MalcolmV8

I have a 98 Civic I just bought and the CD player doesn't really work. It starts to play, lags and gets all weird and then sorta just stops. I don't know if it's because the factory CD player can't play burnt CDs or what? I have no purchased CDs to test with. Only my own CDs I've made from burning my itunes stuff.

I tried using the search but "cd" is apparently to short of a search term and it won't do it. So do I have a bad CD player or is this normal for a factory 98?

Thanks
Malcolm

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Surely you know someone with purchased CDs? Borrow one.

MalcolmV8

Who has CDs any more? lol. yeah I may find one somewhere but I figured surely someone knows.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Are you finalizing the cd's? some CD players won't play the disk unless its finalized.

MalcolmV8

No clue. What ever itunes does. I burn them directly out of itunes on my mac. They play in my truck and other car but they are new models so I wasn't sure if a 98 could play burnt CDs or not.

fleabag

Either open up the CD player and clean it with a q-tip+ rubbing alcohol or at the very minimum, spray compressed air into the slot where you load the CDs and hope that you've cleaned the area. Dust over time will make the reading mechanism not read discs anymore. I've done both methods and while the first method is the most effective, I've seen times where the second method works as well. It's hard to say if these CD players can read CDs burned on a computer so the way to see if the player works at all is to try a regular CD and see if it works. It wouldn't be too surprising to have a stock cd player not read burned discs since burned discs typically have lower reflectivity levels than non burned discs unless you go with the "gold" CDRs which can be read in ANY CD player.

mikekh10a

iTrader: (2)

i remember on a bit of stock cd players i dealt with, as long as its not MP3 it could play it.

MalcolmV8

Well what do you know. I fired up the air compressor and blew it out and sure enough it plays my burnt CDs just fine now. Thanks guys. Sometimes the simplest of solutions is all it takes.

fleabag

Even though it works now, it might still be a good idea to open it up and gently swab the lense in order to prevent it from skipping. I like to use rubbing alcohol to clean electronics because it can break up oils and bacteria but the issue is it leaves a residue. After it has evaporated and dried, I swab with a fresh, clean q-tip to remove the 'haze' that gets left behind. For those who aren't aware, I'm a computer technician.