CD problem with transport. Please help

I have a Talk Thunder CDP3.1b and am enjoying it but it recently started doing something odd. At 2 to 10 seconds into the beginning of a disc the transport will skip back to the begining of the disc and start over. It may do this once, twice and sometimes three times and then play the entire disc without further problems. What could be the culprit of this quirk? If it were the laser failing wouldn't the cd's played skip at random throughout a disc, any disc. I find that once the player has successfully gone through the first 10 seconds or so that the problem does not happen further. Could it be because my player is on cones? I hope anyone can help with this. I am thinking there may be something like a hair stuck in the works by the beginning of a cd. As it passes past 10 or so seconds there is no apparent problem. Please help.
Thanks