CD player pauses spontaneously.

[menschenstimme]

I have a Panasonic RP 91 CD/DVD player that I use only as a CD player. It sounds excellent. It will suddenly pause while playing a CD, wait about 15 seconds, and then resume playing in the correct place. This happens very randomly and does not seem to be disc specific nor at a particular place on the disc. Please note that during the pause, I can hear the transport searching for the correct place to start playing again. I think that it was damaged enroute to me because the packaging (non-original) was done very poorly. But what could the damage be and why is it only intermittent? I did not pay enough for this older player to make it worth seeking professional service. I am more curious to know what might be happening than anything else. Thank you!

[JohnMichael]

Being an older player the laser might be hanging up along it's track. The lube may have dried out or there is enough wear to the tracks that the laser will not stay focused. It could even be the error correction being older and slower it takes more time to correct errors.

[menschenstimme]

Okay, thanks! I tried lubricating the tracks with a very minimal layer of lithium grease. The problem went a way for a few days and then returned. I could try a very light oil - but I am afraid that oil might migrate and damage something else.

There is another issue - which may or may not be related: Approximately every 10th time the drawer opens, it opens at twice normal speed and then needs a nudge to get it to close - probably because it opened with such force that it traveled just a bit too far.

This thing was shipped wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap - but bouncing around loose inside the shipping carton. The seller seemed like a nice person, but he turned out to be a real jerk. He did not spend all the shipping money that I sent him. I sent him enough money to ship properly. So he shipped on the cheap and then kept the change. I looked up his home address on zillow.com and he lives in a $700,000 house! He may not own the house - or perhaps he pays the mortgage by playing games cheating people out of a few dollars here and there? SIGH!

[menschenstimme]

UPDATE: Well, I solved most of the problems with some additional lubrication and the player worked like new for two days. Now, when I load a disc, sometimes it will say NO DISC when there is a disc and other times it will turn itself off and refuse to turn back on for about an hour. The laser seems to be working because I can see it flash when the drawer closes. Does anyone have any idea what might be happening here? Perhaps an invisible crack in a circuit trace or perhaps the laser is indeed in the process of expiring? I care more about the mystery than I do about the actual player. Oh well . . .

[JohnMichael]

When you had the player apart to lubricate did you clean the laser's lens? I use Kodak lens cleaning fluid and lens tissues to clean the lens. A dirty lens can interfere with the reading of the disc.

[menschenstimme]

Yes, thank you! I cleaned the laser lens and it made no difference. But I just noticed that the spindle motor has stopped spinning. It may have been overlubricated. I will see if there is anything I can do about this. Thanks again!

[menschenstimme]

Followup: Methinks that the spindle motor itself may be okay and that the circuitry that controls the motor may be faulty. When a disc is inserted and PLAY is selected, the drawer closes and the laser blinks twice, but the motor does not start. However, if I spin the disc manually, the motor will start and run for about a minute while the display says READ. Then the motor stops, the disc slows down and the display says NO DISC.

If it is not the motor control circuit, then probably the laser is dying and is unable to engage properly. Oh well . . .