Linn Karik player problem fix

Just displays "1" after trying to read CD. Bad laser. Replace laser HOP-M3 to fix. If you hold the transport in your hand and have a disc clamped in the transport, spin a disc. There are two adjustments you must make. Before you start, just remember where the adjustment screws where before you started. Do not touch the white pot on the side.
There are two adjustments underneath a metal plate parallel to the bottom of the player. This plate tilts and shifts until the laser is perfectly perpendicular to the CD on two axis. One adjustment is on the magnet, which one generally leaves alone, and then there is one on the plastic surround. Looking at the disc edge on and with the beam shooting up at the disc (you're looking at the beam edge on also) there are two adjustments. Moving the beam towards and away from you, and one for moving the beam side-to-side. Ultimately the beam must be perpendicular to the disc surface. When you hold the transport in your hand and you have a disc running, you can see the angle the lens make with the disc. They should be parallel. Try the adjustment on the "plastic section" first while playing a disc and holding the transport in your hand.
Try the magnet adjustment second, but I generally leave it alone. Sometimes one must go through a few lasers. I went through three. The final one worked after some adjustments.

[@TEAMTOTALDiSTORTiON]

Same here! Did you find a solution?

[@SO_DIGITAL]

It needed a new laser. HOP-M3 laser. I bought three on ebay, the third one worked. Don't worry about the rest of the machine.

[@TEAMTOTALDiSTORTiON]

@@SO_DIGITAL I tried ordering one as well. The laser I got reads black discs, but has some problems reading silver discs? Have you experienced something similar when you've changed lasers?

[@SO_DIGITAL]

@@TEAMTOTALDiSTORTiON No. The black discs are Sony Playstation discs. The infrared laser used has no trouble seeing through the black dye layer. If it cannot read redbook CDs then you may be missing a subtle difference between the "black" discs and the silver redbook CDs. Are the data layers at the same depth? If not, it's a focus problem. What audio material do you have on the "black" discs? Aren't they just CD ROMs?

[@TEAMTOTALDiSTORTiON]

@@SO_DIGITAL The laser is fitted in an old Linn Karik, and I have tried playing a few different CDs. It can instantly read a black disc that only contains audio (the surface of that disc is black where the data is - an official album release by the Swedish band "Kent") but when I try a regular "silver" disc (also by the band "Kent"), it struggles to read that. It's a really weird problem.

[@SO_DIGITAL]

@@TEAMTOTALDiSTORTiON I'll investigate. Perhaps the photodiode gain is too high, causing distortion. I'm just speculating. I don't think the disc actually looks any different in IR. Black or silver. It's just a dye in the polycarbonate. To solve this problem, look for differences between the discs. Readout signal level. Focus depth, data depth....anything. It's an interesting puzzle. It could also just be that the laser you bought was designed to only read the black discs....