Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread especially to you, Arfa
Daily, for your very detailed analysis. I finally did manage to remove the
screws after rapping each one as Arfa suggested. I am always reluctant to
administer that kind of treatment to delicate electronic apparatus, but in
this case it was necessary. I've never encountered screws this tight in
electronic apparatus before.

Another cleaning of the lens and a very thorough cleaning and lubrication of
the screw drive and tracks seems to have solved my problems.

Again, thanks to all.

Dan

"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