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CDI drive

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:29 am
by Foleyjo
Hi
I think Ive already emailed devin about this problem but I thought Id ask here as well for more opinions and help.
I also wanted to join this community that respects a great console

Ive got a CDI 210 however the CD drive refuses to work.
What Im wanting to know is if I can get a replacement drive or laser module from anywhere.

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:48 am
by oaacdi
That makes two of us, and I have three 220 units, two of them have dead cd-i drives and the third unit is noisy and needs a push to close the tray all the way! All of them use the CDM-9 version. Where to find one?

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 11:17 pm
by Devin
The Laser Modules aren't particularly hard to come by. One supplier from the UK is called Cricklewood Electronics available here which supply all the mechanisms used for CD-i players except the CDM9 unfortunately. Although you can check the list of CD-i models and corresponding laser mechs on ICDIA here it's best to take a look under the hood of your player seeing as you'll be replacing it yourself anyway!!

It's not a particularly hard task replacing the laser mech, just take care to note down how it's put togather before taking it apart!! This way when it comes to reconstructing the CD transport you should know where eveything goes. Have a look at my rough guide to the LG GDI700 laser mech replacement here for some pointers.

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:11 am
by Foleyjo
Cheers for the advice. I will look into and hopefully get a CDI repaired.

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 1:15 pm
by stefh
The CD-tray of my 470 was also making a lot of noise and was very slow. So I deconstructed the whole player and cleaned the drive and oiled the (gear)wheels and it now works excellent again. It took some time but it was worth it!

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 1:02 pm
by WindowsKiller
This topic is quite old, but it should be noted that it's possible to revive most broken laser units by simply re-adjusting the power of the laser beam or by increasing the focus gain. Not recommended for the layman, however, as you need some basic knowledge and the right equipment, if you don't want to cause even more damage. ;)

CDI220/57 with CDM9/44: audio "snaps"

Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 7:07 pm
by mentorron
I bought this unit used and have only one problem so far which I have not seen mentioned in the old Black Moon or this forum.
I now use it to play CD-R music discs a lot. However, it occasionally emits sounds through the audio outputs that sounds like small snaps of static electricity. I took the player to my local Philips authorized repair depot and they checked and adjusted the laser, but there is no difference. The "snap"-type sounds occur infrequently (about 2 - 4 times per CD) and occur randomly (not repeatable). I notice them mostly on piano recordings, as the sound gets hidden somewhat by the frequencies string instruments produce. I also tried using an external chassis ground wire without change.
The repair depot advises it would be quite costly for them to troubleshoot due to the random occurence of the sounds.
Any ideas?

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:42 am
by WindowsKiller
Maybe it's caused by the amplifier and not by the player itself?

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:55 am
by Bas
and what is the sound amplified to? Is it a tv speaker, can it hold high tones, it sounds more like an issue with the speaker system or the amplifier rather than the cd-i player... But if you checked that, maybe other electrical equipment interferes with it.

You can buy a second hand cd-i player for less then 20 bucks so it's probably not worth to send it to a repair depot.

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:48 pm
by mentorron
No, it is definitely a problem with the Philips. (Trust me ;-)
It feeds a Rotel preamp, an Adcom power amp and bi-wired Martin-Logan hybrid speakers. It does not happen with any other inputs I temporarily feed through the same Rotel input (another CD player, tuner, tape deck, etc).
The tech at the depot said it's most likely from the analog portion of the player, but I still suspect the digital front end somehow (just a gut feeling).
They aren't loud sounds, as you wouldn't hear them if you weren't concentrating on the music intently. They are similar to the sound of a small scratch on an LP, but more "snappy" as when you discharge static electricity in a dry room if you touch a metal object.
I was just intrigued by WindowsKiller's comment that the laser's intensity can be altered or focus gain changed. I'm not sure if the depot needs to be more familiar with CD-I players, as they'd never seen one before. However I trusted their CD player expertise, as the technology is very similar: they told me it was a very well constructed unit.
I'm wondering if when the CDM9 tracking mechanism goes off-center on the track, it doesn't return to center quickly enough, creating uncorrectable errors for a fraction of a second: I don't know if that parameter has an adjustment also. The adjustment that was made at the depot was the distance between the laser and the disc.

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 5:06 pm
by WindowsKiller
mentorron wrote:I'm wondering if when the CDM9 tracking mechanism goes off-center on the track, it doesn't return to center quickly enough, creating uncorrectable errors for a fraction of a second: I don't know if that parameter has an adjustment also.
If the laser would lose tracking this way, the disc would most likely stop playing immediately. So I doubt that this is the problem (but you never know, of course). There is an adjustment for that too, but you need an oscilloscope to adjust the tracking.

You said you are using CD-R music discs, does it happen with pressed music discs as well?

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 6:01 pm
by mentorron
It does not consistently happen with all discs. If I had to make a guess, I would say it is about the same. Frequently a disc, either CD or CD-R, will play with no snaps at all. I have been unable to determine, due to the random nature and infrequency of the snaps, if it occurs on specific discs only and never on others.