The CD player in my car worked well 2 months ago but last week I just
got Track Search, or Error, something like that.

Changed CD, same problem

Rest of radio works well.

Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two
little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it
do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?

At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?


The Maxell CD was 6 dollars, and got high Amazon ratings.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._title_o01_s00
4.1 stars on 5700 ratings.

They sell two others, Memorex and Optimum, for 10 and 14 dollars, also
with high ratings. But isn't buying one of them throwing good money
after bad?

"micky" wrote in message
...
The CD player in my car worked well 2 months ago but last week I just
got Track Search, or Error, something like that.

Changed CD, same problem

Rest of radio works well.

Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two
little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it
do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?

At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?

Very likely but not certain.

Do you smoke ? If you do you may well find that you
can open the player up and clean the lens with some
isopropyl alcohol or just metho if you don't have that
and get the muck that smokers produce off the lens.
A brush wont do that.

The Maxell CD was 6 dollars, and got high Amazon ratings.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._title_o01_s00
4.1 stars on 5700 ratings.

They sell two others, Memorex and Optimum, for 10
and 14 dollars, also with high ratings. But isn't buying
one of them throwing good money after bad?

Really depends on whether you are a smoker or not.

On 04/10/2021 08:14 PM, micky wrote:
The CD player in my car worked well 2 months ago but last week I just
got Track Search, or Error, something like that.

Changed CD, same problem

Rest of radio works well.

Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two
little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it
do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?

At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?


The Maxell CD was 6 dollars, and got high Amazon ratings.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._title_o01_s00
4.1 stars on 5700 ratings.

They sell two others, Memorex and Optimum, for 10 and 14 dollars, also
with high ratings. But isn't buying one of them throwing good money
after bad?


Yes. CD players are better than cassettes but they are still mechanical.
I've disassembled one after a cleaning disc didn't work and found the
problem was in the mechanism that positions the laser head.

I think the current car does have a CD player but I use MP3s from a USB
stick or Bluetooth from the phone for variety. Non-moving parts don't
skip on rough roads.

On Sun, 11 Apr 2021 13:42:30 +1000, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?

Very likely but not certain.

Do you smoke ? If you do you may well find that you
can open the player up and clean the lens with some
isopropyl alcohol or just metho if you don't have that
and get the muck that smokers produce off the lens.
A brush wont do that.

IOW, you have NO idea what's wrong but you will run off at the mouth anyway
in your known obnoxious senile manner, psychotic Mr. Know-it-all!

--
Marland answering senile Rodent's statement, "I don't leak":
"That¢s because so much **** and ****e emanates from your gob that there is
nothing left to exit normally, your arsehole has clammed shut through disuse
and the end of prick is only clear because you are such a ******."
Message-ID:

On Saturday, April 10, 2021 at 10:15:11 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:


Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two
little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it
do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?



When you put the CD in, the CD spins, the laser sled goes looking for a reflective surface and then tries to focus on it. During this time, the spinning CD is brushing up against the lens even if the unit is not in "play".




At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?


Waste of time. Dirty CDs don't work one day and not the next, unless there was a substantial influx of dust and dirt blown into the mechanism. Auto CDs in particular are fairly well protected against this. If your CD stopped playing suddenly, something happened to it. First guess is a slipping loading or sled belt.

I don't work on CDs any more, but when I did, dirty lens usually resulted in a complaint of erratic skipping or muting, and even then, it pointed more to a weak laser than a dirty lens. Cleaning the lens used to buy some time at best.

On Sunday, April 11, 2021 at 3:40:47 AM UTC-4, Peeler wrote:
On Sun, 11 Apr 2021 13:42:30 +1000, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:
....
"Thats because so much **** and ****e emanates from your gob that there is
nothing left to exit normally, your arsehole has clammed shut through disuse
and the end of prick is only clear because you are such a ******."
Message-ID:

Wow, your monthly friend visiting this weekend? If you have a problem with the poster, take it off group. No one here is interested in your whining. I don't know either one of you, but just from reading your post and his, it's you who sounds like the fool.

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 22:14:54 -0400, micky posted for all of us to digest...


The CD player in my car worked well 2 months ago but last week I just
got Track Search, or Error, something like that.

Changed CD, same problem

Rest of radio works well.

Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two
little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it
do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?

At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?


The Maxell CD was 6 dollars, and got high Amazon ratings.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._title_o01_s00
4.1 stars on 5700 ratings.

They sell two others, Memorex and Optimum, for 10 and 14 dollars, also
with high ratings. But isn't buying one of them throwing good money
after bad?

You have several choices: don't get it fixed and live with it.
Send it to a car radio repair shop and pay big bux.
Get one from a junkyard and swap it.
Do as other posters have suggested and use memory stick or like.
Get a portable CD player and plug it in.


--
Tekkie

In sci.electronics.repair micky wrote:
The CD player in my car worked well 2 months ago but last week I just
got Track Search, or Error, something like that.

Changed CD, same problem

Rest of radio works well.

Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two
little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it
do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?

At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?

For an automtive CD player, yes. It's dead, move on. If you can get the
thing out of the dashboard and take it apart, you might have a chance, but
if it just died a sudden death, it's probably not work fussing with.

On Sunday, 11 April 2021 at 10:41:45 UTC-4, wrote:
On Saturday, April 10, 2021 at 10:15:11 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:


Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two
little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it
do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?
When you put the CD in, the CD spins, the laser sled goes looking for a reflective surface and then tries to focus on it. During this time, the spinning CD is brushing up against the lens even if the unit is not in "play".
At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning
won't help?
Waste of time. Dirty CDs don't work one day and not the next, unless there was a substantial influx of dust and dirt blown into the mechanism. Auto CDs in particular are fairly well protected against this. If your CD stopped playing suddenly, something happened to it. First guess is a slipping loading or sled belt.

I don't work on CDs any more, but when I did, dirty lens usually resulted in a complaint of erratic skipping or muting, and even then, it pointed more to a weak laser than a dirty lens. Cleaning the lens used to buy some time at best.

I agree to a point. If there is sufficient smoke in the area, the lens can get a film on it that a brush won't remove. Here a clean using alcohol and a cotton swab works wonders. Note that this requires removal from the car and opening up the unit. I fixed 100s of CD players this way, mostly form smoking households.