I've had a Beomaster 5500 (tuner/amp)/Beogram CD 5500/Master Control Panel 5500 from new for what must be 20 years now, so I suppose it doesn't owe me anything, and it all that time nothing has ever gone wrong, but now the Beogram CD 5500 has gone on strike! It takes in the CD, spins it and displays the track info, then stops spinning and does no more. I've cleaned the lens and everything mechanical seems to be working fine. Has anyone else had the same problem and what was the cure?

Hi and welcome to Beoworld.  The Beogram CD likely needs some new capacitors as the original ones have probably dried out.  What ever you do, DON'T adjust anything.  Changing the correct capacitors is all that is needed and adjusting things could kill the laser.

Richard

Hi Richard - Same problem as above, although if I keep hitting PLAY, it does eventually play!  Now that I have opened cabinet, which capacitors are you referring to?  The ones on the lower board (I believe there are two), or the upper board which has many?

Thanks!

In the 5500 it is the board that is screwed to the floor of the unit called the servo board.

99% of the time you will get away with simply replacing C2103 with an identical  component.

Dillen on this forum can sell you a kit comprising replacement C2103 together with 5 other components which will overhaul the board completely. Send Dillen a PM or email

In some rare cases the discmotor has too much friction, but mostly with this problem the CD will play in the beginning but will stop further on on the CD. But I would start with the capacitor, it almost always is the cause.

My Beocenter 9000 and CD 3300 suffer from the same problem. They play the cd ok from time to time. They will not play burned cd's anymore, how come?

/riis

Inside your CD3300 and BeoCenter 9000 is the same Servo PCB and the same capacitor. For both it is also wise to also resolder the decoder PCB, most of the time there are a lot of bad solderings which occur during the years, especially in the powersupply on the board, the large IC's and the groundwires which are also soldered on the componentside of the PCB. And for BeoCenter 9000, while you are in there also resolder the little relays PCB which is located next to the CD drive. And before opening BeoCenter 9000, take off the glass panels. The foam tape with which they are mounted most of the time is desolved which results in the glasspanels falling off if the BeoCenter is put into service position. And last but not least, there is a metal rod in the BeoCenter with which it can be put into service posistion. This rod is mounted with a plastic part to the top of your BeoCenter. This plastic parts is almost always hardened because of age and will break if you put the BeoCenter in service position. 

Phoyer, thanks for the link!  Took me a couple hours to locate all the OEM and upgrade parts but I did.  Got the WIMA parts from Mouser electronics and all the rest from Newark Electronics/Element 14.  Should be here this week.  FYI, I am in the USA.  Just as a point of interest, it appears that the Philips cap that everyone seems to indicate needs to be a direct replacement is now sold under the Vishay brand after some corporate reorganization.  Took me a while to figure that one out.

I will post my results after installing the new parts and re-touching the solder points on the power supply.  

Joyeboygolf, thanks for the 411 on Dillen.  I was just hoping to find the parts here in the US for faster shipping.  I will keep him in mind as a further reference.

SUCCESS!  My parts all arrived today.  Put them in, works like a charm.  Did the mod to the philips (2103, I believe) cap (33 to 47) and plays CD-R's with no problem.  While in there, cleaned the rails, lubed them and replaced the drive belt.  Works like new.  Did have a bit of rubbing noise from the cd holdown.  Placed a thin brass washer between the upper white part and lower magnetized part and the noise is gone.  Did have my soldering iron a bit too hot when replacing caps and melted a bit of trace.  Just soldered in a new jumper over the bad part.

Thanks to everyone who helped point me in the right direction.

Now on to my non-functioning Beocord 5500.