My Rotel RCD-02 (which is similar to the RCD 961 / RCD971 in europe)
is no longer playing compact dics.

Unfortunately this may be due to my own fault as the unit was left
switched on and placed on top of my Marantz class A amp which gets
extremely hot. I am wondering if the extending periods of heat have
caused premature failure of the laser diode. The unit is two years
old and hasn't been used that much.

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Symtoms:

Sled will travel smoothly to read TOC, CD player detects CD, spindle
speeds up, but display remains "00". I tried removing the spindle
clamp and looking for visible signs of life in the laser diode by
using an IR sensitive CCD camera on my mobile phone, there is a
bluish glow coming from the lens in a grill like pattern. However I
am unsure whether the CD is actually being read. I did notice though
that the CD player managed to play the first track of a single CD
which only has 3 tracks present about 3 weeks ago, since then and
before though it has been broken.

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The optical pickup is a Sony KSS-213C.

I have tested the ribbon cable for broken connections between the PCB
and the optical block, this is fine.

I would appreciate your help and experience, as I have not had
problems with CD players before. I am tempted to order another
optical block KSS-213C but am not sure if this will resolve the
problem.