Beogram CD 3300 problems

[987nick]

I’m moving on to my CD3300 now.  It has three faults.

First, it won’t play CDs, but it’s not the usual “?” fault people post about.

When I press play, track 1 plays for about 90 seconds as indicated on the display.  It then stops.  The machine doesn’t shut down and there is no “?” on the display, it just shows the time elapsed for track 1.  If I advance to track 2 this plays for about 30 seconds and then stops.  Track 3 to 6 do similar.  I can do this for about the first 6 tracks of a 12 track CD but it won’t let me advance to the other tracks.  It also won’t let me play play track 12 as the first track by pressing “Return”.  The CD works fine on other CD players.

The problem still happens if I try track 3 as the first track; it plays for about 90 seconds and the same problems occur.

These problems happen straight from start up each time.  They also happen if the unit has been switched on for a few minutes before pressing play.

Upon the advice of BeoParts I’ve checked the laser block assembly and it does appear to move freely.

I intend to buy the servo board capacitor kit from BeoParts but first wanted to check to see if someone had experienced a similar problem with a B&O CD player of this vintage.

Next couple of problems relate to the lid; surprise, surprise.

When it lid shuts it jumps up a few of millimetres and then closes properly.  I’ve read the capacitor on the underside of lid motor control board can cause this so I’m going to remove and check it.

Finally, it’s the classic lid needs help to open problem.  Funny enough, this was an issue for most of the time during the latter years I used the player before putting it away.  I’m thinking of buying a new belt in case it has stretched over the years.  It looks OK but you never know.  All the cogs appear to be OK.  I think this is proven because when it does get a little help to open, it opens smoothly with no jerks or undue noise.  Also, if I lubricate the lid hinges with with a little watch oil it works fine for a couple of times.  It does appear as if the lid is a little too heavy to open.

Thanks for any feedback you may have.

 

Edit: checked the lid motor control board capacitor and it is faulty; should be 68mf with an ESR less than 1 ohm and it’s reading 50mf with an ESR of 3.7 ohms.

[987nick]

Small success.  The lid now opens perfectly after changing the belt.  I’m waiting for the door control board capacitor to arrive in the next couple of days to hopefully stop the little jump when it closes.

But, failure with regard to getting it to play CDs.  I changed the servo board capacitors using the kit from Beoworld and it made no difference.  Having said that, the old blue capacitor did measure a high ESR and mf outside the normal tolerance so I think it was right to change them.

I now think it might be a mechanical issue relating to the laser assembly.  When it’s looking for a track at the end of the CD it does make a noise like it might be hitting something.  Whilst the laser seems to move freely, I don’t really know what I’m looking for with regard to its limits of travel.

 

[987nick]

I sorted out why it wouldn’t play tracks in the 2nd half of a CD.  For some reason the unit’s top had dropped slightly blocking the full path of the laser assembly.  I took the whole thing apart and sanded a little of the plastic from the underside of the cover.

Next problem, whilst it now lets you advance to any track, it only plays about 2 minutes of any track.  I’ve read dry solder joints are known to be a problem so I’ll look at the power supply joints first.

Unless, that is, somebody has a better idea.

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