sl 500 sat nav not recognising disc

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julesn

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Jul 1, 2008
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Hi all have searched hi and lo but cannot find a suitable thread re this

2003 SL500 with command - sat nav not recognising cd

have cleaned cd, also loaded into a pc which read the cd ok - files copied onto PC with no errors and then a duplicate cd burnt but still doesnt work so suspect head unit ?

Not sure if you can use cd drive cleaning discs on these units ?

how easy is it to remove command and access / clean head ?

any other thoughst experiences

many thanks in anticipation
 
Don't know as I have not got the system but if you are burning the CD from a modern system is it the correct format for the command system? ie NTFS or JOLIET etc? you might need to check the format of an original disc if you have one.
 
Thanks good point re format

I had formed an opinion that if the original disc can be read by a PC CD drive , copied onto hard disk and then data reburnt with no errors that the orignal disc is ok and the command CD drive is at fault hence my secondary question re cleaning the drive ?
 
MB Comand units are prone to flakey laser heads and are quite underpowered by design so they only just have enough 'power' to read an original disc assuming a clean head.

Opening up the unit and carefully cleaning the laser head will quite probably restore order.
 
Yes we have to do this a lot... its tricky to see the laser without stripping the mechanism to bits but its possible to do with a torch, cotton ear bud and some lighter fluid or similar cleaning agent. Just remove the top, the torch helps to see the laser as it reflects..
 
Also when you copy the original disk ... best to make a clone of the disk, or rip an image and then burn the image.
When burning the image to the new disk make sure you select a low speed (ie 4X or 8X) as it will make the disk even more compatible with old units.
 
Theres an article on my www.mercupgrades.com which tells you how to take the COMAND out on a SL. Then you can take the lid off and clean the laser as per Jay's post above.

There are also instructions on that website as how to disassemble further the CD drive to clean the roller that pulls the disk in/out properly, but I wouldn't recommend you do that unless you are very happy taking things apart

Richard
 

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