CD Player Advice?

I have a big black Sony CD stereo component from the 1980s. Works great except that the tray is hinky as has to be pushed in manually and helped to be pulled out.

Can it be fixed? I’d rather not spend $400 for another one if I don’t have to.

10 Comments.

  • Open it up & clean it out. Don’t unscrew anything but the case unless you’re absolutely certain you can get it back together.

    There’s probably fluff & dust in the tray’s tracks. You can get compressed air in cans to blow out that which you can’t reach. Wipe off any moving parts (like belts) with a damp cloth – this will remove buildup that might cause slippage. Something that old will need the circuit boards vacuumed, the dust & cat hair will cause overheating.

    If that doesn’t work: you’re basically screwed. You almost certainly can’t get replacement parts & a shop would charge more than it’s worth to fix.

    Strange commentary on our society that it’s more expensive to fix something than to simply replace it. I fully expect that my next car’s hood will have a sticker that says, “Warranty void if seal is broken – no user-serviceable parts inside”

    • Thanks for the advice. I’ll get one of those cans of compressed air; they come in handy for all sorts of things. And yes, it is annoying. Though, honestly, I’ve played thousands of CDs on that player. 30 years isn’t a bad run.

  • NEVER vacuum a circuit board. Use compressed air to BLOW dust off. A soft brush (like a dry and clean old toothbrush) can also help.

    • You’re right, I should have been more specific. You definitely don’t want to use the same one you use for your floors, but you can get low power, low flow vacuums that will do the trick.

      Blowing the dust off can have the side effect of pushing it into other crooks & crannies.

      • With any method, brush, blower, or electronics vacuum – the trick is very, very gentle.

      • Being gentle is certainly a must.
        But sucking (up ) is definitely a NO NO.
        Unless you enjoy sifting through the vacuum bag to find the tiny tiny component/componentS that are now missing from your board. Assuming of course you were quick enough to see/hear them being sucked away. Ore are tech-savvy enough to even realize it.

      • What? Disagreement on the Rallblog? Say it ain’t so! 🙂

        I’ve got a bit of a dust allergy and try to avoid blowing fine dust as much as possible. You can buy vacuums specifically made for electronics, I’ve been using one for years & haven’t lost anything yet. It’s got a nice camel hair brush on the tip so you don’t even get the full pressure differential on the board. You could even think of it as a brush with a nearby vacuum to suck up that which the brush dislodged.

        Canned air can be 50 PSI or more; the biggest pressure differential you can get with a vacuum is theoretically 14.7 PSI and you aren’t going to get anywhere near that in real life. But if you do manage to pull out a transistor, you just found your problem. 😉

        That said, the damn thing cost near as much as a new CD player.

        YO! TED! Aren’t you glad you posted this question where geeks could see it?

  • Sony’s up into the late 90’s were built to last. If you bought it in the 80’s, then I’d think the electronics components that expire would’ve expired already.

    Most likely bad switch or bad motor. Less likely but possible is broken or jammed mechanical parts (linkage, return spring, bearing?). Anything can be fixed, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. cost/benefit of fix vs replacement is another question. Have you checked ebay for the same or closely related product?

    Fixing it would likely require some rework soldering and electronics skillz and perhaps $100 worth of tools, time coming up with a junk system to fish out a replacement part, and most importantly, a love of doing this sort of thing. A perfectly good generic CD player should be $25-50 on ebay.

    Finally, maybe all you need is a way to eject it without prying (while still having it latch into place when it is “in”) ? You can probably make that happen with a little creative “surgery”, again, if you’re into this sort of thing.

    • Inks for the advice. Indeed, it’s pretty easy to get a cheap CD player these days. I’m just so used to the old one and don’t feel like installing a new one. Not to mention, I hate the waste of filling up the landfill for no reason.

  • Ted,
    I’m surprised you do not rebel against the modern corporate coersion to upgrade.
    Many older electronics were built to last; modern replacements seem designed to fail.

    The best work-around for me has been Craigslist, so find similar-model units to replace the old either in part or whole. Maybe a simple cleaning may fix your unit, or maybe a replacement motor, or it could be something more complicated like a circuit-board (hopefully not, very hard to find replacements for those).

    Good luck!

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