Repairing a Philips CD-40 with TDA1541

I have a Philips CD-40 I picked up cheap at a thrift store. This appears to be identical to the Marantz CD-40 and I am using the Maranta service manual to work on it. I couldn't find one for the Philips CD-40. It has a TDA1541A DAC in it and I would like to get it working again. I am relatively inexperienced in working on this type of electronic equipment but I have been digging into it and this player appears to be a good candiate to learn on. If I get it working again I would like to try some of the popular upgrades for improving the sound.


When I tried to play a disc on it it would not spin the disc. If I physically spun the CD while pressing play the player would usually start playing and I could play a whole disc. I had to set aside the project so I put the cover back on while I did some research. Suspect electrolytic caps appeared to be a good place to start trouble shooting so I pulled down the player to start working on it. Before disassembling I tried to get it to play again the same way I did before but it would not play this time. I tried opening and closing the tray but the tray stopped closing properly. I could physically close the tray but It still would not play a CD. At some point I noticed a small puff of smoke coming out of he player from under the CD tray. I turned it off and partially disassembled the CD mechanism to get a look at the board underneath. I was able to identify a resistor with burn marks (R3545). This is part of the radial arm drive. Can I just replace this bad resistor and move on or do I need to look for another underlying cause first. As long as I haven’t damaged the laser or laser mechanism I think I can get this working again but I’m not sure what my next step should be.
 
Looks like you have fallen down into that rabbit hole.
Put it all back as it was and replace the spindle motor or better still the laser mechanism, that will save you the trouble of setting the laser lens height etc if you do not have the relevant test gear and test cd.

You mention improving the sound. It is a CD and as such pretty crap at best. All harmonics are removed and other information deemed as not needed as part of the compression system as an example so you cannot add what is not there to start with.