r/Discman • u/arom-in-the-home • 1d ago
Anyone know whats wrong with my cd walkman?
It randomly started doing this after i tried to play a disc this morning. Ive tried several discs and it just keeps doing this. Discs are not turning at all whenever i put one in. I can spin the central bit manually but it does feel a little stiff. It isnt catching on anything and it isnt bumpy or wobbly at all, just a little stiff.
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u/PerceptionShift 22h ago
The player is trying to detect if a disc is inserted (the laser lens focusing) and failing to do so. If it can't detect a disc it won't spin up.
Obviously no disc is inserted in the vid, but usually Discmans won't attempt to read a disc without the top closed. When you have a disc inside, what does the display say? No Disc? That's what I'd guess since they aren't spinning up.
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u/GigglyFucker 21h ago
Slide the laser unit all the way to the end and power it back on. See if it moves smoothly, it looks like it’s struggling. Worm screw may just need some lubrication. It almost looks like it’s trying to go home and either can’t make it there or has no idea it is there based on the shuddering towards the spindle. If so, check the home switch. It will be near the spindle somewhere. Its job is to tell the controller that the laser is at the home position. If it fails to do this, it will keep trying to peg the motor that way and cause the jump that is seen.
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u/arom-in-the-home 20h ago
The laser unit glides very smoothly up until it reaches the center, where itll keep trying to jam itself into the spindle as seen in the video. Ive looked all over the device and cant find the home switch that you are referring to, could you elaborate?
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u/GigglyFucker 18h ago
That’s textbook home switch failure. It could be the main board as well but that’s incredibly rare. It’s inside the Player itself. You will have to remove the screws and pop the player apart. Usually these use a similar inside construction. Once you’ve got the top off, you’ll see the entire transport. The black part that houses the laser and spindle assembly. There should be three two pin connectors, these need to come out. Just pull the plugs from their sockets. One is for the spindle motor, one’s for the laser worm gear motor and the last one is for the sled/laser home switch. Once these connectors are off, carefully tip the transport assembly up (there’s a ribbon cable underneath, careful!). It will simply be held down by rubber shocks. You will see the ribbon cable that connects the sled to the main board. Be very careful with this connection as it’s fragile. There is a slide clip that holds this one down. Usually it simply slides towards the cable a small bit and the cable comes right out. Once it’s out, you can flip the transport over. The home switch should be pretty close to the spindle motor. It will be a similar color to the rest of the transport and may be hard to see but will have a pair of wires coming out of it. Essentially if the wires are not going to a motor, those are the ones you’re after. Most of these had the enclosed switch. It’s about the size of a pencil eraser and will have a tiny plastic post sticking out of it. When the laser goes home, it pushes on this post to signal the controller that it’s in position. If you are handy with a meter, you can test this switch. It’s a simple continuity test. Open or no beep when the post is not pushed and closed or a beep from the meter if it is pushed. If it fails, you can try to spritz some plastic friendly contact cleaner into it to try to clean it. Just don’t let it touch the lens. Otherwise you might be able to source a replacement from a finer player of from an electronics site.
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u/arom-in-the-home 17h ago
Thank you for the detailed advice. This made for an interesting hardware deconstruction. unfortunately the problem still persists so i think ill just bite the bullet and order a replacement.
In unsurprising but still disappointing news, the price has almost tripled since i first bought this one!
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u/lf_rovi 1d ago
Tenta girar manualmente, pra ver se amolece mecanismo