Sagging CD laser pickup. Can it be repaired?

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I have a Philips CDM9 Pro which is visibly sagging. It's starting to mistrack CDs, especially the later tracks. I've tried to gently push up on the metal spring wafers and it makes an improvement for a while, but sags again after a day or so.

I also have a sagging suspension CDM4 Pro, to the point of not reading TOC on 15% of my CDs. This one I can compensate by adjusting the focus offset, which does help read TOC in all CDs, but then it has some tracking problems starting at the middle of the disc and until the end.

Is replacing the laser the only solution, or are there some clever tricks in restoring the suspension?
 
Are you aware that one can go to Aliexpress and find Entire Replacement Transports??
Or even parts of. From ~10$ to 60$ .. Delivered.
In the very least IF not wanting to simply swap in the entire assly.. use the replacement as a parts source ;)
Yesss.. of Chinese mfg. But some (all?) are likely from the same oem makers.
Lotsa ways to a desired conclusion.
 
I am reasonably lucky repairing mine, say 50% of the time, by replacing 3 or 4 rubber grommets it uses for suspension, and which with time sag, sort of planned obsolescence.

I guess they realized that the Optical reading of CDs was a shot in the foot, because it had no wear or aging by itself, so they engineered a ticking time bomb into the system.
 
Are you aware that one can go to Aliexpress and find Entire Replacement Transports??
Or even parts of. From ~10$ to 60$ .. Delivered.
In the very least IF not wanting to simply swap in the entire assly.. use the replacement as a parts source ;)
Yesss.. of Chinese mfg. But some (all?) are likely from the same oem makers.
Lotsa ways to a desired conclusion.

No way will I support those crooks and that fraud. Guaranteed to fail in a matter of days, if it even works. Fake parts in every possible way. Really bad advice IMO, I hope no one wastes their money.
 
I am reasonably lucky repairing mine, say 50% of the time, by replacing 3 or 4 rubber grommets it uses for suspension, and which with time sag, sort of planned obsolescence.

I guess they realized that the Optical reading of CDs was a shot in the foot, because it had no wear or aging by itself, so they engineered a ticking time bomb into the system.

No rubber grommets in the CDM mechanism. The laser is supported by springy metal sheets/wafers.
 
I've worked on literally over 1000 cdm4/1mkII and cdm9 based players, and I have not once seen a sagging focus actuator suspenstion. Are you sure the ball bearing points for the rotation aren't dislodged or damaged?

The swing arms move freely/nicely. I think the bearings are still okay. If one of them was dislodged, the arm would be canted.

On new CDMs, when the player is off, the lens has a nice crisp bounce to it if tapped with a toothpick. It quickly returns to horizontal position. But on these older transports, the springs are sluggish. They don't really return to perfect horizontal position unless helped. The coil gap is clean and the coil is definitely not rubbing, or getting stuck in the gap.

I think those spring sheets had too many bends.
 
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This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.