Please help! What's the matter with my CD3.5?

Posted by: gaby yoon on 05 June 2001

Hello everyone,

It's the first time for me to participate in the forum. But I'm a devoted reader of it. Today, I put this message to get an advice from you about the problem I have with my NACD 3.5. I bought it about two years ago, as demo model. It gave me a really beautiful music until it makes problem.

The problem now is that my CD makes reading errors just one or two times during the play of all the disk and when it "sparks", it posts "ERR" message and stops playing. You can imagine, it's so confusing and irritating.

At first, I thought that disks were faulty but the same disks which make problems with my NACD 3.5 pass without any problem on other players. My player makes errors even with some new disks.

Do you think it's because laser sled is mal functionning? Should I replace it? Do you know that the operation needed is complicate? Where I am living, I have no Naim dealer for the moment.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

YOON.

[This message was edited by gaby yoon on WEDNESDAY 06 June 2001 at 03:30.]

[This message was edited by gaby yoon on WEDNESDAY 06 June 2001 at 04:10.]

Posted on: 05 June 2001 by Craig B
Hi Yoon,

The most common cause of disk errors with a Naim CD player is disk slippage.

Prior to considering surgery, you may want to make sure that your players puck and the mechanisms hub are clean. The official recommendation is to use Blu-Tac (the puddy like substance that is used to affix posters to a wall) to gently clean the hub and puck surfaces using a blotting technique. Also make sure that the area around the centre hole of all of your CDs is clean and free of greasy fingerprints. I keep a small marble sized ball of Blu-Tac on hand for such use.

If you tend to leave disks in the player for extended periods the 3 rubber pads on the underside of the puck will become flattened leading to slippage. A quick fix is to squeeze the rubber cylinders by pinching them gently to coax them back into shape. The official fix is to replace the puck. In the absense of a local dealer, Naim will likely send you one through the mail.

Hope this helps,

Craig

Posted on: 05 June 2001 by Jay
Yoon

Firstly, welcome to the forum.

I'm not sure what you mean by "sparks" but if you mean it actually sparks, then unplug it and get it checked. It could be dangerous. To my knowledge no one has been electrocuted by their CD3 but I don't want you to be the first!

Now if you mean that it just stops playing (or it cannot find a track when you press skip) and the display shows ERR then it's more likely to be a problem with your puck and/or spindle.

Look at the spindle in the cd draw. If the metal is slightly discoloured you need to clean it by lightly tapping Blue Tac on the surface. I'm unsure whether you'll have Blue Tac in Korea but there's bound to be an equivalent. Blue Tac's used for affixing picture's and posters to the wall without making holes. It's like a blue putty. If you did a forum search you'd get a much better description!

The other thing you need to look at are the rubber rings on your puck. Sometimes they can get out of shape and effect the way the puck clamps the disc. Use something like a toothpick to rotate them around and get them gently back into shape.

I've had the same problem but it was solved by doing the above. Good luck.

Jay

Posted on: 05 June 2001 by Jay
Don't you hate it when someone posts exactly the same message at exactly the same time!!!
Posted on: 06 June 2001 by Stephen Bennett
....mines 2 years old too!

Regards

stephen

Posted on: 10 June 2001 by ken c
on blu-tac, i assume you should be able to get it, or the equivalent in any stationery shop. i assume any naime dealer near you will be able to help you find the right stuff.

however, please pay particular attention to the last para of jay's posting:

quote:
The other thing you need to look at are the rubber rings on your puck. Sometimes they can get out of shape and effect the way the puck clamps the disc. Use something like a toothpick to rotate them around and get them gently back into shape.

i used to have loads of problems with slip disc --especially with naxos cd's -- the above cure has banished this forever. i find you can actually coax the rubber rings back into shape quite easily using your index finger nail...

give it a try and

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 10 June 2001 by glenda
I agree with the above points - the other alternative is to cut a small doughnut shape of paper(i.e. hole in the middle ) and place it between the disk and drawer . this provides enough friction for the disc to grip .Any paper will do , although use of the Daily Mail will cause your the sound to be extremely biased to the right hand speaker ( ho ! ho!).
Posted on: 10 June 2001 by Chris Dolan
I have put up with intermittent slippage on a number of discs. Some are s/h but some are new.

I have always blamed the discs rather than my CDX (without trying to remember whether or not the same discs slipped with my old Rotel - Don't ask but I thought it was reasonable in the circumstances at the time), but I wonder whether this is also an issue for CDSII users?

Tweaking the elastic bands usually works for me but I'm diffident to set the puck off centre as some recommend - I'm nervous of losing the puck inside the CDX. I find that if the disc does not work when I press "Play" on the CDX after tweaking the bands it normally works when I use the remote - if I persevere sometimes.

On a musical note, when the discs I have initial problems with start playing I think they are fine - obviously I would say that as I think the CDX is sublime. The only problem I have ever had with slippage during play was an old Beatles CD which turned out to be shot to pieces, but it was still great fun at the time due to a very loud rendition of "Yellow Submarine".

Having said that I have just bought some CDs recently from HMV on the Internet and they arrived in pristine condition (including the cases) and they played perfectly - just like the Naim CDs I bought recently but that is only to be expected.

Chris

Posted on: 10 June 2001 by Jay
by BOSTIK

"The re-usable adhesive with a thousand and one uses." Not my words but very ummm...original.

Beware thou...no mention of endorsement by Naim on the packet!

By the way....does anyone get the dreaded ERR message on your CD3.5 when skipping to the next track mid way through a disk???

Jay

[This message was edited by Jay on MONDAY 11 June 2001 at 08:00.]

Posted on: 11 June 2001 by gaby yoon
Thanks to everyone
for your kind attention and comments on my problem.

But according to informations I've got up to now, the problem would not come from slippage errors(my puck is in mint condition), neither from dirty or scrathed disks(I have problems even with new and absolutely clean disks), but it might be due to a defect in transport mechanism or laser sled ("pick up assembly"). Curiously, I've noticed that the player fails to read about 18 to 20 minutes after the loading of disks : for example, this moment corresponds to track No 12 or 13 of Bach's Goldberg variations interpreted by Peter Serkin or comes in the middle of the second movement of Brahms' Symphony No.2 by Hatink.

I had better to contact Naim's service in UK.

[This message was edited by gaby yoon on MONDAY 11 June 2001 at 13:13.]

Posted on: 11 June 2001 by Stephen Bennett
As I was taking my CD 3.5 to my dealer (see other ERR thread), someone else came in with another 3.5 - this one was giving an ERR after about 5 seconds. The puck was damaged (little silver bolt pushed into puck) but replacing it had no effect.

Spooky.

Stephen

Posted on: 11 June 2001 by Jean-Claude
Gaby,

I exactly had the same problem. ERR Message occuring at a precise point of the CD.
This was due to transport mechanism failure.
My NAIM dealer fixed it very easyly (it was 2 months after I bought it.

Jean-Claude

Posted on: 11 June 2001 by gaby yoon
Jean-Claude,

Thanks for your information.
How did your Naim dealer fix the problem?
What do you mean by "My naim dealer fixed it very easily"?

Do you mean that there was no need to replace the whole transport mecanism?

Regards.

Gaby Yoon.

Posted on: 12 June 2001 by Jean-Claude
Gaby,

When opening the CD 3.5 my dealer found out that a very small plastic part was located on the mechanism and leads to block the transport on a precise track.
This part has been removed and the problem never appears again.

I hope it will be as simple for you

Jean-Claude