" wrote in message
...
On Mar 31, 7:55 am, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
Have you looked at the cabling? Is it tight / binding / tangled, etc?

Yes, I've done all that, and it usually gets "stuck" at about 3/4 of
the way through, and has no problem
for the rest of the disc. Plus, last night it played a brand new disc
without any problems at all. It's a
tough one...

It's very likely that the laser is getting marginal. Playability problems,
particularly with less than perfect discs - i.e. not absolutely brand
sparkly new - is a typical symptom. You can usually get a good idea if the
mechanics are sound, by playing a full length CD right through, although I
think you will find that it will play correctly, because the laser is almost
certainly getting to the outside edge of the disc without incident. What is
usually happening when the problem occurs like this after about 3/4 of the
film has played, is that the worn laser is having difficulty with the lower
output from the disc, when it has moved over to the second internal layer.
(It changes over to this second layer when the laser has reached the edge of
the disc. The second layer then plays in reverse fashion, being read
*through* the outer semi-transparent layer, with the laser now heading back
in towards the disc centre).

Although some disc manufacturers try to implement the layer change at a
'fade to black' scene transistion, many do not, and you will see the layer
change take place as a momentary freeze in both the sound and vision. If the
problems start soon after you see this happen, you can be pretty sure that a
worn laser is your problem.

Arfa