Technics CD player - intermittent no play fault...

My Sony did that (similar vintage). Fitted a new head (fairly easy - £15 off E-bay) Solved the problem

JimK brought next idea :

That ticking is the head trying focus and find a track. Probably the laser is weak, but it might be worth cleaning the lens. You can buy replacement heads, but installing is a delicate job.

supposed to look for tracks/index etc without spinning the disc up then? seems a bit of odd somehow?

ta JimK

JimK brought next idea :

I'm not sure whether they look for evidence of a CD first (focus), or spin the disk first. There used to be a rather good web site with repair FAQ's on electronics items, part of which covered CD players and their repair.

I seem to recall my ancient laserdisc player checks that it can focus things first (and does a little step-dance with the head if it can't) before it even thinks about powering the spindle motor up.

Maybe some CD players don't do this, but I'm sure that there are also some that do :)

cheers

Jules

Yes - they look for a reflection before spinning. The noise is the lens hitting the disc as it tries to focus - but overshoots. Weak laser.

My replacement laser was from:

See if they can identify the correct replacement.

Maybe clean the lens, airborn pollution has to have an effect. One unit I blew out with compressed air, that fixed it, try air first. CD players are so cheap, is it worth repairing.

not commercially no but it's original probly better quality than it's "engineered dwon to a price" replacement and surely must be worth a diy go before I skip it especially if blasts of air can cure?

Thanks to all for links and advice so far

Cheers JimK