Hi, everyone

I have recently bought a white Beogram CD 5500 and it's been fine until a couple of days ago - it's now switching off whenever it wants (usually at the end of the first track of whatever I put on). I can sometimes switch it back on straight away using the MCP5500 (other times I need to eject the CD first...). The only thing I can notice wrong with the CD player is that the cable is eaten a bit in one place and the copper is showing (I've covered it with some tape for the time being...) While moving it around the house I've also noticed that it's full of dirt and dust, but I'd rather not attempt to break into it (I'd leave this to the professionals...)

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Do you have a rough idea how much servicing the CD player may be (I live in Leeds...)?

Many thanks in advance.

Breaking into these is very easy and a good clean would be my first effort. There are two captive bolts at the back of the player. Loosen these and they slide down. The top can then be simply slid off and you can then see the innards. Clean the CD lens with a cottin bud and some alcohol and just bow all the dust away. I would suggest blowing rather than using a vacuum cleaner!

Which cable is eaten? That will need replacing! There are a few B&O resellers in Leeds so one should have some repair contacts. Beofan was one of them - I bought quite a bit from him at one point! Now thinning out my collection! ( I do have a boxed full 7000 system for sale!) 

Hi, Peter

Thanks a lot for this. I had a shot at taking the screws off last night, but I got stuck afterwards as the top wouldn't really slide off. I'll have another go at it, thanks for the reassurance. I too think using the vacuum cleaner is a bit extreme ;). It's the power cable that's eaten - I'll look out for another one.

Thanks a lot for the 7000 offer, but I'm happy with my white 5500 at the mo (though I'm missing the record player).

Cheers for all your help,

Dragos

I am using a white 5500 - Beomaster and Beogram CD at present. The CD player is probably the best made by B&O - certainly the best motor and it may be one of the rare ones with a TDA1541P DACs!!

Hi again, Peter

Thanks to your encouragement, I went back to it and this time managed to get the cover off my Beomaster, Beogram CD and Beocord. Man, was the Beogram CD absolutely filthy on the inside! It looked like it had been kept in a haystack or something... I cleaned it up as best I could (Beocord and Beomaster, too), then put them back together - I still need to get that replacement power cable -, but my Beogram still decides to turn off on its own after a bit of the first track. If I revive it then by asking to play the CD either from the beginning, or a specific track, it then keeps playing and doesn't stop... This is weird to me, but I'll try and source a replacement cable first - it seems that B&O are really sensitive to broken cables (I had a crappy cable for one of the speakers once - chewed up in one place and then tied together - and the whole system would shut down randomly...)

Thanks for your advice and I was so hoping you knew of a white 5500 turntable around...

Dragos :)

Latest development, guys :( When I eject the CD, quite often it'll go out and then back in in a couple of seconds. Other times it'll come out and stay there until I change the thing... Man, what on earth is wrong with it? :( :(

Update: after more desperate digging, I found this post: http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/thread/67637.aspx and I did as Peter suggested. I ended up with 5 black cotton buds, but at least it seems now that the door opens and stays like that, which is cool - plus I didn't have to do any soldering just yet.

When playing from cold it pretty much always now goes back into standby after between 30 seconds and 2 minutes... After asking it to play the CD again (no ejecting/changing) it does so quite happily and doesn't go into stanby anymore... Am super confused...

Update: This time I didn't put the case back after cleaning and I that was a very interesting exercise. I was looking at what the laser head was doing and whenever it stopped it seemed to be at the very first couple of tracks rather than beyond.

It looked like the head had caught onto something which caused it to jump quite massively and then the CD would stop altogether. There was even a bit of a scratch sound, too, like on turntables... How bad is it and do you think it can be fixed?

The rotation was not perfect, either - there was the slightlest bit of weaving rather than spinning around a fixed axis...

Thanks for your help - any thoughts would be highly appreciated!

The eject is just a sensor switch on the transport which is adjustable. If you are a technological novice, get it serviced as the other problem is more complex and the adjustment on the sensor can be done in seconds by someone who has done it before.

That sounds very sensible, guys, thanks for all your help. Any hints of what price I should be looking at for the service?

Finally (and because I don't want to start a separate thread for this), how much would you pay if you were after a white Beogram 5500 turntable (which I am)? I found one on ebay for 500 EURO from Europe, but my feeling is that somewhere arounnd £200 would be quite a lot, but closer to what the seller should be charging... Though I do appreciate that, as a seller, you're quite keen to get the highest price if you're attached to what you're selling.

Thanks again, everyone :) 

Hi, lausvi :)

Thanks for this - the button seems to be doing ok. I guess the way forward is servicing (just need to raise cash for it...)

Cheers again,

Dragos 

dra2pac:

Finally (and because I don't want to start a separate thread for this), how much would you pay if you were after a white Beogram 5500 turntable (which I am)? I found one on ebay for 500 EURO from Europe, but my feeling is that somewhere arounnd £200 would be quite a lot, but closer to what the seller should be charging... Though I do appreciate that, as a seller, you're quite keen to get the highest price if you're attached to what you're selling.

A white 5500 might be a little hard because there are so few of them - the white Beosystem 5500 was limited edition. Last spring, I paid just a tad over 300 euros for my white 6500 from Germany, and I've seen even them go for much higher than that if in good condition (and with a good listing...).

This is super useful, Mika. Thank you!

Dragos :)