Thanks bunches for the detailed reply. It is better to understand what is going on with my player than to be in the dark.
Ha! Yeah, sorry for the level of detail. It was pointed out to me a while back that I am long-winded so I severely curtailed the posting around here. I guess I could have said the same thing in the preferred three sentences or less. Here, I'll try:

Your CD player is dying. You can fix it, but probably only temporarily. Get a new one that plays files, preferably one with a USB port and a stereo mini plug "AUX in" on the front.

There, I did it!!!!!

A caveat - I don't know FOR SURE what's going on in your CD changer. Only you can find out by taking it apart. Who knows - maybe it's just a paper clip jammed in there or something. I've gone through three of them and it was the same problem with every one though. That brings up another bit of advice - don't bother buying one off ebay or one that was pulled out of a junkyard Isuzu because it will probably have as much play time as the one that's crapping out on you.

Unfortunately I don't even understand a lot of your second paragragh. heheh. I know what a USB is but I will have to go google DRM and some of that other other stuff.
Well don't feel like the Lone Ranger - I didn't know what DRM was either until I bought some songs off iTunes, copied them to a flash drive and then discovered they wouldn't play. DRM is Digital Rights Management - some sort of copyright protection scheme. My nephew says there's free software that will "unlock" the files but I'm not tech savvy enough to have found it yet. Haven't really looked hard though because like I said - it's easy enough to circumvent with a few inches of copper wire. I'm stupid like that...

I used to be good at taking apart cassette players and radios and fixing minor problems so maybe till I learn about all this stuff and have the finances to change over I can see how bad I am at taking this CD player apart to fix what you described.
It's not difficult to fix, but it's time consuming. I don't know how much your time is worth - guess that depends on how much longer you expect to live - who knows, maybe you're young and healthy and have time to burn. Go for it! I can tell you I wish I'd gone ahead and spent the $150 on the Sony a lot sooner instead of messing with the OEM unit. When I bought the Sony I noticed there was a Dual on the Crutchfield website that had the same features plus an HD radio tuner for the same price but it was a new item and wasn't available at the time. It might be by now though.

If you do decide to repair the CD changer, be aware that it's powered up even with the key out - and that's not a bad thing - it has to be energized with the cover off at some point anyway because you'll be doing a lot of testing. The danger here is that the front circuit board (with CD select buttons and LEDs - you will be removing it) is powered too of course and has ribbon cables that will fry WAY before a fuse will blow. It's been a while since I've done this but if I remember right, there's a two conductor connector on the left side of that board that supplies the power. Disconnect that as soon as you get in. You might want to disconnect the battery and give the system a minute or two for capacitors to bleed down the very first time you crack it open that way you can see where NOT to get sloppy with metal objects such as covers, screws and screwdrivers.

Well enough long winded-ness. If you need any parts, let me know!