I’d always thought that our family somehow was an anathema to CD players — causing them to break long before they should. It would appear, after reading How to Fix Your CD Player || kuro5hin.org, that our family is not alone.
In the article, “brain in a jar” documents how to attempt a repair for a CD player that you have given up for dead. Because the repair will void any warranty on your CD player, it should not be taken without forethought.
Next time I have a dead CD player, I will attempt this and let everyone know how it went.