Technics SL-PG480A CD Player - Answered Questions & Fixed issues

If it doesn't turn the disc it can't read the data and 'know' from that there is a compatible disc inserted.

You may have gotten hosed by the seller. Until you get it to play with a commercial music CD I wouldn't try anything non-standard or home-grown. It doesn't play anything but CD-A music so MP3 and AVI discs would not be recognized anyway.

Before you dive in and possibly wreck it, read this...

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/cdfaq.htm The manual: http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/support/Audio/Technics-Audio-DJ/Technics-CD-Players/model.SL-PG480A

Outs to ins, generally. Perhaps you could name the models.

Yes it is possible to do away with the player but disabling the power would be enough in some cases but in some the main processor will need a feedback to confirm before the whole set is activated.

If they don't spin they'll never read data so they will always say NO DISC.

Read this and decide...

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/cdfaq.htm

This player will not play either MP3 or MP4 encoded CdRs. It is a good 18 years old now and such things were unforeseen back in the day. The newer sony may well be MP3 compatible. You could convert MP4 to standard audio types on your pc via any number of software applications.

these models use the 12.1 philips laser mechanism and your right it is a very common problem.
various marantz / philips / cyrus cd players etc also use it and are plagued with the same fault.
it's a 90% chance the laser is dead!
philips realised the unreliability of this laser and uprated it to the identical looking VAM-12.
do not dismiss the spindle motor as these also fail quite alot on this mechanism.

hope this helps.

Don't know this issue with this particular player, but have had other Technics (Matsushita, Panasonic...) CD players doing something similar to this. In most cases, those were carousel players instead of single disc players like yours. These units had optical sensors that determined the presence of CDs in each tray slot by determining whether light was blocked from its LED to its sensor when a disc was present... no light at sensor meant that there was a CD in the slot. The sensors interpreted a shadow as an indication of a disc in the tray. I've had these sensors fail and not be able to determine that a disc was blocking its light signal... the players didn't "see" discs so they wouldn't play them. Solutions varied, but cheapest, easiest solution was often to open the player and blind the sensor completely with a piece of black electrical tape. Most of these sensors I have encountered got too sensitive, so that any light at all inside the player was seen as an empty slot. Blinding the sensors "fixed" most of these players, but disabled the ability to really tell that any given tray slot was empty.
Or, since it is an old player, there is also the possibility that it has simply run its course and the laser assembly has failed.

Good Luck.

I know it's late but i happen to have received the same unit for free, and it had the same problem. The reason for the message is that the laser weakens over time and cannot reach the CD anymore. If you try holding a disc directly above the lens, to the back of the spindle, you will see the motor starting to spin. That means the laser is still working but too weak to reach to the height of the spindle. The solution is simple. Take the drive unit out and remove the three screws on the board at the back of the drive. Carefully lift that board, there is a flex cable connected to it you don't want to break. You will see a little variable resistor with three pins. Measure the single pin against both of the other two. One should read 3.something kOhms, the other 1.something. Mine read 1.35. Using a small screwdriver turn the resistor to the right until the side that read 1.35 reads something around 700 ohms. I left mine at 740 and it works fine. Put the drive back together and load a disc. It should now work again. Don't set it any lower than 400 or you will damage the laser. If it doesn't work with 800-400, the laser is probably damaged and the drive needs to be replaced entirely, which is not worth it.

this player uses a philips mechanism, spindle motor failure is very common on these mechanisms, yours may be on its way out. take the lid off and insert a cd and if you can hear the laser trying to read the cd without it spinning, it's definately the spindle motor.

you will need to take out the belt and have it sized for the correct one.
Techman

get a new battery first and it may also take lens to be changed ...thank you

http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/SLPG480A.PDF

Here you go.

FOR RECIEVING SOUND FROM OTHER SOURCES,,LIKE A CD PLAYER,,,,YOU USE A RCA JACKS

TRY A LASER LENS CLEANER,,CHANGE UR RCA JACKS TOO

TRY NEW RCA JACKS AND TRY BLOWING IT OUT,,GET YOU A LASER LENS CLEANER

TRY A LASER LENS CLEANER,,ALSO TRY BLOWING IT OUT

TRY NEW RCA JACKS

GET NEW RCA JACKS

it will need a manual cleaning of the laser lens

Did you clean all the lenses? There are three on this unit; the emitter lens, the grating lens, and the objective or focus lens; probably the one you cleaned. These steps must be done by a tech and clean room standards must apply. The next best thing to do is just replace the laser assembly, as the above is labor-intensive...accordianman