Hi,
I have a reasonably old, but at the time quite expensive sony stereo. When I put a cd in it just ticks & after a while says no disc. Is there anything I can try or is it beyond help?

Thanks

The laser lens is trying to focus on the disc but failing.
This can be caused by a film of dust on the lens or the laser itself worn out.
If you can access the lens try cleaning it gently with a cotton bud soaked in Isopropyl Alcohol and then leaving it for a few minutes to evaporate or speed up the drying process with a hairdryer on a low heat setting for a couple of minutes.

If the above fails you can usually obtain laser assemblies quite easily from places like ebay. I recently changed the laser on my old Arcam Alpha 9 CD player, Arcam wanted over £150, I obtained the laser assembly for less than £15 & it took 15 minutes to do & worked like new.

Another fault which can occur is the bar which the laser slides along can run dry of lubricant, a small application of either silicone grease or machine oil after cleaning the bar with alcohol can get things working again.

If you were working with me and I caught you doing that with one of our CD players your ability to create children would be seriously compromised

Cotton budd - OK so far
Isoproply Alcohol - still OK
Soaking wet bud - Going downhill very rapidly
Hair Dryer - hide all sharp objects and wear cast iron underwear

The correct way to do it is to lightly dampen the cotton bud, it should not be anything like dripping wet. Lightly rub the lens with the bud. Don't apply too much pressure or it could be mechanically damaged.

Then rub over gently with a dry bud. The lens should never be soaked. And it should never ever be subjected to a hair dryer.

I have exactly the same problem, also with an Arcam CD player (CD73). Quite by chance, I found that, if I lift the player up vertically just after putting the disc in (i.e. tip it back so the front loading slot points at the ceiling), it works fine. I can then put it back down on the shelf and it continues to play perfectly, until changing the disc when I have to do it again. Does that indicate one or other type of fault? Does anyone know if there are any step-by-step instructions anywhere for changing the laser? Or is it obvious?

The instructions come with the laser (for what they are worth) a little google will get you better ones! seriously though it's quite simple, just a little fiddly. I think I would be inclined to clean & grease/lightly oil the bar the laser slides along as per my earlier post before changing the laser. It worked for me for quite some time before the laser got too weak to be of any further use.

I've changed hundreds of lasers, I've never seen one with instructions? - there's usually a small slip of paper in with them, that (if you're lucky and it's the same) shows where the shorting blob of solder is located, that you unsolder after fitting.

Hardly 'fitting instructions'

Yes Nigel but you are buying Trade parts, the parts the rest of us buy are sold via the trade on ebay (in my case a TV shop in Glasgow) & they provide the fitting instructions

OK - I only buy and fit official Sony lasers from Sony, they keep the best ones for themselves, and sell the rest of to other sellers.

The one I bought was a Generic one (Despite being described as genuine Sony), however the part was made by a company who are apparently the worlds largest laser manufacturer (mainly industrial lasers). Speaking to the technical guy at Arcam prior to fitting it he did admit that I would not be able to tell any differece from the original Sony laser to the generic one in terms of sound quality but it MIGHT fail quicker, however as it was almost a quarter of the price I thought it worth the risk

Thank you both for the advice. I've bought one from ebay (also from Glasgow so it's probably the same place) and I'll give it a go.

Okay I admit I went a wee bit over the top with "soaked" but the use of a Hairdryer (and I did state on a low heat setting) being wafted across the lens...never played directly on to it, has worked okay for me with no problems and I've replaced 100s of laser assemblies.

Do Sony actually make lasers? Just curious.

You certainly wouldn't be able to tell any difference in sound quality unless it didn't work.

ha! I had the same with an ARCAM CD73 too Andav ! also bought in Belgium.

The solution was a new transport cable, it had to go back to New Invor http://www.newinvor.com/ which is the official importer of ARCAM in Belgium (and lots of other brands)

Since the new transport cable was replaced (it was too stiff), no problems at all except for ONE cd, and that's a classical hybrid SACD. It hates it.

Yes, almost all lasers in CD players are (or at least were) made by Sony. There were a few exceptions, Philips (as usual) been one.


No, generally it's lack of life span, and greater tendency to jump or skip.

I believe I remember that the ARCAM had an entirely Sony transport come to think of it

(and years ago...it was all Sony CDROM drives that damned well went wrong all the time. Stopped reading discs....)

All makes of CD-ROM's used to go wrong, I've hardly ever seen any Sony ones.

I used to have to replace Sony CDROMS left right and centre in the late 90's. Dreadful, rubbish drives...noisy too.

Well in fairness my Arcam (Sony Drive) lasted 10 years with lots of use before changing the laser a year ago

You've been luckier than me with Arcam. This is the second of their CD players that's died on me, each one after about 5 years. I like the way they sound though. I don't think it's the way I treat them. I've still got a Yamaha that I bought at least 20 years ago and that's still going strong.