CLD-3080 in beautiful condition but only plays CDs. Laserdisc spins up and stays at a steady speed but the laser never locks on and begins playing. Side B does the same. Spins up but never locks in. I have tried gently pushing on the carriage on side b and I can hear the laser tone change but does not lock in. I am not convinced it’s an alignment issue as the cd plays instantly and all the way through no issues. I haven’t aimlessly started turning pots and adjustment screws. Doesn’t appear to have ever had the cover off. No evidence of it being dropped or impacted in any way. Possibly an issue with the main board / video board ? I see no bulging or leaking capacitors but that’s the extent of my poking so far. Loading belt is tight and dry, laserdisc spins right up so I don’t suspect a grip ring issue. Any input greatly appreciated. Thanks !!

When playing a CD the video circuitry is shut down and the unit sync's to an audio bitstream using the digital audio circuitry. When you play a laserdisc the player uses the video circuitry to sync to the NTSC video pulses to play the LD. So you need to trace the video path to determine where your problem is.

Thanks for the direction. I figured it was something with the video circuitry.

I doubt that is has something to do with the video path cause then at least audio should play on LDs.
It is more likely that the signal on LDs is too weak. Maybe you need to adjust the gain levels.

If the video cannot sync then the LD will not play, so you cannot get audio from the LD because the unit will not play the LD. We are talking no spining the LD to attempt to get video because the unit cannot sync to lock spindle rotation.

Once I have spent some time with it hopefully I can get some more information to share. To recap what the issue is : It plays CDs perfectly, no issue, cd track display is output to tv without issues. Insert LD and it spins up and stays at a steady RPM but never begins playing, timer stays at 0:00. I can hear the laser “loading / thinking”, carriage stays at the beginning of the LD (towards spindle), which is correct. Behavior is the same on side B. I have a capacitor esr tester and will poke around for obviously faulty caps, if none are found, then I will check all the transistors, resistors, etc. There’s a faulty component / components somewhere along the video line. I have a CLD-3070 that had a cracked video board (shipping damage) and it did somewhat similar things with the LD not playing (rpm up and down) but cd was fine. Different units I know but operating concepts should be similar. Thanks for the help I really appreciate it !

Three bad caps on the video board. All 10uf 16v small body ones. I will list their id numbers when I get to look at the diagram. All three were open and no amount of staring at them would indicate they were faulty. My new toy just paid for itself. Photos of the unit and it playing perfectly now. Side B then on to side A. So happy I had the caps in stock. I’ve read many of these threads and they are never concluded. This one is !! Not sure why the photos are not oriented correctly but hey there you go.

Very nice!

Glad you found them and it wasn't an IC. Following the video path with an oscilloscope and see where the signal drops out and check the capacitors associated with the signal drop can be a lot of scoping.

Still working great after one week in service. I have used it everyday since the repair and it’s flawless, changes to side B automatically every time. I still need to post the component id numbers for future reference should anyone have the same issue. They are all located near the video processor IC and are the only small body 10uf caps on the video board.

Here is a picture of the capacitors (circled in yellow) that failed on my other 3080. Replaced with 10uf 50v like the diagram says. The ones the factory installed are 10uf 16v.