The first thing to do is to clean the lens, but not with a lens cleaner, they sometimes help but are often worse than useless and just spread the dirt around, if not actually damaging the lens. If you are just marginally more than curious then, it takes 5 minutes but you have to open up the player.
But this sounds more like a mechanical problem, possibly as simple as the need for cleaning and lubrication. You will have to get under the clamp to access the lens and spindle on drawer loading models but the lens and its suspension, at least, should be readily accessible on portable CD players with pop-up doors.
Objective lens - Carefully clean the lens assembly. Be gentle! The lens is suspended by a voice coil actuated positioner which is relatively delicate. A CD lens cleaning disc is nearly worthless except for the most minor dust as it will not completely remove grease, grime, and condensed tobacco smoke products (yet another reason not to smoke!) and make matters worse by just moving the crud around. First, gently blow out any dust or dirt which may have collected inside the lens assembly. A photographic type of air bulb is fine but be extremely careful using any kind of compressed air source. Next, clean the lens itself. It is made of plastic, so don't use strong solvents. There are special cleaners, but isopropyl alcohol us usually all that is needed for CD players and VCRs. (91% medicinal is acceptable, pure isopropyl is better. Avoid rubbing alcohol especially if it contains any additives.) However, sometimes, a drop of water will be needed to dissolve sugar based crud. There should be no problems as long as you dry everything off (gently!) reasonably quickly. DO NOT LUBRICATE!
Answers & Comments
Hello,
The first thing to do is to clean the lens, but not with a lens
cleaner, they sometimes help but are often worse than useless
and just spread the dirt around, if not actually damaging the lens.
If you are just marginally more than curious then, it takes 5 minutes
but you have to open up the player.
But this sounds more like a mechanical problem, possibly as simple
as the need for cleaning and lubrication.
You will have to get under the clamp to access the lens and spindle on drawer loading models but the lens and its suspension, at least, should be readily accessible on portable CD players with pop-up doors.
Objective lens - Carefully clean the lens assembly. Be gentle! The lens is suspended by a voice coil actuated positioner which is relatively delicate. A CD lens cleaning disc is nearly worthless except for the most minor dust as it will not completely remove grease, grime, and condensed tobacco smoke products (yet another reason not to smoke!) and make matters worse by just moving the crud around. First, gently blow out any dust or dirt which may have collected inside the lens assembly. A photographic type of air bulb is fine but be extremely careful using any kind of compressed air source. Next, clean the lens itself. It is made of plastic, so don't use strong solvents. There are special cleaners, but isopropyl alcohol us usually all that is needed for CD players and VCRs. (91% medicinal is acceptable, pure isopropyl is better. Avoid rubbing alcohol especially if it contains any additives.) However, sometimes, a drop of water will be needed to dissolve sugar based crud. There should be no problems as long as you dry everything off (gently!) reasonably quickly. DO NOT LUBRICATE!
Take care.