I recently purchased a copy of Cassandra Wilson’s CD “Blue Lights 'til Dawn” from the BMG Record Club. The CD was delivered and I popped it into the player and … nothing. The player failed to recognize that there was a CD in the tray. No little “whirring” sound, no readout on the total number of tracks and time, etc. Thinking there was something wrong with the CD itself, I requested another. It was delivered yesterday and…the same thing happened.
Figuring that it must be the CD and not the player (all my other CDs play fine), I put the copies in my portable player and they both played without a glitch. Hmmm…
The CD player is a JVC, BTW, about 15 years old, a pretty basic model, but it does what I need it to do (play CDs). I’m wondering if the problem could be the way that Blue Note CDs are manufactured? I’ve never experienced it before and I’m flumoxed. Any ideas?
On behalf of the entire SDMB populace, and the 30+ people who read your post but failed so far to respond, you are due a Class C apology plnnr.
There are a few likely explanations.
The first, is this a looong cd? More than 60 minutes? Older equipment sometimes can’t handle CD’s over the official 60 minute limit of the original CD-Audio standard. Obviously no fix is possible short of buying a new player.
The header track might be too close in to the inner edge. The CD track info is written there. If your laser pickup can’t move that far in, it won’t read it, no CD seen. It may be possible to adjust/clean this but not likely.
Your laser pickup lens could be slightly dirty and combined with the cheapness of the CD might be the cause. Check the link below for how to clean the lens the right way. Do not use one of those cleaner CDs. The slides the pickup rides on could be dirty too.
Your player’s electronics and/or motors are just plain way past their designed lifetime (warranty+1 day).
For the best info on consumer electronic repair, see Sam Goldwassers sci.electronic.repair faq at http://www.repairfaq.org