Causes of CD player skipping?


Hello,
I own a Sony CDP-M555ES 400 CD megachanger that has began skipping pretty badly, especially on tracks 1, 2, and sometimes 3. The problem seems worse with CD-R's and CD-RW's. The tracks will begin playing, and then the player will skip to another place on the track, to the beginning of the track, or to another track.
I tried cleaning the laser lens and this did not work.
Any ideas on what could be causing this?
Thanks for your help.
daltonlanny
Wow, nice call Davehrab.

I used to have a decent Sony player that I ditched when it developed a similar problem.

Well, you learn something new everyday....

I'll keep it in my hat for future reference!
Sony CDP-CX300.

I applied with a Q-tip gun oil (that says it has silicone in it) to the single laser guide rail.  That solved my skipping problem.  I observed that the CDs always started skipping between 4.18 and 4:54 minutes.  That was a clear indicator of a "location problem".

I had previously done some disassembly and cleaned the "rack", then re-lubed it with white lithium grease.  This did not work, tho I got a good view of the laser guide rail on the laser assembly that I removed to lube the rack.

To lube the guide rail, I removed the cover, then reached into the access to the guide rail with a Q-tip moderately full of the oil, and wiped the accessible surfaces; the "backside" of the rail opposite the access area could not be reached for lubrication.  The access point is located at the rear left of the player when looking from the front, and in between the black plastic.  Look for the shiny shaft.

There has been many years since previous posts, but those posts were helpful to me.
Skipping
The player executes normal track play, but the music drops out or skips ahead or backwards, or gets otherwise garbled, during play. You might hear some clicks as the CD Pro attempts to track properly. This type of tracking problem is usually referred to as “skipping,” and may indicate that the CD Pro’s laser current is diminished or that its receptor diodes are failing. It will have particular difficulty reading low-reflectivity discs (e.g. CD recordable and rewritable discs) and discs that may not conform to Red Book specification (e.g. pirated discs or non-major label discs).
from Enco Systems:
Tribol Molub-Alloy 9890 grease is the lubricant recommended by Philips for use on the CD Pro family of modules
0.35 oz of Tribol 9890 grease is shipped to you in a narrow-tip syringe
Application of the very small amounts required on lubrication points is easy with this syringe. If it is worth change the lens and also make sure you lubricate the rail.

Claude