Replacing a laser in XC-L7 Pioneer CD player?

Came to this thread almost by mistake after planning to abandon my XC-L7 to whatever e-bay would offer. When 13 months old (ages ago, obviously) the laser 'failed' and was replaced at £150, then failed again 18 months after that and I gave up on it. I wish this thread had existed then!
Simon's 'fix' works really well and the unit's back up and running now in the spare room.
It's worth pointing out that removing the main board is made easier if you remove two black screws from the upper-right of the backplate that are NOT indicated by arrows, also unscrew the headphone socket (jack) from the front. When I had done that I didn't need to disconnect the side boards and that made it much easier!
Thanks so much!

Cuthbert Bear
February 2012

Yep - used Simon's fix and my Pioneer XC-L7 is as good as new. Taking it apart, and especially disconnecting the side boards was a bit of a bugger but patience and a gentle touch won the day.
Didn't have meths so used white spirit - just as good.
So - I should get another 11 years out of it before I repeat the process.

Jacko
November 2009

Simons Fix did it for me as well.
Thanks a lot.
You saved me €100 and a few more sweat drops.
I get to love my good old beautiful Pioneer stereo chain again!

MacSwiss
July 2009

Hi |Re your problem laser fails due exiol microscopic dust wich as little bugs what love lasers they travell through space just to find your laser . the only way to get rid of them is to buy a single colourd straw 1 tiny piece of crumbly cheese and a steady hand blow a pieceof cheese into the cd entrance leave for 5 hours and then suck it out with the straw bingo worked for me. hope this works for you dont be cheesed of if it does not work

Danger mouse
July 2008

I used simons fix and it worked, woo hoo !!!!!!!

Matt B
April 2008

when i brought the pioneer xc-L7 the laser did not read the cd so i took it a part and i cleaned i did this by blowing air into it using a high grade compressor which cleaned it so good that the laser was shing as new and now it aloways works
but remnember never touch the lens with your bear handbecause it may cause your laser to never ever work as good

vimto
December 2004

Hi,

I have an LC-X7. I got it with a faulty cd player. I took the top off the cd player (please be careful as a ribbon cable is connected from the top case to the mainboard so remove very slowly) where i was presented with the main board. This unscrews with 3 screws (kinda bronze colour) then unclip the two side boards - this is a bit tricky and should be done with care as the connectors are pretty tight. Once the two side boards are disconnected place the main board to one side and i was presented with the laser. I looked at the laser and there was a big layer of dust stuck to it. A quick clean with a couple of cotton buds and a bit of meths and that did the trick great!!! It now works a treat and no need to replace the laser.

I think this has happened because there is a fan at the back of the unit that that sucks the air from the front going through the case and expelled at the rear (the air goes right over the laser and all the dust with it). This is a bad design, but anyway a quick clean later and all is well.

Hope this helps!!

Simon [at] dreamtechnologies [dot] co [dot] uk
August 2004

Even if the part is available at a reasonable price, changing a laser is not easy. Once you have replaced the part, you then need an oscilloscope to observe the output from the laser so that it can be set up properly. So you need to know which test point to connect to. You also need to know which potentiometers to twidddle to be able to set it up properly. Without this equipment or knowledge, pay someone who has the equipment and knows what they are doing - or else the money you spend on parts will be wasted. Sorry to sound so negative, but if someone checks the output of the laser for you and finds it is working, its output is adjustable and it may just need recalibrating. Hope this helps.

Dave Ford
July 2004