20 Most Recent Cambridge Soundworks CD-740 Clock Radio - Page 2 Questions & Answers

Have same problem. Cheap company, no POC phone number in handbook, no address.

Mine is dim also. Apparently sending it in for repair is not an option.Unfortunately, the CD740 radio has reached end of service life. Parts are no longer available & we cannot repair them. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you need further assistance, please call us at -800-367-4434, Monday - Friday 9AM to 6PM central time. -- Best Regards,Cambridge SoundWorksSales and Support

This is due to a failure of the power to the diisplay section which could have been caused by the power failure. so you need to check the power to the conttrol panel and to the display section. A possible damage to the display driver also cannot be ruled out.
Look for any fusible resisitors that have opened out or changed in value, use a multimeter to check the power supply and the feed to the board.

I just did this over the weekend, so, I'll expand on how to get there.

1. Pop off the speaker covers.
2. There are 4 screws on each side (not the speaker screws, the recessed screws). Remove those from each side.
3. On the back of the unit, there are 4 more recessed screws. You'll need to remove those, and separate the back from the unit (you may have to disconnect some of the wire connectors).
4. Flip the unit over (so the bottom is up). Remove the screws from the bottom, and remove that base. Note: you'll need to remove all the foot-pads as well (there is a screw under each).
5. Once you've removed that, you'll need to then remove the next set of screws from the "sub bottom" I believe there were 8 that need to be removed.
6. Carefully flip the unit over (you can put the "base" back on without the screws so it sits right).
7. At this point, you'll need to remove the top cover. You'll have to pry away at this one a bit, but it wasn't too hard. There is a connector for the snooze/mute button that I disconnected to make it easier once the cover was open.
8. Once the top cover is off, you'll see the CD player. There are two screws holding the CD player to the faceplate. Remove those.
9. There are three screws on the back of the cd player. Remove those, and you can maneuver the CD player at that point (I didn't need to take mine all the way out, as I just needed to get a quarter out of the player).

Then... gently reassemble. This is not an easy machine to tear apart by any means. Took me about an hour and a half to do it all (but I was also doing some trial and error).

Good luck! And be careful!

Hello
The CDs you inseting is not loading properly into the mechanism. Check its loading belt. If loading belt is loose, thie tyep of fault will occur. Check the loading motor also. If the pulling power of loading motor go less, the discs will not load properly and will ejected out as it loaded into. There is no other possiblilities other than this to check. OK.

The two most likely causes for those symptoms are a dirty laser lens, or a dying drive motor.

hi, your power cord might just get defective.test them by wiggling the cord while it is plug inn see if it power on then stops.the cut must just about 5 inches from the plug of your radio.you can just replace the plug or replace the whole cord..thank you and good luck!

In the unit where you insert the cd.Inside there is a lens.And this lens reads the cd.If this lens assembly gets faulty or there is dusty got stuck up on the lens then it will not be able to read or detect the cd.the cd gets detected when the lens see the cd.But if the lens is faulty or dusty then it will not be able to detect the cd and the message "DISK" or "NO DISK" come up.I agree that you used compressed air to clean the dust from the unit.But if the dust is got stuck up hard and if its not getting blow away by compress-air then the lens is covered by dust.So first the lens has to be cleaned manually and checked if the unit starts reading cd.If not then its a faulty lens assembly and it has to be replaced,by local cd/dvd player repair center.The lens is made up of glass and its very delicate part in the unit and can get cracked very easily if any kind of force is applied on the unit externally or while cleaning the lens.So get it done carefully.Also the lens can be cleaned by lens cleaner liquid or by dry tissue paper.Take care nothing gets remain on lens.Also many times while cleaning the lens a finger print marks get remain on it and this makes lens to read the cd blurry.--------This should help.Thanks.Helpmech.

Press the time adjust buttons on the right of the display.

You can download the entire user's manual from here:
http://download.cambridgesoundworks.com/manuals/soundworks_radio_cd_740.pdf

If the disk is stuck then try pulling the disk out if any part of disk is seen outside from the eject position. Do this in unit off condition .Try to pry the disk out with hand in most possible condition. But if nothing is helping then unit needs to be disassembled. Its not very hard to disassemble the unit. Look for the hidden screws under the speaker grills. The grills just
pop right off .And then remove the sides and top cover off.The internal unit is exposed.All will be seen. without moving any parts internally,just take or push the cd disks out. Carefully. Thanks. Keep updated for any more query. You can rate this solution and show your appreciation.

I would think that when the unit was unplugged while ON, has spiked something in the unit. Perhaps the actual laser or quadrant detector, both of these are extremely sensitive to any voltage/current surges or spikes. This is quite common at the shop. I would think, that a laser replacement would be in order. I would first get a service manual, using this work through, the troubleshooting procedures to isolate the exact problem.
As usual and as with everything we MUST make sure the power supply is correct, as if this is not, nothing else can be. So working out from the power supply, check all the Rails and see if there are any anomalies..
www.cambridgesoundworks.com/.../manuals/soundworks_radio_cd_740.pdf -

As an aside, if you chose to take it in for repair, you could ask for a "Quote" before starting any work, and the fact that you have another, will be a great benefit to the repairer, and must help keep costs down. I am sure you should be able to make one good unit out of two faulty one's unless of course they both have the same fault, which is unlikely.

Please you need to know that the cd player lens has got dirt particles that is not allowing it to read any cd inserted.

Get a cd lens cleaner.

Good luck and sorry about that.

Hello,

its a mechanism fault. Also the disc tray is not lapping well for the lens to read discs.

Get a screw driver and loose the player, turn it on and insert a disc. Use you hand to hold the disc tray back from coming out. Also check if the disc will spin and try to load the disc.

If it spins and does not load, the I think the lens is weak.

Just do a general servicing on the mechanism area and see if it will load disc.

If you are unable to do all these, then maybe you should give it to someone who can.

Take care

I really like these radios, by the way, and have 1 of the radios w/out CD, 2 with the CD and one of the HD radio's. I'm one of those people that needs multiple alarms to get up so I set several of them to turn on at different times in the morning and it works great!
I have had this problem twice and I've unplugged the unit then after I plug it back in I hold down the CD eject button while I turn it back on. The display then says something like "CD Reset" and it resets the CD mechanism to the beginning of the cycle. This moves the CD holder to the correct position. (I assume the problem is due to the CD positioning device stopping in the wrong place after it ejects a CD, for whatever reason)
I hope this helps. Mine did the same thing with no CD inside.
I listen to the radio a lot, and by having these in several rooms, I can listen to radio without having to have it turned up super loud when I am walking around the house. I also use this at the High School where I am a science teacher. It produces enough quality audio to fill the classrooms with music or playing podcasts of "Science Friday."