Not a query, more of an blog for anyone who's interested.

I finally got around to setting my Hi-Fi kit back up after 2 years in storage - happy days!
Then I find that the old Teac VRDS-7 CD player won't read the TOC on the CD - unhappy days!

When the disc is inserted the player tried to read it but the motor stops spinning, the laser returns to its docked position and the display shows zero. So, I eject the disc and try again with the same results. After persevering with few more attempts I finally get the machine to recognise that there's a disc in it - now we're getting somewhere. I hit the play button and there's a lot of grumbling going on in there but the music does eventually start. Unfortunately it plays the first 4 minute track in about 8 seconds, jumps to the second track, does exactly the same thing so I hit the stop button.

By this time I'm thinking, OK, maybe I'm expecting too much from my treasured 15 year old player (that's been boxed up in a storage unit for 2 of them), so I go and get myself a drink and let it warm up a little. Returning to it after 30 minutes or so I go straight to track 8 and it plays perfectly. On to track 9, no problems, so I decide to tempt fate and revert back to track 1. Plays all the way through without as much as a jitter.

By this time I've been trawling through the Internet looking for some ideas and this looks to be a fairly common fault on older players. The main culprit is the laser. Over time the laser will start to deteriorate and will have problems reading discs, especially if they are dirty or scratched. Cleaning the laser had no beneficial effect, and I didn't use a cleaning disc I stripped the machine down to clean it. I decided to turn it off and see how it performed tomorrow.

The next morning I tried it and went through exactly the same cycle. I left it turned on all day and when I tried it in the evening it played perfectly. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it's more than the laser or maybe it's just had its day. I stripped out the laser to get the part number and managed to track down a replacement from a guy in Glasgow for £16.00. I reckoned it was worth a punt at that price to see if it cures it or not. Hopefully it should arrive in the next couple of days so I'll let you know if it solves the problem or not.

> BTW the laser is made by Sony and is also used by other Hi-Fi manufacturers including Denon, Arcam, Aiwa, Kenwood, Philips, etc.

> I also found my original receipt for the Teac. I bought from Bill Hutchinson in Manchester (do you remember them?) for £600 on 30th April 1994!
"Eee that were a lot of money back then..." :raises-eyebrow-and-puffs-on-pipe:

I remember paying almost £1.5K for a Sony HiFi system back in the mid 70's.

Turntable, Amp, 2 x cassette decks, tuner, 4 speakers.

Got my latest Denon for £300 and it sounds just as good.

Update: The laser arrived this morning and has cured the problem so it was worth the gamble.

Good

Hi, I´m a no brainer with the same problem. Bought my first example in the same store back in -94. 600 yes, got the VAT back, taking it to Norway
First one they had to replace and my second one is due for third service (!). Love it´s sound and looks though, can compare to a German car maybe.
Can you help me with the laser serial number and contact. Is the replacement difficult in itself?

The laser is a KSS-240A (it might have NKS-240A on the box but it's the right one). There are some on UK eBay for around £15 which is what I paid for mine. The seller that I got mine from is still selling them and he has some pretty good photos of the item here.

The installation wasn't too difficult but it was a little fiddly. If I remember correctly you have to power the player off while the CD drawer is out which will enable better access to the laser. There are a couple of very tiny springs on the laser mounting which like to fly off but they're fairly easy to put back in to place. I didn't have to remove the disc clamping assembly and managed to work around it from the top of the casing. You don't need to remove the bottom casing.

Replacing the laser made an instant difference to the problem but it sometimes still struggles with certain track numbers on certain discs but I have found that it does improve when the player warms up. I still think that it's past it's best though.