[MichPlat]

My HiFi CD player has suddenly started to skip trax ....

Gets to track 4 then if I try to fast forward it starts to play up and spins around about 1000 times a second ......

I've had it into the local HIFI shop ( very old guy ) who's cleaned the lens ( and mirrors !?) but it's no better ( cost £15) . It's an LG FA166DAB HIFI ...


Is it just beggared and time to get a new one ( which we can't really afford) or is there something I'm missing ?

Its only on "burnt" CDs not the real genuine , bought CDs ... Very odd .
I've tried burning through Windows player and Nero and even used the other burner on the laptop .... same result .


Help !!!!!!

[RG101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

My HiFi CD player has suddenly started to skip trax ....

Gets to track 4 then if I try to fast forward it starts to play up and spins around about 1000 times a second ......

I've had it into the local HIFI shop ( very old guy ) who's cleaned the lens ( and mirrors !?) but it's no better ( cost £15) . It's an LG FA166DAB HIFI ...


Is it just beggared and time to get a new one ( which we can't really afford) or is there something I'm missing ?

Its only on "burnt" CDs not the real genuine , bought CDs ... Very odd .
I've tried burning through Windows player and Nero and even used the other burner on the laptop .... same result .


Help !!!!!!

My old Technics CD player used to do this, like yours on shop bought CD'S it played fine, on CD-R it was very hit and miss, some would play and some wouldn't.

I found it depended on the brand of blank disc, the more expensive ones tended to play ok, the cheaper brands not so much.

In the end I got rid of the Technics and just hooked the PC up to the amp and used it's drive to play back any disc without any problem.

[Landis]

OK. A "wildcard" response from me. Just a hunch.

I had a very similar problem.....Only with burned CDR's.
It turned out that there was a problem with 2 different brands of CD I had bought.
As soon as I switched from those 2 brands....everything was fine.
One of the brands.....if I turned off the amplifier, i could hear the disc faintly rattling in the tray. Every disc in that batch. A manufacturing fault.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

Its only on "burnt" CDs not the real genuine , bought CDs ... Very odd .

Not at all 'odd' - it's perfectly normal, and simple to understand.

Stamped CD's reflect a FAR greater proportion of the laser light back, CDR's only reflect something like 25-30% of a stamped CD, and CD-RW's less than 10% (which is why old CD players wouldn't play CD-RW's at all).

You almost certainly require the laser assembly replacing in your CD player, cleaning is rarely very effective, and not recommended. But your best option is probably to buy a new player.

[MichPlat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RG101

My old Technics CD player used to do this, like yours on shop bought CD'S it played fine, on CD-R it was very hit and miss, some would play and some wouldn't.

I found it depended on the brand of blank disc, the more expensive ones tended to play ok, the cheaper brands not so much.

In the end I got rid of the Technics and just hooked the PC up to the amp and used it's drive to play back any disc without any problem.

Which are the best qualty ???

Presumably not the Supermarket ones I use ...

They always USED to work though ....

[chrisjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

Which are the best qualty ???

Presumably not the Supermarket ones I use ...

They always USED to work though ....

Ultimately it doesn't matter what blanks you use. Your player will eventually refuse to play even commercial pressed disks. The laser output deteriorates over time and eventually will drop so low no disks can be read.

Obviously as recordable disks have far lower reflectivity than commercial pressed disks they stop working first. Therefore the best long term solution is to replace the player as that may even be cheaper than getting the laser assembly replaced (assuming spares are available) by a service agent if you don't feel up to a bit of DIY.

[RG101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

Which are the best qualty ???

Presumably not the Supermarket ones I use ...

They always USED to work though ....

I haven't done much burning for a good few years tbh, you could try switching to a different supermarket brand to see if it works better.

Taiyo Yuden used to be one of the better brands (more expensive) if I remember correctly.

Edit:- Another thing you could try is burning the disk at a slower speed (if your burner is 16x try burning at 8x instead of the max speed, 4x maybe the better option after searching the web.)

[MichPlat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisjr

Ultimately it doesn't matter what blanks you use. Your player will eventually refuse to play even commercial pressed disks. The laser output deteriorates over time and eventually will drop so low no disks can be read.

Obviously as recordable disks have far lower reflectivity than commercial pressed disks they stop working first. Therefore the best long term solution is to replace the player as that may even be cheaper than getting the laser assembly replaced (assuming spares are available) by a service agent if you don't feel up to a bit of DIY.

Why do some of the older burnt cdrs work ??

[RG101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

Why do some of the older burnt cdrs work ??

I'm sure the other posters know their stuff but I would try a few different brands of CD-R before replacing the CD player, the supermarket may have just changed their disc supplier for a different one and they may not playback so well on your machine.

I would try a few different makes to see if it makes a difference and as i said in my edited post, try burning at a slower speed.

[MichPlat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RG101

I'm sure the other posters know their stuff but I would try a few different brands of CD-R before replacing the CD player, the supermarket may have just changed their disc supplier for a different one and they may not playback so well on your machine.

I would try a few different makes to see if it makes a difference and as i said in my edited post, try burning at a slower speed.

Getting really stressed now ...

Tried the latest CDs Poloroid which were dearer than the Tesco ones ..didn't work , tried at slower burning speed ... didn't work , tried "without a pause between tracks " ..didn't work ... Aghhhh

Any real good makes of CDR ??

[RG101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

Getting really stressed now ...

Tried the latest CDs Poloroid which were dearer than the Tesco ones ..didn't work , tried at slower burning speed ... didn't work , tried "without a pause between tracks " ..didn't work ... Aghhhh

Any real good makes of CDR ??

Do the burnt CD-R's play ok on a different hi fi?

Do they play back ok using your PC as CD player?

[chrisjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

Why do some of the older burnt cdrs work ??

It is all down to the reflectivity of the disk. It could be that the disks that play OK have a slightly higher reflectivity than the newer disks. May not be that great but just enough for the player to correctly read the data recorded onto the disk.

[chrisjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichPlat

Getting really stressed now ...

Tried the latest CDs Poloroid which were dearer than the Tesco ones ..didn't work , tried at slower burning speed ... didn't work , tried "without a pause between tracks " ..didn't work ... Aghhhh

Any real good makes of CDR ??

Quote:

Originally Posted by RG101

Do the burnt CD-R's play ok on a different hi fi?

Do they play back ok using your PC as CD player?

I second what RG101 suggests. Try the disks in another machine. Not necessarily the one you recorded them on and preferably a fairly new player so that it stands a chance of having a decent laser. This will indicate if it is the disks or your player that is at fault.

If the disks play consistently OK on other players then chances are your player is the problem not the disks.

It could equally be whatever you are using to burn the disks. The laser in that is also liable to deteriorate over time and stop recording disks properly. So another test you may care to make is use another recorder to make a disk and compare to your recorder.

[MichPlat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisjr

I second what RG101 suggests. Try the disks in another machine. Not necessarily the one you recorded them on and preferably a fairly new player so that it stands a chance of having a decent laser. This will indicate if it is the disks or your player that is at fault.

If the disks play consistently OK on other players then chances are your player is the problem not the disks.

It could equally be whatever you are using to burn the disks. The laser in that is also liable to deteriorate over time and stop recording disks properly. So another test you may care to make is use another recorder to make a disk and compare to your recorder.

Sounds like its the player then as the discs play ok on the car HIFI and the one upstairs and the PC .

Tried burning on a laptop and they still don't work in this HIFI and yet older burnt cdrs play fine .... Just the newly / recently burnt ones won't play properly

[Chris Frost]

Even if you manage to find a brand of CDRs that are readable now, if the laser is losing power then sooner or later they're going to stop working as well and you're going to go potty repeating the same cycle. Perhaps it's time to look at alternative solutions?

That LG of yours has the ability to play music files from its USB port. Have you thought about trying a USB pen drive/flash drive?

They're cheap for the capacity they offer - e.g. a branded 16Gb flash drive (Sandisk, Philips, Kingston, Toshiba) will hold the equivalent of roughly 25 CDRs for under £5. A 32Gb doubles the capacity for less than £8. Spindles of CD-Rs are still cheaper, but not if you can only use one or two discs from a spindle before having to try another brand. The flash drives are re-recordable too of course.

[MichPlat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

Even if you manage to find a brand of CDRs that are readable now, if the laser is losing power then sooner or later they're going to stop working as well and you're going to go potty repeating the same cycle. Perhaps it's time to look at alternative solutions?

That LG of yours has the ability to play music files from its USB port. Have you thought about trying a USB pen drive/flash drive?

They're cheap for the capacity they offer - e.g. a branded 16Gb flash drive (Sandisk, Philips, Kingston, Toshiba) will hold the equivalent of roughly 25 CDRs for under £5. A 32Gb doubles the capacity for less than £8. Spindles of CD-Rs are still cheaper, but not if you can only use one or two discs from a spindle before having to try another brand. The flash drives are re-recordable too of course.

Yeah .. Thank you for taking the time to research our HIFI and replying..

It does play from a USB but we've got hundreds of great CDs all in the desired track order ....