Problem playing burnt CDs and I'm beat

I was trying to think of a thread where it will be all, I've given up

 

Oh please do!

You didn't say anything new and your answers to my last post regarding empirical evidence in troubleshooting hardware vs software issues obviously points to the fact that you didn't even read what I wrote because your answers were totally irrelevant to what I said concerning empirical evidence.

 

Keep it simple and just do what Random suggests which has now been listed three times in this thread.

It's going to be caused by software or hardware or both. Start with the simplest setup and remove all else and conduct a process of elimination.

Any recent OS updates to hardware drivers or just OS updates in general? You don't want any third party non-OS drivers or software functionality enhancement to get in the way and complicate things.

That's 5 sentences to say this and that's as simple as I can get.

 

I will post back more but I've established the Meridian is faulty and the other issues I may have to address later. My friend just interrupted my response, he's on his way over with the crowbar.

 

Reporting back will be very helpful for those who may have similar problems to yours.

Most computer troubleshooting routines conducted in online forums I've either read as a lurker or helped out going back years became a rabbit hole where either the OP didn't report back or if they did it ended up being something so simple as a driver update issue that caused the hardware not to work with third party software.

Hours of wasted time.

 

Try burning at a much slower speed if available within the software = Minimum

Factors I have encountered when playback issues arise with CD-R;
1 – The Colour of the data side which varies between disc manufacturers may not be compatible across all CDPs
2 – The speed at which the cd is burned, try selecting the lowest speed within the burning software
if there are no speed options available then no-doubt this could be too fast for accurate results.

 

Not started well, unfortunately he didn't bring the crowbar, as the top plate for the laser housing (?) is bonded not screwed on.

 

Based on what? The 2nd players has the same symptoms and you've ignored some of the basic troubleshooting steps I outlined to eliminate certain possibilities.

 

I've done them and later I will give what will be a interesting set of results but for now I'm purely focused on the original goal, my Meridian plays music.

 

Slower speeds was good advice in the early days of CD-R burning, but for some time now the best thing to do has been to set the burn speed to match your blank media. If the blanks are labeled "16x", you're probably better off not burning at 24x (although depending on the quality of the media it might work fine).

I haven't been following developments very closely, since I no longer burn discs, but I think the standard for both drives and media has been at 24x for many years now.

 

I hate that when that happens especially on devices on first inspection come apart removing a few screws using a Philips head screwdriver. Get down to source of the problem and it's all a single molded plastic uni-body.

That's when I get the crowbar to beat it open just to see what was broke and if it isn't obvious I beat it some more...

...and then buy a used one that works to replace it. Works every time!

 

Whilst I'm in limbo regarding if I can get to the innards a quick update, with a bit of background explaining why this whole saga hasn't been straightforward.

I've used Nero 12 to burn discs for around 6 years with very god results as I'm sure I must have had a coaster, which I would have re-burnt but I can't remember any. I'd also been burning a lot of disc rather than burn-listen, so around 150 potentially faulty discs

So I never checked my burns using the verify data function in fact I didn't know it was there until all this began. During that whole period I'd only used Taiyo blanks with great results.

The other thing which may help you understand is that I've got a disability which means being as systematic as I previously would is now almost impossible.

I came across Nero DiscSpeed last week this will check the quality of any burn you've made rather than confirm the burn was good on completion, as verify data claims. It's interface looks very similar to the Nero Burn verification, giving sectors coloured either Green, Amber or Red, the manual is how to use rather than what the results actually mean, another function tests your DVD drive but the numbers mean nothing to me.

Nero can say good burn DiscSpeed may show errors, both amber and occasionally red.

This obviously been the cause of some confusion, checking previous burns and some of those apparently good disc are showing faults.

At the end of the test DiscSpeed scores each track from 0 - 100, it seems like a score of 50 and above will play fine get down to 20 and you'll hear distortion and skips.

Friday I just played CDs on the Meridian and yep occasionally it just stopped playing both burnt and normal CDs, which both DiscSpeed & EAC identified as having no errors.

The new Verbatim disc are showing the same as the Taiyo discs some degree of error on about 20% of burns, I'm normally burning at max speed X24 but slower burns don't seem to help.

I'm not going to address this now as it may be academic if I can't repair my CDP, as I'm pretty sure my old CDP has some issues as well, so no music in the future is a real possibility.

I'm not thinking about it but it looks like Nero or my LG external drive are to blame but that's another headache I may not have to face later.



What I'd really like now is any assistance with how we may be able to get to those rails, a quick inspection by my friend and the only 2 options seems to be break the cover off or remove the whole housing of the chassis and look underneath.

He can't look at it properly until next weekend so at the moment I've been trying to find this discussed somewhere on the web but so far found nothing (no smiley face).

 

CD-Rs are crapshoot. I have some 75 of them, mostly FLAC files burned to WAV, mostly Bandcamp and other downloads. Some failed to play on some devices throught the years, but re-recording them to Sony blanks solved the problem. Necessary evil.

Or you can always play the files through your rig directly, eliminating the old middleman. Wished I could do this; my next player will have to be able to play FLAC through a pendrive.

 

You may think my daughter would be of some assistance, she's doing robotics but obviously her Masters isn't concerned with CDPs but her helpful input "Old unreliable technology".

I thought I was doing well catching up in 1995 when I bought my first CDP, now in the UK finding a laptop with a internal DVD drive is hard work, it'll soon be the same for external drives, I'm going floppy disc or perhaps even better wax drum.

Actually if I could buy a replacement it'd probably be the Rega CDP with DAC having inputs for usb device etc.

 

On the exact same boat here mate at 57-years old ! Used to own a notebook with an internal HD but it kerraped out so I got a tower PC, which is not practical for hooking up to a rig. Plus, one supposedely has to get an external DAC to bypass those contraptions cheap built-in sound chips and all the noises inherent to the power souces, etc, or get some of those thingies that allow you to stream wirelessly from lappy to rig......a royal PITA if you'll excuse my French.

 

I would advise not to get laptop with an internal DVD drive for recording CDR's.

There's a reason Apple stopped including them in their Mac Mini's, a moving part that creates severe vibrations that can affect hair thin soldered circuitry. My 2010 MacMini is the last of those that include internal DVD/CDR burner/player. Every time I load a CD or CDR my entire 4x6ft table vibrates. Put my hand on the Mac Mini while it's spinning that disc and feels like I'm getting a hand massage. Apple advises never to move the Mac Mini while the hard drive is spinning because it can damage the read/write arm. If that can happen imagine what's happening with the vibrating read/write head of a spinning CD disc.

Apple received complaints from those who wanted a burner with the newer MacMini so Apple provided an external one at extra cost. Or one could buy a Mac OS compatible third party CD burner. This thread pretty much explains Apple's reasons for not including these devices on small sized Macs.

 

Whilst my laptop does have an internal drive, it's relatively old at 5 years but I chose an external when my laptop's drive failed. Apart from burning audio discs I can't think why you'd want a DVD drive, hence it'll be like the idea of a floppy disc. This issue has been touched upon in discussions about is CD approaching it final days but I'm not ready or able to jump on the merry-go-round so I'm stuck with this soon to be redundant medium.

 

The DVD drive burns and reads CDR's and plays music CD's and DVD movies. I may be missing your point. CD's are not as backward as floppy discs. Lossless uncompressed files will be around forever no matter what hardware medium they're recorded on.

AIFF, WAV and FLAC files aren't outdated technology.

 

I believe we're rapidly seeing physical medium becoming the floppy disc, not enough people are interested = no CD, DVDs.

If my CDP is defunct you could say I've eventually embraced the future.

Anyway that's another thread this one now is "Should I (force) open the box?"

 

Well it took until today to dismantle and grease the rail, all back together and first thing is I've just played CD all the way through, however given the sporadic nature of the fault I'll be holding my breath.

I think Meridian has made every effort to ensure you're faced with a number of obstacles before you've got any chance of doing any DIY maintenance.

 

Well it worked perfectly for 1 week, the Lithium Grease was spray form and I'd sprayed a small amount in to the cup of a roller ball

Looking at the roller ball cup and the grease after evaporation was limiting how easily the ball bearing moved, given we're talking about a low amount of energy to move the lens housing along the rail, it doesn't sound like a good approach.

I'm getting good at this, opened up used 99.9% isopropyl alcohol to clean the rail, then allowed Silicone Dry Lube to evaporate and applied. So far 2 weeks, fingers crossed.