The thought of introducing syrup to electronics fills me with a deep, abiding dread.
And would make me dance in joy if I still worked for my father, running an electronics repair business.
Your diagnosis of 'slippery spinner' is quite possible, but slightly wrong all the same. Most CD/DVD 'spinners' grip the CD from both sides.
(Not including laptop and portable devices, which typically use a center-post pressure locking mechanism). This being the case, it's not a matter of the
CD or the spinner being too slippery. Let's face it, gravity is not the best way to handle that situation -- that's why they grab from both sides in
the first place!
No, if it's related to the spinner at all, what's likely going on here is dust/hair/fur/etc contamination, in one of three places. The platter itself
(the part pressing against the bottom of the inner ring of the CD), the pressure plate (the part on top), or the gearing mechanism that puts the platter into
position. Unfortunately, just blowing it out isn't likely to fix it, as they're (by design) not exactly accessible to the outside -- not easily,
anyway.
Another likely culprit is the rotational speed sensor, which can be blocked in some designs (CyberDrive, I'm looking at *you*) by a single strand of hair.
Thus you get the drive attempting to spin the disc up... spinning the disc up... spinning the disc up... not getting any feedback from the sensor, must be a
problem, abort!
Again, a blast of air *might* do the trick, but these are picky things which are in any of a number of out of the way places inside the drive, and thus hard to
reach.
When it stops spinning, do you hear the motor stop but the disc continue to spin for a few seconds? (Might sound a little like a fine-grit sander) Or does it
behave normally, except it just won't play?
I'd be inclined to suspect a misaligned lens more than anything else in the latter case, which is fixable, but hardly worth it.
Also, for future reference: combo units of any sort are, without exception I've found, more prone to breakdown and failure than standalone units. We used
to recommend our customers avoid them like the plague. I'll further note that we made a great deal of money off of people who didn't listen.
--sofaspud
--
"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
