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.
Many thanks. I have a Technics SL-PG480A CD Player and found this problem too. I had it stored for long and when I reused it, I got the "no disc" message. I disassembled it and followed your instructions... Now it is playing in my living room again! :-) One remark, tough, mine had a 3 KOhm micropotenciometer, wich gave 1.4 KOhm to one terminal and 1.6 KOhm to the other. I tried setting 700 Ohm to the first and it still didn't work. Then I set 700 Ohm to the other and the CD Player came back to life! :-)
Grazie infinite per la spiegazione, sono riuscito a riparare il mio amato lettore CD Technics SL-PG380A.
Il mio tester analogico non e' preciso nella misurazione degli Ohm percio' ho dovuto muovere il micropotenziometro alla cieca: l'ho portato da S (ore 13:00 di un ipotetico orologio) a E (ore 17:00) ed ha funzionato :-)
Prima di portarlo a E, l'ho spostato piu' volte in senso orario (prima alle 14, poi 15, ed infine 17) ma e' partito solo alle 17:00.
Grazie infinite e complimenti per la tua bravura ed ingegno!!!!!!
Stefano from Italy
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A slight addendum to the above solution:
The variable transistor in my cd player (SL-PG580A) was labeled with S and E, instead of Ohms.
Imagine the variable transistor is the face of a clock. S is the 1 o'clock, and E is 5 o'clock. My transistor was set at E or 5 o'clock, and I turned it to 6 o'clock.
After that I could play cds again. Hooray!
Don't dismiss the spindle motor being faulty as this is very common on these philips drive units. laser failure is also common on these but i've found that 80% of cd players i've repaired with this drive unit e.g. marantz, philips, cyrus, technics etc has had spindle motor failure. take the lid off and insert a disc, if it doesn't spin but you can hear the laser trying to read, then it's most definately the spindle motor.
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I bought a CD-player SL-PG380A as a part of a stereo system more than 10 years ago.
It has always worked very well and last year I re-packed the CD-player due to some works in my house and kept it in the cellar.
Few weeks ago I restored the stereo system but the CD-player show, when inserting a CD, the message "no disc".
Do someone know what could be the reason?
Thank you
''No CD'' on Display
Had the same problem for some time. Took it to my local repairer who quoted £85 to fit a new laser assy from Phillips.
Its going in the bin.
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