I thought someone may have some knowledge of this machine but I guess it is too old for those in this forum to be familiar with.

I guess a repairman may be the answer.

paddy2042

As far as i know there is no "belt" driving the clamper, it's a wire which i can't see how it can break.

Depending how your Beosound is oriented, having it at the bottom may be due to gravity or more likely a safety resting position. I think I've read something about that somewhere but can't remember where…

Most common fault on those things are laser failure. Maybe its just that and what you experience is a symptom of the whole unit being in a sort of degraded mode.

Maybe try to disconnect it, lay it flat, have it rest for a couple of minute and power it again with another CD in it. If it work but starts again to behave only after some time, chances are you'll need to change the laser. Depending on the MK of your unit it could be very easy or more complicated to fix, but not impossible.

If it's something else, I can't help…

Try cleaning the little glass prisms at the ends of the row of CDs that are used for the safety interrupt sensors. Designed to detect fingers in the way and slow the sledge down. My used to be mounted vertically on the wall and the sledge fell to the lowest position. Back then I had it repaired and that's what the service guys told me. While it was in the shop I also had the laser changed (it was getting intermittent skips) and the glass door reglued as it fell off while removing the thing from the wall. Use a cotton swab and some alcohol to clean the prisms of accumulated dust and dirt and see if that helps.

Jeff thank you so much for your suggestion. As soon as you mentioned it I remembered reading somewhere years ago about cleaning these prisms. I cleaned with alcohol  and now it is working again.

Thank you so much. You saved me lots of money in repairs.

paddy

You are most welcome! I'm delighted it solved your problem. I didn't need mine repaired if I'd known this back then, but I guess the upside is I did get the laser sorted (the new one still works) and discovered that the glass was about to fall off!!