I have a nice Technics Z1000 player, but as time passed it has more trouble with reading CDRs. Before it was OK, but now most of my CDRs cannot be played on that machine. It reads TOC, but when put in Play mode it endlessly looking for the beginning of a track. There are six trimmers inside: best eye, tracking balance, focus offset, focus gain, tracking offset and tracking gain adjustement. Would playing with one of them improve readability of player? There is no problem with regular discs.
Peter,
Before you adjust anything I would get a service manual. I suspect that the pickup is going bad.
Regards,
Jam
Before you adjust anything I would get a service manual. I suspect that the pickup is going bad.
Regards,
Jam
Member
Joined 2002
100bucks says your doughter put here Penut butter sandy inside the tray. hehe JK.
has any one seen that movie clip where the kid puts his Penut butter sandy in the vcr and you see the vcr pull it in HAHAh i laughed to dam hard when i seen that one.
has any one seen that movie clip where the kid puts his Penut butter sandy in the vcr and you see the vcr pull it in HAHAh i laughed to dam hard when i seen that one.
Member
Joined 2002
Have you tried cleaning the lens ?
This is particularly important if the player is in a dusty environment or if you smoke. I've got a couple of CDR drives bouncing back to life by doing nothing more than cleaning the lens with isopropanol and a cotton bud.
This is particularly important if the player is in a dusty environment or if you smoke. I've got a couple of CDR drives bouncing back to life by doing nothing more than cleaning the lens with isopropanol and a cotton bud.
Remote Control Repairs
Hi Peter,
Do you have an oscilloscope ?.
If so tell me, and I'll tell you what to do.
Also, can you post a pix of the mech/laser pickup so I know which one we are dealing with.
Eric.
Hi Peter,
Do you have an oscilloscope ?.
If so tell me, and I'll tell you what to do.
Also, can you post a pix of the mech/laser pickup so I know which one we are dealing with.
Eric.
Hi Pete, the first thing to do of course is to clean the lens.
The second thing to do is to is to tilt the mech and confirm that the pickup slides easily from end to end - if not clean and relube all the contact surfaces and rollers/wheels.
If there is a fader type pickup position servo feedback pot, clean the carbon tracks with isopropyl and a cotton bud.
This should take care of mechanical issues.
Another thing to do is to bump up the laser intensity.
Carefully mark the laser current pot.
Attach your scope probe to the HF test point (you may have to solder a short length of wire so you can run the machine), and precisely measure the P-P amplitude.
You can try increasing it in say 5% steps up to a max of probably 40% or so - if you go too far the pickup signal preamps go into overload or dc offset problems.
Also mark all the other pots, and increase the focus and tracking GAINS (rotate to 2 o'clock from 12 o'clock or so).
Check DC offsets according to the manual, and if it works you got it.
If despite following the manual cal/setup directions it does not fly, it's the pickup usually.
PS - take a close look at the HF waveform on the cro on differeing discs - if it is unstable, noisey or overly jittery, then the pickup is duff usually.
Just increasing laser intensity and F/T gains the right amount (plus resoldering as required) gets most machines working for me.
Good luck,
Eric.
Test discs are not required - standard and burnt discs are better.
You can take a little oil from your face and put a very light fingerprint on the disc to test tracking.
You can alternatively stick a thin wedge shaped piece of matt black insulating tape (2mm wide one end, 12 mm long) on the disc to help adjust/confirm tracking offset.
The second thing to do is to is to tilt the mech and confirm that the pickup slides easily from end to end - if not clean and relube all the contact surfaces and rollers/wheels.
If there is a fader type pickup position servo feedback pot, clean the carbon tracks with isopropyl and a cotton bud.
This should take care of mechanical issues.
Another thing to do is to bump up the laser intensity.
Carefully mark the laser current pot.
Attach your scope probe to the HF test point (you may have to solder a short length of wire so you can run the machine), and precisely measure the P-P amplitude.
You can try increasing it in say 5% steps up to a max of probably 40% or so - if you go too far the pickup signal preamps go into overload or dc offset problems.
Also mark all the other pots, and increase the focus and tracking GAINS (rotate to 2 o'clock from 12 o'clock or so).
Check DC offsets according to the manual, and if it works you got it.
If despite following the manual cal/setup directions it does not fly, it's the pickup usually.
PS - take a close look at the HF waveform on the cro on differeing discs - if it is unstable, noisey or overly jittery, then the pickup is duff usually.
Just increasing laser intensity and F/T gains the right amount (plus resoldering as required) gets most machines working for me.
Good luck,
Eric.
Test discs are not required - standard and burnt discs are better.
You can take a little oil from your face and put a very light fingerprint on the disc to test tracking.
You can alternatively stick a thin wedge shaped piece of matt black insulating tape (2mm wide one end, 12 mm long) on the disc to help adjust/confirm tracking offset.
Hi mrfeedback,
Is it fair to assume that the same techniques will work for CD-RW drives in a PC. I have had success cleaning the lens with isopropanol on CD drives in the past but someone gave me another one to have a look at recently and it hasn't responded to cleaning the lens. I presume that the tracking and carrage mechanics are basically the same. Unfortunately this one has no pots to adjust. It's problem is that it won't read anything and I understand that it slowly degenerated into this state, gradually getting pickier and pickier about reading and writing.
Any experience with these ? Any thoughts ?
Is it fair to assume that the same techniques will work for CD-RW drives in a PC. I have had success cleaning the lens with isopropanol on CD drives in the past but someone gave me another one to have a look at recently and it hasn't responded to cleaning the lens. I presume that the tracking and carrage mechanics are basically the same. Unfortunately this one has no pots to adjust. It's problem is that it won't read anything and I understand that it slowly degenerated into this state, gradually getting pickier and pickier about reading and writing.
Any experience with these ? Any thoughts ?
Tweaking with laser lens!!
nice Peter😉
As for the PC CDplayer, they are so cheap they are not worth the trouble.
I guess that if you can't solve the problem with cleaning then buy a new one🙁
I myself clean the lens of my cd players when the can't read and ussualy fix the problem.
nice Peter😉
As for the PC CDplayer, they are so cheap they are not worth the trouble.
I guess that if you can't solve the problem with cleaning then buy a new one🙁
I myself clean the lens of my cd players when the can't read and ussualy fix the problem.
PedroPO said:
This particular one was $ 8,000 CAD in 1991. I kind of like and if possible would like to improve it as well (adding DAC to a transport inside the unit). If CDP are built like tanks, this one surely is😉
So I was a bit disappointed when I found out that my Marantz CD-94, which I didn't regard as anything special, sounds actually better.
A Bit Of Spit And Polish.
Never use solvents to clean the lens because optical coatings on the lens may be removed this way, and that buggers them straight away.
Use a dry cotton bud across the lens (NOT round and round), and if there is a stubborn film, a bit of clean spit (saliva) works wonders.
Most modern systems nowadays have self calibrating servo stages, so there are no trimpots to adjust, except laser power on the pickup.
The main problems nowadays are dry joints in hot running stages (power supplies), Sticking sled, spin motors, flex ribbon connecting cables and laser pickups.
Yours sounds like a bunky pickup - increasing the laser power can help, but not always.
If you have a cro, try finding the HF test point and take a look at the waveform - this waveform tells all.
Eric.
DocP said:
Never use solvents to clean the lens because optical coatings on the lens may be removed this way, and that buggers them straight away.
Use a dry cotton bud across the lens (NOT round and round), and if there is a stubborn film, a bit of clean spit (saliva) works wonders.
Most modern systems nowadays have self calibrating servo stages, so there are no trimpots to adjust, except laser power on the pickup.
The main problems nowadays are dry joints in hot running stages (power supplies), Sticking sled, spin motors, flex ribbon connecting cables and laser pickups.
Yours sounds like a bunky pickup - increasing the laser power can help, but not always.
If you have a cro, try finding the HF test point and take a look at the waveform - this waveform tells all.
Eric.
Solid And Good.
Apart from resoldering the supplies and connectors throughout, grounding the crystal can and one other little tweak, my CD-94 is bog standard, and I would say that these are a very nicely solid, grounded and stable PARTY sounding machine - WAF is complete.
I have deliberately left mine standard because I reckon that it sounds happily cool as it is (I have heard other CDP's with other or additional attributes), and this makes it a nicely useful reference machine in reasonably ex-factory condition.
European made just sounds different to US or Jap.
Eric.
Somebody spent a truckload back then.Peter Daniel said:
Apart from resoldering the supplies and connectors throughout, grounding the crystal can and one other little tweak, my CD-94 is bog standard, and I would say that these are a very nicely solid, grounded and stable PARTY sounding machine - WAF is complete.
I have deliberately left mine standard because I reckon that it sounds happily cool as it is (I have heard other CDP's with other or additional attributes), and this makes it a nicely useful reference machine in reasonably ex-factory condition.
European made just sounds different to US or Jap.
Eric.
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