Hifi, musik och annan livskvalitet: How to replace the laser pickup in your CD player

I decided to write this post in English, since I believe that I can be useful for readers outside Sweden.

About a year ago my CD player (a Primare D30.2) started skipping randomly, at first very rarely and only when exposed to vibrations, for instance when someone walked on the floor. The problem got worse though and got to a point where it really annoyed me. I tried to open up the CD player and clean the laser a couple of months ago, and it actually made things a bit better. It was still sensitive against vibrations but it didn't skip during playback. Until a couple of weeks ago... Now the problem was more than subtle, it occured several times per track, both skipping/jumping between tracks and distorsion. I surfed around the web for a replacement laser pickup, but it was hard to find one in Sweden. I found many resellers in the rest of the EU though, but the shipment cost would easily exceed the price of the laser pickup unit. In the US the unit costs less than a lunch... :) Finally I found a reseller that seemed to sell various electrical components (http://leifline.com/) so I e-mailed him and he ordered and sent me a unit for 176 SEK (about $20) which really is a bargain. As I wrote above, you can find one for less in the US, probably half the price at most. I've read that there are Chineese copies on the marked, so be careful and see to it that you get a original one from your manufacturer. Mine is a Sony KSS-213B (Sony's original part number is 8-848-379-31). This weekend me and my friend Josef replaced the laser pickup unit and the CD player works perfectly! I've promised him a bottle of homebrewed mead when I'm done with the brewing... :D Yes, of course, we are Swedish vikings, we drink mead all day long, laugh hard and fix CD players. (That's irony, we are mostly like you, 99% of us haven't tried mead, and by the way, don't believe those American movies. Swedish girls aren't named Ulla, Helga, Inga or whatever, and most of them aren't blondes, and they doesn't finish every sentence with "ja". What you're refering to is the Swedish Bikini Team, and they have nothing to do with Sweden. Just Google them and see.)

Well, enough said, time for the photos (click them to see them in full size)!

The inside of the patient

The new laser pickup. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of a very important step, and that is the unsoldering of a short-circuit on the PCB of the laser pickup. You have to unsolder a "blob" of solder that protects the laser pickup from ESD. Don't forget this!

The "top" has to be removed from the transport mechanism so we can reach the screws underneath it. This procedure is probably different for each mechanism so you have to figure this one out by yourself. On my CD Primare plastic "heels" holds the top part.

The top is gone and the screws are reachable. The metal plate that can be seen around the laser pickup has to be loosened, or else we can't push the the axle aside. You might have to remove it completely on your player, but in this case it wasn't necessary.

The plate is detached, and it's time to remove the old laser pickup from the axle. This can be done by pushing the axle towards the front of the CD player, after pushing the white plastic heel aside. The picture below shows the heel (this is the side of the axle that faces the front of the CD player).

This picture shows the other side of the axle. Push it using a screwdriver or pliers, but be careful not to damage the axle since the laser pickup slides along it as you play a CD. It's safe to use pliers in the end though since the whole axle isn't used by the pickup (double check this on your unit).

Remove the old laser pickup and the cable connected to it.

Laser pickup and flat cable removed.

Grease the new laser pickup. Use lithium grease that won't dry over the years. Be careful not to get grease on the laser diode! Only grease the moving parts, nothing else.