Playing CD-R's

[Dragon Phoenix]

In my study, I have a CD player that is designed to play CD's, CD-R's and MP3'-CD's. For a long time, this worked well.

Since a few weeks, it starts to give errattic results with CD-R's. Most simply will not play anymore, or will do so occasionally only. Even freshly burned CD-R's give the same problems. The regular CD's play without any problem.

Does anybody have a bright idea how I can fix this?

[Samadhi]

Your player will be able to read things based on three things. Its sensitivity or discrimination (I don't know the actual term), its drivers, and its hardware.

Drivers are just the programs that change the input into meaningful data, as I'm sure you know.
By hardware I mean that the laser arrays of some systems are not capable of reading all the information stored on a disc (most CDs have one refracting surface, most DVDs have two).
By sensitivity I mean the system's ability to correctly read the data. The main thing here is that CD-Rs are not often written as ‘sharply’ as factory CDs. Therefore it requires a higher level of sensitivity to read these.

I'm sure you've checked your drivers. You have the hardware that is able to read the data (since you’ve read them before). So it sounds like you've lost some sensitivity. Or perhaps your current CD-Rs haven’t been written as well.

Most CD players today are designed with CD-Rs in mind. Computer CD players have pretty much always had that ability but car players and portable players have been pretty sketchy in the past. I’ve noticed lately that players in stores will specifically say that they play CD-Rs.

Back to yours though. If it has lost some sensitivity, it’s really not worth repairing. Unless you yourself are familiar with electronics, are familiar with optics, are used to working on fine machinery, you happen to have a workshop to fix it yourself, and the 5-10 hours of your time fixing it are worth more to you than buying a new one.

If it’s just an older model…obviously you should upgrade.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Don't use CD-Rs. They do have that problem frequently. I'm not sure if CD-RWs work better (I think they do), but it's worth a try. Someone else might be able to confirm that.

[Samadhi]

Oh, taking a cotton swab to lens on the laser array couldn't hurt though. But DO NOT use any solvents unless you're sure you know what that lens is made of.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Dragon Phoenix]

Thanks for the advice - I'll try some cleaning, but I already had concluded that an upgrade would probably be the best way out.

[Dragon Phoenix]

Well, if anyone else is facing the same problem - it looks like I found the cause. I just burned two discs at a much lower speed than standard, and they play!

[CzarJ]

Maybe the old discs were just playing so fast you couldn't hear them.

[aarondalf*]

That means that Sam is right. Burning at a lower speed increases the accuracy of the burn, so your CD player is slowing biting the dust. You could try a cleaning cd (not the same as a cd cleaner) but it might just slow down the inevitable. Once it gets unbearable, just buy a new one.