MARANTZ CD PLAYER/RECORDER MODEL#CDR500/U1B

This sounds crazy but it works for some reasons. Marantz CDR500 would not read and initialise some blank discs but no problem with reading finalised ones and erratic would and would-not work. Tried cleaning lens and even blowing ar through it. Before I wasted money in air I thought why not try hairdryer into open tray and lens area and just for measure across blank CD. I know this sounds weird but it worked every time and machine will read any make of disc like this. I do not have any scientific explanation only the fact that it works!!!

YOU mean "CD" recorder, right? A recorder will typically stop recording in the extended absence of audio.

And the track that is recorded - what does it sound like? If it's silence then you need to track your source back to its origin through the undefined electronics and find out why the signal isn't getting through to the recorder.

Read the manual.

Register and download it for free at audio.manualsonline.com

http://audio.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/marantz/cdr510.html

You mean it records silence? if it finalises then it does recognise and burn to the disc- so the laser/drive seems to be ok..

If silence, bear in mind there are analogue, optical and coax digital inputs to chose from for record source

Don't forget too these units need the special CD-R audio discs not CD-Rs to record to.

it's more than likely the servo board which is fixed under the mechanism.
this is very common but i'm not sure which component fails on the board but i've always got hold of donor recorders and switched the servo boards and all was fine.

laser failure on the recording side is very common on marantz and philips cd recorders.
they're well known for it.
so it's most definately the laser in your case.

hope this helps.

make sure you have the recorder source control turned up and the external device in the input or aux. be sure the external source is sending a signal and not padded or turned down

have a look on ebay for a cheap working donor recorder as spares are very expensive and very hard to get hold of.
i'm guessing your recorder either doesn't read discs, or it won't eject? which is very common and means either the servo board is faulty or the laser.

The following recorders i know off hand for a donor mechanism are:

MARANTZ DR-6050
PHILIPS CDR-775
PHILIPS CDR-770

if it proves to be just a faulty laser, all 3 of the above have the same laser unit.
if it proves to be a faulty servo board, all 3 have the same servo boards except if you fit one out of a philips model it will show 'PHILIPS CD RECORDER' on the display at power up but will still work nontheless.
obviously if a marantz is found it will show 'MARANTZ CD RECORDER' as normal.

hope this helps.

cdr keep open when power it on.

Simply switch the analog to digital button on the front to analog, turn off the machine and turn it back on.