Kenwood car stereo used to play MP3's but now pretty hit or miss - why?

[saxguy]

I have a 2 year old Kenwood KDCMP625 that used to play mp3's on CD-R's and CD-RW's very well.

Lately, and after trying different media, it usually reports a TOC error or else, in the case of burned CD-audio tracks, may play the first several tracks fine and then start skipping progressively worse as the tracks continue.

Why is this occuring? Is it a dirty lens? Is there a product that I could buy to clean the lense? Or perhaps an air compiressor to blow it out gently?

If this would require repairing something more drastic, it would cost more than the unit.

I really liked it for the 2 years I've had it

Any advise is appreciated

thank you...

[laspis59]

The car stereo may be dying as its getting old.

You mentioned that you tried new media.Are they Taiyo Yuden? Taiyo Yuden CD-R's are the best quality media you can buy and you might find that your car stereo system has no problems playing them.

[psx_pirate]

Yes .... you can buy a cd/dvd lens cleaner disk that you can use to clean the lens

Also (i had one of these units until my car got stolen just before christmas) and i found that the toc/skipping problems only occurred if i burnt my disks at above 12x .... if you are burning faster than 12x try burning at a slower speed and see if that helps

[saxguy]

I actually do have Taiyo Yuden right now but haven't tried the slower burning speed (I use Nero). If I'm not mistaken you can't choose the speed to bun at with Nero (at least Express). Cna you confirm a how-to?

Will the lens cleaners work with a small slit for the CD opening though?

[laspis59]

I have a lens cleaning CD and it has a little brush on the data side,you'd have no problems inserting it into your player.

You should be able to select a burn speed in Nero Express as its the same as Burning ROM but easier to use with the wizard.Before you burn it should give you a list of speeds to choose from.

[olyteddy]

My Kenwood was flaky out of the box. I found that ejecting then re-inserting the disc usually helps. I think it sometimes clamps the cd off center.

[saxguy]

You know two things: 1) I just realized that I was using Taiyo Yuden for DVD burns only. I am using TDK for CD-based mp3's (and actually other brands as well that worked before). You think TDK is an issue with my Kenwood?
2) I am in the "Final Burn Settings" in Nero Express 6.6.0.3 and the burn speed setting is greyed out...only shows 4x. Also see the same thing in the regular Nero app. Only 1 speed 4x

I'm testing with a TDK CD-RW...

Is it my version that needs updating?

[DereX888]

A simplest test to determine where is the problem is to play the disc 'with problems' on some other player and you'll know is it your kenwood or your disc right away

[saxguy]

How can I change the speed of Nero for burning CD-RW's?

[winch69]

i have had 4 different kenwood hu's and they have all done the toc error bit at some point, according to a mate of mine who fixes car stereos for a living kenwood over the last few years have all suffered with laser probs, if you strip the laser carridge out and wind the laser to the outside on the laser unit is a variable resistor change the reading down by 10% using a multimeter this will increase the laser power and should give a cure to the dredded toc of death