"Dan Dubosky" wrote in message
...
I have a Sony Discman CD Compact Player, model D-E301, which skips on the
upper tracks. On a disc with 17 tracks, it starts to skip a little on
track 15 and gets worse on 16 and 17. I've already cleaned the lens with
some alcohol. Any suggestions?

I've never had this thing apart and today I tried getting it apart by
attempting to take out the small Phillips head screws on the bottom, each
of which has an arrow next to it. Seeing the arrows, makes one think that
these screws are removable, but I cannot remove them. Are they glued in?

Thanks,
Dan

This usually indicates one of two problems. First, the sled drive worm or
slides are dry and sticky. This usually shows up on a long disc, as the area
where the laser has to go to, right at the outer edge of the disc, is
somewhere that it doesn't usually go on average length discs, so the
lubrication never gets 'circulated' and distributed around the moving parts,
so has a tendency to collect dust, dry out and go sticky.

The other problem that can show up on long discs, is spindle motor or
spindle servo troubles. This is because the further the track is towards the
end of the disc, the slower the disc rotates, so any tendency for the motor
speed to be erratic, shows up worse, to the point where data loss is beyond
the level that the auto-correction can cope with, so the servos start to
lose lock, skipping being the result.

Occasionally, you can get similar problems with a weak laser, but this more
usually results in poor playability and shock resistance, throughout the
whole disc.

The first move would definitely be to clean and relube the laser slides and
drive. The screws marked with arrows are the right ones, and I don't know
why you should be having any problem getting them out. They certainly aren't
glued, but you will need a good quality jeweller's philips to not damage
their heads. Many of the Sonys are also clipped together, so even with the
screws out, you might need to insert a thin scalpel blade between the case
halves, to seperate them. The deck is usually not secured once you are
inside. It just lifts off the plastic pegs, but be *very* careful of the
flexiprint connections to the deck. They are quite delicate, and can easily
tear.

Arfa