Bose Wave Radio-CD player skips severly

[Wilbur G]

My mom wants me to fix her CD player. It is the bose wave radio. I generally do tube electronics and vintage gear, but I will try to fix it. What should I look for with this thing? is there anything I can clean? or adjust? cautions i should take? any input would be great. I never did work on a CD player, but I will do it. Thanks.

 

[Tony Stewart]

Disk alignment is critical. Things like heavy ink on Cd, paper labels and dirt on the chuck affect this.
Disk scratches son the top,surface next. View for transparent scratches.
Next , e-cap failures on power regulation.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Disk alignment is critical. Things like heavy ink on Cd, paper labels and dirt on the chuck affect this.
Disk scratches son the top,surface next. View for transparent scratches.
Next , e-cap failures on power regulation.

Sorry Tony, but you've obviously never been involved in audio repairs in any way

The fault will almost certainly be the laser/optical assembly, cleaning the lens 'may' produce some improvement but the only real cure is to replace the laser/optical assembly. Cleaning doesn't help much, because you can't clean inside the optics, and those get dirty as well.

I would estimate that probably 99% of CD player failures is the laser/optical assembly - as a professional service engineer you don't look for anything else first, you replace the laser assembly and then do further tests if that doesn't cure it (although it's pretty well certain to).

 

[ClydeCrashKop]

When my daughter was young and vinyl records used to skip, 99% of the time it was due to peanut butter. CDs don't like peanut butter either.

 

[spec]

My mom wants me to fix her CD player. It is the bose wave radio. I generally do tube electronics and vintage gear, but I will try to fix it. What should I look for with this thing? is there anything I can clean? or adjust? cautions i should take? any input would be great. I never did work on a CD player, but I will do it. Thanks.

Hi WG,

In addition to cleaning the opto sensor, you can also clean the CDs themselves. I have even polished light scratches off the optical surface.
To initially clean the surface, use a damp lint-free cloth and a very dilute solution of washing up liquid. Then dry the surface and clean again with isopropyl alcohol.
Then inspect the reading surface in an oblique light to ensure that the surface is clean and free of imperfections.

Often with a CD that is too far-gone your PC will read it, and then you can burn a new CD.

spec

 

[Tony Stewart]

Sorry Tony, but you've obviously never been involved in audio repairs in any way

The fault will almost certainly be the laser/optical assembly, cleaning the lens 'may' produce some improvement but the only real cure is to replace the laser/optical assembly. Cleaning doesn't help much, because you can't clean inside the optics, and those get dirty as well.

I would estimate that probably 99% of CD player failures is the laser/optical assembly - as a professional service engineer you don't look for anything else first, you replace the laser assembly and then do further tests if that doesn't cure it (although it's pretty well certain to).

Sorry Nigel but your assumptions are wrong. tisk tisk. I recognize this was your job.

Mine was to design, debug, build, test, failure analysis, ship anything electro-mechanical. With responsibility for Test Engineering Mgr of over 50 maintframes 12 ATE and thousands of custom testers in production including HDA Servo writers with schematics transferred in a dozen different schematics to show previous owner fixes , none which matched...and I fixed it.

Please do not assume you know what I know. It reflects poorly.

Circa '76, I once fixed a now famous musician bass player's new synthesizer (that he got from Silicon valley) which had 40 CMOS chips with all the part numbers erased for IP security when I was was just starting out over 40 yrs ago, It took me 2 hours to fix it and it was a design flaw.

I have fixed my own CD player in my own portable Bose stereo following this method.

But I agree , fault can certainly be the optical assembly which may be gently air/feather dusted , beyond that hopeless.

 

[Tony Stewart]

Laptops are often dirty on the neoprene washer in the centre of the tray that causes vertical runout. My BOSE portable stereo does not have this and only has a Stainless Steel 2cm base which if it has any hard sticky dust will cause this skipping error. > Check and clean with alcohol swab.

I recall 2 decades ago when I picked out an MP3 player for my car I wanted to choose between SONY and KENWOOD so I asked the sales guy for the dirtiest scratched up CD and see which one played it flawlessly without skipping.

Kenwood passed , Sony failed on same MP3 CD. BOSE is less tolerant than most PC's due to error correction implementation.

I get practise when my grandson of 3 loves to play with the BOSE CD player. In his case it was the BeeGee's CD that he kept scratching up. That's all. (you shud be dancin' ya)

I've seen many old CD's with thick silkscreen ink logos on top that were out of balance and caused skips due to mfg design flaw of ink thickness and inbalance. I fixed that data CD with a tiny tape counter weight on top till it spun silently.

 

[Wilbur G]

gentlemen, thanks for the infomation. i will take a peek at it and try the suggestions. if I need to, I will post my results. I never did replace an optical sensor laszor assembly. how difficult is that process? are the assemblies available? The unit has had minimal use since we got it.

 

[spec]

gentlemen, thanks for the infomation. i will take a peek at it and try the suggestions. if I need to, I will post my results. I never did replace an optical sensor lassor assembly. how difficult is that process? are the assemblies available? The unit has had minimal use since we got it.

If the CD player has had little use, there is a good chance that the laser is dirty. If you cannot get at the laser, you can try one of the cleaning kits which comprise a porous disk that you put a few drops of cleaning fluid.

The other thing you could try is to simply let the CD player run for a long time in a warm environment.

Also, the lightest drop of thin oil on the moving parts can help, but that would involve getting inside the CD player.

spec

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Please do not assume you know what I know. It reflects poorly.

If you don't want assumptions, then don't post utter rubbish

Your post proved that you know nothing about servicing audio equipment, as it was utterly incorrect in every way.

If someone asks for advice why make a suggestion that has almost zero chance of being correct, rather than something that is almost certainly correct? - you're not helping at all trying to show how clever you think you are.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

gentlemen, thanks for the infomation. i will take a peek at it and try the suggestions. if I need to, I will post my results. I never did replace an optical sensor laszor assembly. how difficult is that process? are the assemblies available? The unit has had minimal use since we got it.

It's usually pretty easy to replace, basically a mechanical job - but it's important to take anti-static precautions while doing so (wrist band etc.) - it's also worth while to VERY gently lubricate the slides as well, I usually squirt a little WD40 on a cotton bud, abd run the slides with that. There's also normally a blob of solder shorting out the laser (again for anti-static reasons) and this should be removed after it's all plugged in.

Almost all lasers are made by Sony, although I can't comment on Bose as it's just cheap 'made in china' gear.

 

[Tony Stewart]

If you don't want assumptions, then don't post utter rubbish

Your post proved that you know nothing about servicing audio equipment, as it was utterly incorrect in every way.

If someone asks for advice why make a suggestion that has almost zero chance of being correct, rather than something that is almost certainly correct? - you're not helping at all trying to show how clever you think you are.

Sorry to disappoint you but as it worked for me and made sense to my Engineering expertise, your comment is inaccurate

 

[beels]

Nigel - I have the same issue as the OP. Bose Wave Radio CD player skiping. I replaced the laser pickup assembly and it still skips. Are there any other common failure points I can check?

Edit: I noticed that if I let it continue to skip for an extended period, like 20-30 mins, it will then play flawlessly (no skipping). Then if I turn it off and try again the next day, it will skip again.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

There could be electrolytic capacitor failure?, assuming no mechanical or optical issues. This could explain why it recovers after a while of use, as the electrolytics get slightly better as they warm up.

 

[audioguru]

A CD is a mechanical antique, use a memory chip instead.
The CD player in my fairly new car began skipping. They replaced the entire thing under warranty. It also controlled the radio, phone, satellite receiver and backup camera. It plays Bluetooth from my phone very well.

My new Google Mini Assistant will play anything I ask for, but I did not convert it to hifi yet.
It understands my voice very well.
Hee, hee. I spoke in a British accent and asked it, "Hey Google, what is water?" and it said, "According to Linkedin, the company Wota is …..".

 

[beels]

Thanks Nigel - that's what I was thinking as well. There are just a few caps, but they all "look" fine, so I may need consider re-capping this unit. I also inspected the board for cold solder joints, but don't see anything sketchy.

 

[gophert]

gentlemen, thanks for the infomation. i will take a peek at it and try the suggestions. if I need to, I will post my results. I never did replace an optical sensor laszor assembly. how difficult is that process? are the assemblies available? The unit has had minimal use since we got it.

Bose doesn't make replacement parts available. You can take it apart and look for similar looking units online.

Or, You can send most Bose products back to Bose in Massachusetts and they repair - it will likely cost around $200. Call for a quote.

The best thing you could do for your mom is buy her a smart speaker and a subscription to the corresponding smart speakers supplier (google home or Amazon prime).

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Or, You can send most Bose products back to Bose in Massachusetts and they repair - it will likely cost around $200. Call for a quote.

I was looking at repairing a ground mike last week (at work), and the analogue meter movement on it is faulty - but I managed to find their UK division (it's made by an American company) so dropped them an email asking if the meter was available as a spare part.

The reply was that they don't supply spares, but we could send it back for 'servicing' which would cost £650 plus carriage