Sony HCD-EP313 Stereo. Optical Pickup Assy?

[dogdad]

This Mini-Stereo (2 channel, CD & Cassette) was handed off to me because they heard I like tinkering with things.

Anyways, I did say I'd take a look at it, and found the radio portion as well as aux input works fine. The person doesn't use cassettes anymore so i didn't even try that.

The problem is with the CD portion. When you put in a cd, the motor spins it up for several seconds and then comes to a stop and the display says "NO CD". Last portable Cd-player I had that did that went right in the dumpster, so I have no experience with troubleshooting.

If anyone has dug into a cd-player, could it mean that the laser assembly may be bad and doesn't 'see' anymore and therefore can't determine if there's a cd or not? Or does it mean the problem may lie in the electronics itself?

Is there a way to check further? Is the laser-light visible? I found a replacement optical-pickup assembly for sale, and wondered if that might be a good call, or what?

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

[Chungalin]

Re: Sony HCD-EP313 Stereo. KSS-213E optical pickup.

Look, these units (unless it has been previously repaired) carry the KSS-213E optical pickup (KSM213EDP mechanism). KSS-213E are the best of KSS-213x series for maintenance point of view. It's a shame to replace these pickups just because they're dirt. It's a shame.

Clean the lens with a cotton swab. You'll find videos on how to carefully clean pickup lens of any CD/DVD. Don't scratch it by cleaning it with dry cotton swab, always slightly wet with eyeglass cleaner solution. I don't recommend alcohol unless dirtiness comes from greassy environment (kitchen).

But these wonderful pickups have a hidden surprise. Dust also enters inside all pickups, making impossible to clean its guts, but these ones have a transparent plastic cover on top of the pit that goes to the laser prism. You need to carefully remove the black plastic cover on top of the pickup and use a thin cotton swab to clean that inner cover too. Don't disassemble anything else than the black plastic cover or you'll spoil factory aligment. It's possible to clean it this way. I think I've just needed to replace one or two units that couldn't be recovered by cleaning.

I've taken a picture of a KSS-213E inner cover. I use to clean it from below metal structure, but it's possible to carefully rise the lens assembly a bit and insert a thin cotton swab from top.

Other sources of CD reading problems:

* 16 tracks FFC cut due to bad bending. It starts with intermittent problems, but ends with permanent unability to read.

* Bad spindle or sled motors. Are them Mabuchi? (and real Mabuchi, not Mabochi or other fakes). Mabuchi are good quality motors. JQ24 (blue logo and lettering) are crap and fail often. They jam and they seem to recover with exercise, but usually fail again in few days.

Take pictures of the CD mechanism.

[dogdad]

Re: Sony HCD-EP313 Stereo. Optical Pickup Assy?

Thanks for the info, Chungalin. I got right down to where you'd suggested and carefully cleaned, but still no luck. Motors would spin up and all, and the display says "NO CD".

Rather than keep butting my head (), I just replaced the entire optical drive. WHOO! HOOO! It works.

Wonder how much I should charge the guy? Or even tell him I fixed it? I kinda like it, sounds nice for its size. He gave it to me as DOA, so it's not like he will miss it.


Nawww... I better tell him, and let him decide what he wants to do.