Repair a Sony SCD 777ES?

Flip a coin. Those are your chances of a satisfactory service trip to Sony in Laredo, Texas.
I sent them my 777 in it's original box.
The first thing they do is recycle your box. Then they fix the player on a flat rate schedule.
My player came back to Phoenix in a single box, with the heavy CD puck in a plastic bag, duct taped to the top of the player, with one piece of duct tape. This allowed the puck to slap against the surface of the player, marring it.
And, most importantly, the player still wouldn't play CDs or SACDs.
I had to wait for a Sony tech to call me (in a 2 day window) before I could get an RA # from Sony.
The biggest insult came next. The tech said every piece is thoroughly tested before it is shipped. I actually had to return the player with (1 each) non playing CD & SACD.
He said it was probably my discs. Yeah, right!
The player came back, this time with a new transport. Since I had already paid $220.00, the 2nd repair was "free".
Sony had my player tied up for over a month. When I questioned why my original box disappeared, they said this point is clearly stated in their FAQ section.
I immediately sold the player, and sold my XA7ES a year or 2 later. I'll never buy another Sony player.

You might try here http://www.musictechnology.com/

Bill Thalmann offered to help me with my sled drive motor issue on my SCD-1.

Chuck

Sony Repair is legendary for their bad service. And Sony Suctomer Service is equally as bad. After dealing - for 4 exasperating months!! - with Sony on the repair of a very expensive monitor, I sold the damn thing and vowed to NEVER buy another Sony product again.

So far, I've kept my vow...

-RW-

Sony repairs are a waste of money. Buy a Sony refurb, direct from SonyStyle, is a better deal, at least you will have a 90 warranty. Typically if it is bad it will prove to be so withing a few days of start up, and Sony will come get it, for free, refunding all your money. I've purchased four Sony 595's, mostly for $60 a piece with free shipping. I use two, and have the others as backup and for resale. These are five discs, SACD players and they sound and work well. Sounds almost as good as my Sony 777es and 5400. I have purchased other Sony refurb cd units and have have always been pleased.

Remove the top cover, the transport billet section, and clean and relube. This solves the problem 80% of the time:

SCD-1/777ES Transport Maintenance

1. Tilt up top cover at rear of CDP and disconnect ribbon harness that secures top cover to Main Board at front of CDP. Remove cover and set aside.

2. Remove ground wire to transport billet & screws securing transport at corner stand-ups. Lift transport with attached RF PCB straight out, while carefully pulling out two wide ribbon cables that secure transport assy at rear edge of Main Board.

3. Remove transport assy to grounded anti-static mat, being careful at all times not to touch laser lenses or to lean laser pick-up against any surfaces.

4. Remove retaining washers from round gears, taking care that they don't fly away. Remove round gears. Remove Sled Motor together with its bracket/PCB. Leave small plastic drive gear attached at end of sled motor shaft. Remove cast CD drive spindle motor assy. Remove cover plate from end of CD spindle motor assy, exposing sapphire bearing, brass bearing cup, and spindle motor coils.

5. Use swab and solvent to clean grease & dirt off all round & straight gears of transport assy & jewel bearing and bearing cup of CD spindle motor. Desolder and remove sled motor from its PCB, noting motor polarity before dissembling. (Motor runs backward if reassembled with incorrect polarity.)

6. Spray Deoxit into sled motor housing through holes exposed after desoldering sled motor from bracket/PCB. Apply opposing polarities of a 12V battery to motor poles, so as to spin sled motor in opposite directions and burnish brushes for about 30 seconds. Resolder sled motor to PCB. Reassemble sled motor assy to transport.

7. Confirm that there is almost no lateral play between CD spindle and its cast housing. Replace spindle motor assy if there is excessive lateral play or if spinning operation has become noisy. Put a drop or two of mineral or telfon oil into the collar bearings at each end of the spindle shaft housing. Remove any dried brown grease from jewel bearing cup and motor coil areas & replace with a small dab of white lithium grease or automotive moly grease. Reassemble CD spindle motor and reattach assembly to transport.

8. Apply white lithium grease to metal spindles of round gears. Put on round gears and confirm that they rotate smoothly. If they're tight, then you may have found the source of SACD read problems. Proceed with caution, but you may need to slightly enlarge the bore diameter of the plastic gear with a drill bit one size up from the stock bore. The drill bit must be inserted and turned by hand only.

9. Reassemble and lubricate all plastic round & straight gears sparingly with white lithium grease. Put a drop of mineral or teflon oil on each metal sled rail. Run the reassembled sled back and forth a few times by hand to make sure it runs smoothly and to spin off excess grease. Take care not to get grease on the tiny electric eye.

10. Reassemble transport to CDP, taking care not to peel back metal traces along edge of two ribbons as they seat to the Main Board headers. If any metal traces peel back, then retrim the ribbon using paper scissors or replace the ribbon.

11. If you continue to have read problems, then replace the sled motor, which has been discontinued as a Sony part but is still available from OEM manufacturer.