Ah ! Njoe Tjoeb fault

[Toppsy]

Mark,
I have replaced the laser module twice on my own machine with no great problems.
Those plastic mouldings you refer are the transport suspension isolators. There should be 4 of them and they should slide off sideways. or compress (very carefully) the head of the isolator so you can pull the plastic case of the laser unit from the thing. However be careful removing these as they are irreplaceable unless you can find a donor machine. Once they are off it should be relative straight forward.

For what it worth I found that the strip wiring loom that folds over and turns back on itself and moves with the transport forward and backwards gets stress factures at the bend point. The inner track gets the most stress and its generally this track that splits on the inner edge. Easily spotted when you remove the old unit. This is likely the cause of your fault. It was this that happened on both the laser units I replaced. Also check the connectivity of all those small white multipin connectors.

I think I still have my old laser units. I could take a photo of the point of failure on the wiring strip.

EDIT. Found one my old laser units. Photo below of stress fracture of the inner track right at the tight radius bend.

[IslandPink]

Ah ! , an expert > that's what i need.
Thanks for the picture, I can check that fault once it's out.
I can see what you mean by the suspension isolators, but I haven't got that far.
My problem is how to get off the fairly significant black plastic moulding at the back of the drawer assembly, so i can get access to all of those suspension isolators and the laser module as a whole.
I will try & take a picture or pics later, and put some arrows on there.

However your confidence in doing this will at least encourage me to buy a spare laser now.

[Toppsy]

Mark,

I'm no expert just general observation of the fixings and connections and working it all out with a little trial and error before I figured it out.

Manually pull the tray out so its in the open position to load a CD. The front half round strip (with the Compacr Disc lgo on) just prises off from the left . Place thumb on main frame and a finger underneath to create some leverage to push it up from that corner. It should lift up on that left side and then you are able to remove it. Don't be too heavy handed though. The main black plastic moulding is held in place by 2 screws at the rear. Unscrew these and after pushing the sliding CD tray back fully in you should be able to remove the unit. Be careful to disconnect all the leads attached to this. This should give you access to laser tray.

[IslandPink]

The main black plastic moulding is held in place by 2 screws at the rear.

I took a few photos earlier, but they were all a bit crap and shaky.
Regarding the above point, here is the bit (orange arrow) I'm confused about how to remove.
By '2 screws at the rear' , do you mean the lower ones ( blue arrow ) - otherwise i can't see any screws at the rear.

[Toppsy]

Mark,
the relative straight forward part is the removing of the transport. it gets more difficult after that and greater care is need to remove the rubber suspension mounts. Break or damage one of those and you are buggered.
If you are finding this part of the repair difficult to get your head around, I would suggest it may be wise to send the CD player to a professional repairer and let them replace a new laser assembly for you. Sorry not me. I'm happy to do this on my own machine but not to take the responsibility of undertaking the task for someone else. Best of luck.

[IslandPink]

Hang on a sec ...
I'm not asking you to do anything for me except offer your advice re. how to get access to the laser section.
Anyway I've already bought a laser module from Germany, you're in too deep !

Do you need me to sign a form promising not to launch any litigation, if it goes wrong ?

The worst that can happen is I have to buy an old CD4000 for spare parts.

Edit : I should mention that my experiences of getting a professional to do this were entirely negative. I got a guy in London to do a laser change on my Audio Note CD player, he charged me over £100 for the work, it cae back and wasn't working. When I returned it to him under warranty, he charged me another £110 , until i stared getting stroppy and I managed to get it back and the second charge cancelled. In the end I had to get it working myself.

[IslandPink]

The main black plastic moulding is held in place by 2 screws at the rear. Unscrew these and after pushing the sliding CD tray back fully in you should be able to remove the unit. Be careful to disconnect all the leads attached to this. This should give you access to laser tray.

OK, so what I'm understanding from this, is that you have to get the whole (black) assembly out, and the key to removing all of the squishy clips is to get access from underneath ?
It does look like the part that I pointed to with the orange arrow, is always going to be in the way, from above. Seems like that, there's no sign of any split or sub-section around there, or any screws, clips etc.

[Toppsy]

Hang on a sec ...
I'm not asking you to do anything for me except offer your advice re. how to get access to the laser section.
Anyway I've already bought a laser module from Germany, you're in too deep !

Do you need me to sign a form promising not to launch any litigation, if it goes wrong ?

The worst that can happen is I have to buy an old CD4000 for spare parts.

Go back and re-read what I actually wrote. Don't know how you reached that conclusion. Seems me trying to help you was a mistake. I think I'll bow out this thread before I get accused of anything else, as you seem to misread ones intentions. It was neigh on 10 years ago I replaced the laser on my machine and I was trying to recall the procedure from memory. I merely suggested if you were struggling to do the repair it may be best to get someone to do it for you. I intimated this would not be something I would be prepared to do for you, Knowing that it is very easy to damage the rubber suspension mounts that hold the laser tray assembly in place, bearing in mind the age of these rubber suspension mounts These have to be removed from the broken laser tray and refitted to the new one and it is not an easy task. Anyway good luck with the repair.

[IslandPink]

The only conclusion i can reach from this, is that you completely mis-read the tone of my comments, which was somewhat tongue in cheek, as my posts often are on this forum. All I wanted was some advice. What pisses me off particularly is the sort of baggage that came with it, suggesting that I'm not the sort of person who should attempt anything that's delicate or a bit difficult to do.
Over & Out.

[zneret]

Hello, new user who also has a NT 4000 problem, though slightly different than above.

My purchased-new Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 suddenly gone inop (hasn't been used for a few months, sits in a cool, dry-enough enivorment, but has always worked perfectly fine up through the last time I ran it late last year). Turned it on yesterday and found no sound (yes, did check it wasn't some other component). It powers up, spins, plays, but nothing comes out from the analogue output (a very faint hum when the pre amp is cranked). I have not tried the digital out yet as I have the upsampler board.

I will try to remove the upsampler board (matter of putting in DAC(?) chips where 1 is different from the other 2 (all 3 8 pin) so I will have to figure out which goes where, and see if it works with digital out.

The fuse mentioned earlier has continuity and the power relay is working. I don't have any spare 6DJ8 tubes handy but both are warming up (checked with an IR thermometer) and I would imagine the likelihood that both suddenly blew is unlikely.

None of the myriad of caps are bulging.

Any hints, or a service manual?

Thanks

[Nick]

I don't have any spare 6DJ8 tubes handy but both are warming up (checked with an IR thermometer)

You should be able to see the glow from the filament in a darkened room (if necessary).

[zneret]

I see the glow from both, after removing the upsampler board and replacing the 3 (OpAmp?) chips. Orientation correct per the manual (didn't see the link to such earlier).

No sound from the analogue outputs. Just got a weak and static-y output from the digital out but it doesn't seem to want to lock with the DAC (the Oppo and the DAC both locked/synced).

Unless I try with another DAC, could I assume that the output board just went bad when just sitting and not being used?

[Nick]

"Unless I try with another DAC, could I assume that the output board just went bad when just sitting and not being used?"

Well, its hard to know without schematics and probing with a scope, but if the digital output is not working, its likely that the dac is not being given a signal it can use to convert to analogue.

[zneret]

Lack of schematics is always a problem. Can you answer me this? Does the digital signal -in general - go through the OpAmps before going to digital out or does it go through digital pre OpAmp?

I had the unit stored and neglected to take the upsampler board off. I will see there may be a loose solder joint on the OpAmy sockets.

[Nick]

It's unlikely to go via opamps but may go via the upsamplier.