Can anyone help out please, with advice on how to fix a cd pickup? There seems to be a few issues going on:
1. The pickup doesn't always read the disc (can take several attempts opening and closing lid to engage the pickup). Lid and interlock both work fine.
2. Once read, and a track selection is made manually (other than first track) it no longer reads disc, or moves to selected track.
3. When it does play a disc "successfully", it skips and begins to play tracks at random, until that tracks skips, and the process continues, repeatedly.

It's unfortunate, as this is a very nice unit, with very good sound, amazing low bass reproduction, excellent features, etc. Although CD repair isn't really my thing, I'd really like to get this unit back into proper working order as it's otherwise mint, and the tuner and dual cassette decks work perfectly.

I've cleaned the lens, and blown the dust out of the cd player, but that's as far as I've gone. Is there something else I can do? Is a repair shop required, or is it even worth repairing (cost wise)? The model in question is Sharp GX-CD510C.

Thanks!

It seems that the laser units' adjustment is out of range.

Hummmmmmmm, well, what type of CD are you using? Is it an original or a R-w?

See, older first generation CD players... the laser was very weak and most of them cannot pick up any signal off of newer CDs... a R-w or other recordable CDs..... If not, Eddy could be totally right as well...

Brian is right , not every CD player handles CDR's very well , especially the ones that are 15 -20 years old

Thanks for your replies guys.

It will accept CD-R as well as standard commercial CD's, so it's not a first generation player.

There are instances where the pickup assembly won't budge, and other times it will. I've also been able to (gently) manually move it to the track-1 position. In some cases, it will begin to play a track well, and skip later on. Sometimes it will restart that track, and others, it will begin a different track.

I think this is likely a 1990's model...

So, it has to be a mechanical problem...

Yes, I think it must be some mechanical problem. It's strange, it seems to play a cd-r longer without skips than a regular commercial cd...but when it does skip, it's all over the place. I'm not sure what if anything I can do with it. Are cd players repairable? I'd most likely take it to a repair shop...but as I only paid 10 bucks for this little gem...I have to wonder about the $25.00 inspection fee (+ any actual repair/parts costs). That's a bit of a dilemma...it's such a cool sounding portable, in such great condition, etc. Sigh...

I would give it a try to get it checked .
still can be the laser unit that's out of focus
A twist on a trimpotentiometer can do the trick

My Fisher does this sometimes. The CD may be fluttering around in the unit because the lid is not seating properly.Try putting something heavy on top of the lid. I used to use a can of beans and it worked great.

Thanks for your help guys.

jcyellocar, I'll give that a try.

quote:

A twist on a trimpotentiometer can do the trick

Yeah, give that a try...... I had to do that to one of my Hi-Fi component a while back cause it was skipping as well.... it won't hurt to try!

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quote:

Try putting something heavy on top of the lid. I used to use a can of beans and it worked great.

Now, that is proof that the laser is not in focus... if you have to put something on top of the lid that means that the beam/lens needed to be focused......... Yap, try that!

Ok...the can o' beans trick didn't do it, so how do I go about the trimpotentiometer thingy?

Eddy, you wanna tell him...???


It is not that hard.

Ok JC , i had trouble with a Sony Radio CD headunit in my car once. I thought wat the hell,
it can't get worse than this. I turned on a trimpotentiometer that had focus written near it
Try to find this potentiometer and turn it a little ( to the left and right)
I know , the dudes that are used to adjust CD players have special test CD's and oscilloscopes and ...... but i would try this first. I tried this with that sony and it never ever skipped again , even on the worst roads. And the sound was a tad better too. Stereo image was better

Thanks Eddy, very much appreciated. The earliest I (hope) to get to it will be Tuesday. I'll give it a try, and let you know how things turn out.

Thanks to all for your help.

Do this,take a q tip lightly soaked with clear alcohol and gently swap the laser's lense.This has always worked for me no matter what the situation ,it just recently worked on my sons xbox 360 lense, cleaned the lense and workes flawlessly now.I had a an old yamaha cd player fixed it that way too.LOL my alpine double din car radio fixed that too that way. Give it a try it may work for u too.Sometimes under the lasers lense there is dust too,try and blow out that part too.

Hi jimski, and thank you. Actually, after using a lens cleaner cd, I did follow up with the q-tip/isopropyl alcohol trick, and used compressed air. But, there's no harm in repeating it again. I'll let you know how things work out. Thanks again!

pop the lense off and clean the underside of it and stick a q tip down the hole and clean the mirrors,The lense is held on with a light rubber cement.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give this a try too.

Be carefull. If you increase the laser power too much you can destroy it. Usually only an 1/8 turn is allowed. This preset in some pickups is in the pick-up itself. Is like a little screw ...

But in another players the preset are on the main board. And more than one preset could exist.

One is the lens offset (to adjust the amount the lens pop-up) and the gain (to adjust the speed of servo response). Perhaps you need to change the offset ....

Overheating inside is another problem. A faulty motor, could overheat the player. When the temperature goes up, tracking get worse ...

The mecha over the pick-up run across most be free and clean !!!!.

Thank you SUCCESS, I appreciate your advice. This is the first time I've tried to work on a cd player, so I'm taking it slow.