Portable cd player quit working

Hello and Happy Holidays to everyone!

My problem is that my 5-year old JVC portable suddenly refuses to play a CD. I place the disc in the tray, press "play", and the tray closes, but 5 seconds later, it opens again. I thought I might try cleaning it, but it can't run the cleaning disc if it won't play anything!

Can anyone help?

Thank you!

 

Cleaning disc: Throw the bloody disc away. Good boy. That is the equivilent of a baseball bat smaking the laser pickup at 450RPMs. Ooooh, baaaad!!


Open the disc player and dab the SMALLEST drop of Isprophynol (household alch) to a corner of paper towel. We're talking maybe a 1/16" small. Don't leave it soaked, just enough to lightly dampen a corner of a paper towel about this big: |>


Get to a place in your hosue where you can see sharply and clearly, and gently, without any pressure, drag the wet corner across the lazer. If you do it right, the paper towel should move with no pressure and make a clean sweep across the laser. Do it maybe one or two times tops. If you look carefully, you'll see the lens should see dampness for 1-2 seconds, then dry instantly because you're using so little...

The lens pickup is suspended using a small section of copper wire with a magnetic focus mechanism. That's why you don't want to give the pickup any undue pressure.

Other than that, you need a camera lens blower. I'm willing to bet you don't have that in the house. They're very inexpensive and can be had at any camera store.

If that fails, take it in to get professionally cleaned.

 

What Sckott said, but you can do the same thing with a very lightly dabbed(with isopropyl alcohol)Q-tip. The damp Q-tip won't leave its own strands on the lens; for drying, use the dry side of the Q-tip, then just blow on it yourself--the condensation will go away quickly. Nothing scientific about it, works for me every time. With my larger players if there's a problem I just unscrew the top and do the quick job. The disc cleaners will work for awhile; problem is, they also accumulate dust and grit over time no matter how well you clean them. Sckott also has a point: the brushes glued onto the disc cleaners aren't the softest in the world, and not really what you want to use to clean a player(particularly the more expensive ones). If
neither method works, it may go beyond cleaning and into the lens or other mechanism. In which case, a new player isn't the worst thing in the world.

Best of luck and happy holidays,

ED

 

Hi Hotdawg!

Sorry to hear your having problems. I had bought my son the JVC Boom Box
two years ago. The big one that is shaped like a cylinder and has two subwoofers. We've had our share of problems with it.

Is it that the disc is not spinning?

 

Thank you all for your help! I realize now that I should have been cleaning the thing, but I didn't know how.
Is the laser easy to reach? Will I need to take the unit apart to get to it?
It's been a great "boombox", and I'd like to keep using it (with better maintenance, obviously)!

 

Dear Hotdawg,

Sckott knows what he is talking about. I like his baseball bat analogy.
I'm pretty much a novice at this sort of thing as well, but I have been lucky in the past and things usual work out. Be real careful you decide to remove the top. Make a diagram and inventory all of the screws Also take photos if you're not familiar with taking things apart. The taking apart is easy. It's putting everything back together that's the hard part.

Good luck.

Happy Holidays!

 

Thanks, Gary! I wonder if it is entirely necessary to take the thing apart, though... can it be done with the tray open, or is the laser too far back?

 

Well, aren't you cute?! LOVE the avatar!

 

lol! 'sok, man - I just thought you were being a wise guy.. I got nuthin' against a weird sense of humor!
I'm really not an idiot, just seems that I didn't know how to take care of my CD player properly, and now I can't see how to access it for cleaning - this looked like a good place to ask for help...

 

Thank you very much, and I wish you & yours a very happy holiday!

(I also hope you do not receive any gifts made of naugahyde!)

Really, who knew you had to CLEAN the things?! LOL!

 

Gary, a nauga-hair brush does a fine job on those lenses!

 

LOL - even if I don't get the player working again, this has been fun! I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!

 

Agreed. After reassembly, just send all leftover pieces to Gary. He'll need 'em after working on his own unit with saws and hammers...