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 Post subject: [CLD-D390] F6 error, skipping and no analog audio!! (solved)
PostPosted: 09 Jul 2018, 03:45 
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Hoping people here may have some ideas.

My Pioneer CLD-D390, which has been working great for the 6 years I’ve had it, is now starting to play up.

In the past, I would get the occasional F6 error (which I looked up and means Focus TOC error), but a simple on/off would fix that. As of last night, I recently played some discs I just bought and here’s what happened:

* No audio/low/low hum on the analog tracks.
* the disc skips badly, but never in the same place.
* player would crash with a F6 error before start up.

So I tried a few discs I knew worked:

* Digital Audio tracks play fine on all discs
* AC-3 tracks decode and play fine
* Analog Audio tracks low/no audio/low hum on all discs
* Sometimes a F6 error
* Some skipping some some discs, others play fine.

I’ve also played a conventional CD and that played fine too.

There is no optical out, just RCA Audio outputs (which handle both analog and digital tracks) and a RF AC-3 to an external decoder.

I’m at loss. Should I clean the laser lens? I’ve been told that it may be a grounding issue but it’s weird that would just appear.
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 Post subject: Re: [CLD-D390] F6 error, skipping and no analog audio tracks
PostPosted: 24 Jul 2018, 09:54 
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It appears you might just have what the error indicates; the focus is off on the laser.

As laser pick-ups age and lose some of their light output, this could be the beginning of the end for it. However, you could also just open up the player and see if you could find trimpots with some labeling that say things like “t-gain” (tracking gain) or even “focus offset”. You should take pics of the pots current position before messing with them and only turn them very slightly to see if any noticeable improvements occur.

Another issue is possibly check the overall alignment of the mechanism itself. I once acquired a CLD-D704 that had tracking issues near the end of a disc on side A and constant skipping on side B. A technician I brought it to said it would need a new laser pick-up at a cost of $400. I said no way and just stored the unit in the meantime to possibly get a 2nd opinion at some point. A few months later, I acquired a CLD-D703 that worked perfectly so I decided to compare it to the 704 to see if I would notice anything odd. Almost right away, I did observe that the 704’s entire gamma turn assembly was a bit crooked. Thus, I basically grabbed it with my hand and slowly started to bend the entire assembly until it looked more like the 703. Low and behold, after a few days of tweaking and testing, the 704 was totally perfect and never skipped again on either side of a disc.

So lesson learned from me; don’t always trust a repair shop cause you never know if they’re dishonest on purpose to try and make a buck or they might simply be a moron. In addition, try to have another similar machine around cause seeing a working example can help one glean some hint on what is happening (I also fixed a friend’s 703 that was damaged in shipping by comparing my unit to his; he had a damaged plastic part that adjusted the tilt of the carriage assembly).

Hope some of this might help you out.
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 Post subject: Re: [CLD-D390] F6 error, skipping and no analog audio tracks  Topic is solved
PostPosted: 30 Jul 2018, 13:31 
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ldfan wrote:
It appears you might just have what the error indicates; the focus is off on the laser.

As laser pick-ups age and lose some of their light output, this could be the beginning of the end for it. However, you could also just open up the player and see if you could find trimpots with some labeling that say things like “t-gain” (tracking gain) or even “focus offset”. You should take pics of the pots current position before messing with them and only turn them very slightly to see if any noticeable improvements occur.

Another issue is possibly check the overall alignment of the mechanism itself. I once acquired a CLD-D704 that had tracking issues near the end of a disc on side A and constant skipping on side B. A technician I brought it to said it would need a new laser pick-up at a cost of $400. I said no way and just stored the unit in the meantime to possibly get a 2nd opinion at some point. A few months later, I acquired a CLD-D703 that worked perfectly so I decided to compare it to the 704 to see if I would notice anything odd. Almost right away, I did observe that the 704’s entire gamma turn assembly was a bit crooked. Thus, I basically grabbed it with my hand and slowly started to bend the entire assembly until it looked more like the 703. Low and behold, after a few days of tweaking and testing, the 704 was totally perfect and never skipped again on either side of a disc.

So lesson learned from me; don’t always trust a repair shop cause you never know if they’re dishonest on purpose to try and make a buck or they might simply be a moron. In addition, try to have another similar machine around cause seeing a working example can help one glean some hint on what is happening (I also fixed a friend’s 703 that was damaged in shipping by comparing my unit to his; he had a damaged plastic part that adjusted the tilt of the carriage assembly).

Hope some of this might help you out.


Thanks. After my post, the player spat out a H2 code and died. I took it to a local repairer who had been in business a while and has had experience with Laserdisc players. Two weeks later and the player is back in my rack working. The issue - dead and dying caps. Meaning the playing was being under powered. He replaced every cap for $130AUD ($96 US) - a great deal. Every issue is now gone!
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 Post subject: Re: [CLD-D390] F6 error, skipping and no analog audio!! (sol
PostPosted: 30 Jul 2018, 16:54 
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That's great news to hear. :thumbup:

Something for me to keep in mind if I get symptoms like that on any of my players one day. Also good news that it wasn't a bad laser pick-up since they would be harder to replace.
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