Repair for failure to recognize any type of CD for the Pioneer PD-R555RW

UPDATED 15 Jan 2010!


If your PD-R555RW will not recognize any type of CD - it flashes CD? CD-R? CD-RW? repeatedly and then stops with CHECK DISC displayed - the problem is likely to be a leaking "supercap" on the Servo Digital board. The supercap is designed to act like a battery and hold information about a CD if power is lost, but unfortunately it also tends to leak and badly corrode the circuit board.

There is more information in the DIYAUDIO forums; see post #14 for the gory details.

(Post #7 there describes how to replace some capacitors and fix a voltage problem. I did this fix and my unit mostly worked for a while, but it didn't fix anything permanently and at this point I'm sure that the circuit board corrosion was my real problem.)