Just occasionally, it all works out ... :-)

[bz]

b <reverend_rogers@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:673c9f76-2105-4cb0-9c42-33d4e5be34cc@z10g2000yqb.googlegroups.com:

.....

I had this exact thing earlier this year! I was working on an AIWA
system which would not read discs. was about to toss it aside when I
noticed some dirt near the laser . After carefully removing the lens
there was some kind of dead insect blocking the beam path - removed,
cleaned up, reassembled and worked fine!
why it chose precisely the most precision-made heart of the machine to
live in is beyond me...

More precisely, 'why it chose that spot to die in ... '

Perhaps it was exploring and the owner tried to play something, and it got
zapped by the 'death ray' from the laser.


> -B

 

[Dave]

"Arfa Daily" <arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...

Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I put
the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs" said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered -
the owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble ... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it
back where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I would
just give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except
focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of these,
so I thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a look at the
connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before me. There was
nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections. With
an analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones
read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had
a close look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see
that one of the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that
come up from the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the
lens carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look
broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first place.
Pointy tweezers, a fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put
that right, and the lens then deflected normally when the meter was
applied again. All worked nicely, as these always do, when it was
reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares ain't gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa

Isn't it *nice* when you get something like this to keep you going. Wife's
monitor went dark the other day, and since I'm the official fixer in the
house, she gave it to me. No power to the LCD screen. Found two
electrolytic caps shorted and the surface mount fuse on that board blown.
They were obviously filter caps, intended to cut down on ripple, and since I
couldn't get exact replacement parts I put in something physically and
electronically larger for the job. Replaced the fuse, and she is back up
and running. Funny thing is, they fit the physical space dedicated to the
job of filter caps better than the ones that were originally in there. Not
the slightest bit of difficulty pulling the others out and putting them in.
And if *they* overheat, there's something serious going on. I got an easy
fix, and wife is happy again. What else could you ask for?

Take it easy...

Dave

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Dave" <db5151@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:xPGdnZRMavGSd6nRnZ2dnUVZ_gKdnZ2d@posted.internetamerica...

"Arfa Daily" <arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring
a screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I
put the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs"
said the ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have
bothered - the owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to
save me the trouble ... I probably should have just sighed at this
point, and sent it back where it came from, but I've always liked these,
so I thought I would just give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did
what it should, except focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual
problem on one of these, so I thought I would just whip the deck out
first and have a look at the connectors, as someone had clearly been in
there before me. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would
just check the continuity to the laser focus coils whilst I could easily
get at the connections. With an analogue meter on a low ohms range, I
checked the coils. The tracking ones were fine, and the lens deflected
left or right, but the focus ones read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I
had a close look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly
see that one of the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins
that come up from the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on
the lens carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't
look broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first
place. Pointy tweezers, a fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder,
soon put that right, and the lens then deflected normally when the meter
was applied again. All worked nicely, as these always do, when it was
reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares ain't gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa

Isn't it *nice* when you get something like this to keep you going.
Wife's monitor went dark the other day, and since I'm the official fixer
in the house, she gave it to me. No power to the LCD screen. Found two
electrolytic caps shorted and the surface mount fuse on that board blown.
They were obviously filter caps, intended to cut down on ripple, and since
I couldn't get exact replacement parts I put in something physically and
electronically larger for the job. Replaced the fuse, and she is back up
and running. Funny thing is, they fit the physical space dedicated to the
job of filter caps better than the ones that were originally in there.
Not the slightest bit of difficulty pulling the others out and putting
them in. And if *they* overheat, there's something serious going on. I
got an easy fix, and wife is happy again. What else could you ask for?

Take it easy...

Dave

Indeed Dave, and funnily enough, since that one "good 'un" at the start of
the week, I have had a really good run of repairs. Pretty much all stuff
with genuine problems, that were for the most part fixable with in-stock
parts, and parts actually available and reasonably priced, for the others.
Just one (and a half ! ) causing me problems at the moment ...

Arfa