should either sit there and say "no disc" or throw it back out... but not so here... the display shows a row of dashes and it just sits there not responding to any command. Turn the power off (fully with plug out and wait 20 minutes) and retry... no good... drawer stays closed.

So top off and gently pushed the drawer out (common Philips mech like the short loader version of L1210) and out comes the disc... all is well.

Confirmed a couple of times that an upside down disc causes the lock up every time. The player finds "something" to focus on presumably the reflective label side, then quickly spins the disc the wrong way which is typical of a servo not locked to anything... and that's it... game over.

I think it has to be a design (software issue) and this was one of the very very first CD21SE's to be available.

Just such an odd issue I thought it deserved a mention. Maybe later players have modded software, there is a big eprom/micro with a paper Sugden sticker attached.

[Mooly]

A little update on this. I emailed Sugden wondering if there was updated software and received a very helpful and informative reply within the hour.

There is a mod, just a resistor to change on the servo board.

What a refreshing change these days for a company to even acknowledge a technical question let alone be so helpful. Well done...