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My car's CD player isn't working properly.

I have a CD and it plays fine on my laptop. I put it in my car stereo and it gets to about track 7 and plays the song but with a few jumps/ pauses, but anything after track 7 it doesn't play.

It's odd because the CD works fine on my laptop, and my car has played other CD's fine before...

The CD is clean too...

Any ideas?
Original post by Runninground
I have a CD and it plays fine on my laptop. I put it in my car stereo and it gets to about track 7 and plays the song but with a few jumps/ pauses, but anything after track 7 it doesn't play.

It's odd because the CD works fine on my laptop, and my car has played other CD's fine before...

The CD is clean too...

Any ideas?


What car and what type of CD?

Could be DRM issues.
Reply 2
Original post by Sgt.Incontro
What car and what type of CD?

Could be DRM issues.


It's a Corsa (2001 plate). The CD is a CD-R.
Original post by Runninground
It's a Corsa (2001 plate). The CD is a CD-R.


What file format are all the files?
Reply 4
Original post by Sgt.Incontro
What file format are all the files?


They are MP3
Original post by Runninground
They are MP3


ALL of them?
Reply 6
Original post by Sgt.Incontro
ALL of them?


Yeah, I downloaded them all in the same format.
Original post by Runninground
Yeah, I downloaded them all in the same format.


Very odd.

I was going to suggest that it could not play MP3 formats (in that case you would need to convert the files to .wav), but it is odd that it can only play some of the tracks.
Reply 8
Original post by Sgt.Incontro
Very odd.

I was going to suggest that it could not play MP3 formats (in that case you would need to convert the files to .wav), but it is odd that it can only play some of the tracks.


Yeah, especially as it plays fine on my laptop and it plays other CDs fine. Hmm...
Reply 9
Try a different CD before writing off the CD player.
I just burnt the songs to a CD-RW and it just spits the CD back out saying 'Error CD'. I put the CD-R back in and skipped to the track it stutters on, then skipped to the next one which doesn't play at all, and it started to play it but it was stuttering again. I took the disk out and it was clean, stuck it back in and it didn't play that track at all this time...

Damn. Anyone else have any ideas?

I have previously played a CD-R in it before, and it played fine.

I selected 'audio CD' and burnt it through Windows Media Player. I don't have any more CD-R's so i'm a bit stuck (Unless anyone knows how to get a CD-RW to work!)
I personally don't even bother with cd's anymore. Some songs were jumpy for me, but it could be just condensation or whatever on the disc or censor. It seems very odd anyhow. If you have an AUX port on your stereo, just get an AUX cable for a couple of pounds (Β£2?) and then put it in your stereo and phone and play all of your music on your phone. Just keep adding songs to your phone. I have roughly 500 songs on my phone, probably more, and I just either queue some tracks, make playlists or just get through the songs. Easiest way.
Original post by FrozenBeak
I personally don't even bother with cd's anymore. Some songs were jumpy for me, but it could be just condensation or whatever on the disc or censor. It seems very odd anyhow. If you have an AUX port on your stereo, just get an AUX cable for a couple of pounds (Β£2?) and then put it in your stereo and phone and play all of your music on your phone. Just keep adding songs to your phone. I have roughly 500 songs on my phone, probably more, and I just either queue some tracks, make playlists or just get through the songs. Easiest way.


I don't think I have an AUX port :frown:
Reply 13
Original post by Runninground
I just burnt the songs to a CD-RW and it just spits the CD back out saying 'Error CD'. I put the CD-R back in and skipped to the track it stutters on, then skipped to the next one which doesn't play at all, and it started to play it but it was stuttering again. I took the disk out and it was clean, stuck it back in and it didn't play that track at all this time...

Damn. Anyone else have any ideas?

I have previously played a CD-R in it before, and it played fine.

I selected 'audio CD' and burnt it through Windows Media Player. I don't have any more CD-R's so i'm a bit stuck (Unless anyone knows how to get a CD-RW to work!)

Try a normal, store bought audio CD.
Original post by CurlyBen
Try a normal, store bought audio CD.


Yes, it works fine with that. I think it's just being picky because it's a CD-R, and I know a lot of CD Players don't like CD-R/CD-RW disks.

I'm just confused at why it plays half of them fine, but not the other half.
Buy a stereo with USB and AUX port and you'll be fine for life. Trust me.
Reply 16
The reason it's not playing is due the the fundamental differences between CD-ROM drives, such as in a laptop, and conventional CD players in car stereos etc.

CD-R and CD-RW discs use very different methods to represent data compared to normal audio CDs. Low quality CD-R discs (asda, tesco etc) make the problem worse, as does recording the CD at a high speed. The 'bits' which get recorded onto the disc are so small that older CD hardware can have trouble reading it, especially further out on the disc (where the later tracks are located).

Try writing the music on to a good quality CD-R (Sony, etc) and at a low speed, 8x maximum. The CD player should have no problem reading this.

Hope this helps.

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