gamma cd radio not playing certain cds

[explorer]

HI,i have a 01 130 se passat and it wont play certain cds,some cds are brand new unmarked(non copies) and some of the cds are copies.....i have tested all the cds on another cd player and they work fine......it does play other new cds and copied cds that i have without any bother at all.it just wont play about 3 or 4 of mt collection....its a GAMMA radio with the cd player built in to the dash....any ideas as to why its got issues and is there anything i can do??...thanks

[cathalferris]

Make sure that the non-copy cds are actually real cds that adhere to the Philips RedBook standard that describes what a cd is.

If an audio disc has the CompactDisc logo on it, it should be redbook-compatible. A lot of newer shiny discs from the likes of Sony-BMG are things that are like cds, but not real cds, They'll play in some cd players and not others. They fail the redbook standard because of the screwing around with the error correction to 'prevent copying'. As a direct result, more complex cd players fail to play them.

For more informations see:
http://www.ukcdr.org/issues/cd/bad/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_copying_software
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn998

It's a poor situation where you pay money for a cd, and you get something that looks like a cd, smells like a cd yet isn't a cd. Not a whole lot can be done except to be aware that the cds you buy are not guaranteed to work..

[Froggy]

Spot on catalferris. The older VW changers did suffer from this problem and it can't be fixed.

[explorer]

thanks alot for all the information.......most cds i got off cd wow work fine but theres 2 that wont .....i copied them and it does play the copies....thanks for ur help.......at least i know i cant fix it and theres no problem trying....