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Post by mafoo343 on Aug 28, 2021 0:21:02 GMT
Recently, I managed to get my hands on a PC-Engine briefcase with all the stuff you'd normally need to play CD games. However, while everything else is working, the CD-ROM ROM addon isn't able to spin discs (the LCD does come on though). At first I figured it might be the common issue of a bad middle gear, so I cracked the unit open and took a look inside. Interestingly, mine looks completely intact with no yellowing whatsoever. I quickly gave the rails a fresh coat of grease and tricked the addon into thinking the lid was closed, just so I could see what is going on. It looks like the lens is able to focus and move up and down the rail just fine. For whatever reason though, the motor in the middle doesn't start spinning. I did a little digging online, and from what I've heard those motors very rarely ever go bad. One person I consulted with suggested that the lens may have just gone bad, preventing the motor from spinning up. Currently, I'm leaning towards that being the problem, but I figured that it couldn't hurt to get a second opinion just in case. I quickly gave the lens a bit of a clean to get rid of any dirt, though that didn't seem to change anything. I also took a look at the capacitors and checked the connections to the motor and everything appears to be fine as far as I can tell.
If the lens does end up needing replaced, I'm thinking that it'd need to be mailed off to someone for repair, since swapping that out is a little beyond me. Do you guys think that this unit is still repairable, or would it be better at this point just to get a new one and keep the old one for spare parts?
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keithcourage
Punkic Cyborg
https://www.facebook.com/turbografxfan/
Posts: 230
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Post by keithcourage on Aug 28, 2021 0:46:35 GMT
The first thing I would do is change the capacitors. Some of the white PCE cd drives have bad capacitors which can sometimes cause the issue you are having. Any chance you could post a picture of the board inside the CD drive? I can tell by looking at the board if it is the board revision that usually has bad caps or not. The darker green boards usually have bad caps. The lighter green ones do not.
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Post by mafoo343 on Aug 28, 2021 1:22:55 GMT
The first thing I would do is change the capacitors. Some of the white PCE cd drives have bad capacitors which can sometimes cause the issue you are having. Any chance you could post a picture of the board inside the CD drive? I can tell by looking at the board if it is the board revision that usually has bad caps or not. The darker green boards usually have bad caps. The lighter green ones do not. Sure thing, here's some pictures of the inside of it.
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keithcourage
Punkic Cyborg
https://www.facebook.com/turbografxfan/
Posts: 230
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Post by keithcourage on Aug 28, 2021 21:57:03 GMT
That's one of the possible bad cap boards. Here are the capacitors you should change. The Four 4.7UF caps near the Volume knob, and the Fours Caps in the center of the board 100uf, 22uf, 4.7uf, and 1UF. Usually these are the ones that go bad and some even leak. If that doesn't fix the drive, then the lens could be bad. I always do the caps first just because they are cheaper than another lens and they usually need to be done anyways. Another possibility is a bad BAchip(they are the Larger Rectangle ones near the Volume knob) but I wouldn't know if one of those is bad until after the caps are done first.
If at any point if you'd rather send the drive to someone for repair, this is work I can do.
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Post by mafoo343 on Aug 29, 2021 2:20:03 GMT
That's one of the possible bad cap boards. Here are the capacitors you should change. The Four 4.7UF caps near the Volume knob, and the Fours Caps in the center of the board 100uf, 22uf, 4.7uf, and 1UF. Usually these are the ones that go bad and some even leak. If that doesn't fix the drive, then the lens could be bad. I always do the caps first just because they are cheaper than another lens and they usually need to be done anyways. Another possibility is a bad BAchip(they are the Larger Rectangle ones near the Volume knob) but I wouldn't know if one of those is bad until after the caps are done first.
If at any point if you'd rather send the drive to someone for repair, this is work I can do. After thinking it over a bit, I'd say that the best thing to do is to send it in for repair.
As I was going through and testing the unit to see if I had fixed it, I think I accidentally pinched one of the black wires between the board and central screw hole. For a short while after that, the LED wasn't coming on. I took the thing apart and put it back together again carefully, trying to avoid pinching any wires this time. Thankfully, the LED came on again after some fiddling. On top of that, I accidentally broke the orange and yellow wires going to the central motor off and had to resolder them.
This experience has made it obvious that I'm simply too clumsy to do the repairs myself. If I tried to swap out the capacitors on my own, I'd probably just end up messing something up on the board :/
Feel free to PM me with the details and I'll see about getting this unit sent off to you.
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