Help with CD drive not spinning

Discussion of development of software for any "obsolete" computer or video game system. See the WSdev wiki and ObscureDev wiki for more information on certain platforms.
nocash
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Re: Help with CD drive not spinning

Post by nocash »

Search the internet for something like "Neo Geo CD repair spindle" there should be some info & forums that could at least tell you if the spindle should spin without disc inserted.
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Ziggy587
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Re: Help with CD drive not spinning

Post by Ziggy587 »

Memblers wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:12 pm Sorry to hear that. You probably know of it already but I'd mention just in case, that if you're unable to restore it, another option is to replace with this optical drive emulator: http://furrtek.free.fr/sdloader/
I was already aware of that ODE, but thanks. If it were my console, I would definitely just go that route. But it's a friend's console. I actually already asked him if he'd want that, because I saw that there was one last production run of it (although now it's open source), but he wasn't interested. I think because he has a disc collection, he'd rather have a working disc drive.
Memblers wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:12 pmI wouldn't trust 30 year old electrolytic capacitors to still be good, but OTOH it doesn't seem like there would be much power involved with detecting a disc, so that doesn't seem likely to fix it, either.
I had thought the same thing. And actually, I had considered recapping at least the power supply brick. I mentioned in my first post, the power supply has a 10v and 5v line. The 10v line measure 9.57v with no load, which doesn't seem right (usually it's higher without a load). The 5v line seems healthy, measuring at 5.6v. But the logic board doesn't seem to use 10v anyway, after it's regulated down to whatever it is (I forget off hand).
nocash wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:30 pm Search the internet for something like "Neo Geo CD repair spindle" there should be some info & forums that could at least tell you if the spindle should spin without disc inserted.
I did, and you can find a few videos and threads, but they're all regarding the lid switch. It seems to be a common issue, there's a shaft on the lid that presses a switch down, and that shaft seems to break off easily.

The YouTube video that I linked makes me thing it's just the laser. That dude was ripping his hair out chasing false assumptions, much like I was doing trying to figure out if the motor was ceased up or that IC was burnt out, but it ended up being the laser anyway. He put a new replacement in and it sprung to life. From watching that video, it looks like the disc will NOT spin up if the laser is dead. It's just a shame that there are replacement lasers available, but it's a crap shoot if you get one that works or not.
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