Signs of a laser on it's way out?

[LowRes]

So I got a PC Engine duo, fully re-capped and working great if the game CD I try to play is mint.  My dracula X and Snatcher discs are like new and load no problem, however my Prince of persia disc has some light scratches and its hard to load.  I got it working and played it for a while but next day it's hard to load again. 

Would you say this is a sign of a weak laser? Or should I try to adjust pots?

[geise]

I wouldn't touch pots yet.  Who did the re-cap? Something could've happened during the recap.  When I had issues with my laser on my US Duo it would take a good while to load things.  Didn't matter how scratched or mint the CD was. I replaced the lens and everything started loading better, but every now and then I still ran into issues with stuff loading.  The replacement lens HOP-M3 seems to be a bit weaker. So I would try to see if you can fix the issue before resorting to a new lens.  Mine makes a slight humming sound now and then which is super annoying. So I would see if it's another issue first.

Hey NecroPhile could you move this to the Repair section? I'm sure Steve or some others could help.

Sorry you're having issues. I'm sure someone here can help. BTW welcome to the forums.

[SignOfZeta]

Adjusting the pots is what you do when your laser is weak, so your question is somewhat flawed. The pots are there to compensate for laser variation.

IMO, your "light scratches" are maybe not so light. The PCE's laser isn't really able to see what I would call a "light scratch" with the laser in any condition so either those scratches aren't so light or there is something else wrong with the CD. I've never had a PCE laser die on my in 25 years of Turbo so I've never had to adjust anything. If there is a focus adjustment, maybe that would help you read PoP.

Are these the only three games you have at the moment? If so, I wouldn't do anything unless until I found more than one non-working game.

[crazydean]

Personally, I would try a brand new CD-R before expecting a scratched disc to work. You could try resurfacing this disc too.

[LowRes]

Thanks for all the sugestions.  I'm gonna leave it alone for now since it's working pretty good.  I'll have to get some more games to test further.  I'm sure if I re-surface my POP disc it would help. 

I don't know how well the laser worked before the re-cap since I got the system non working, but even in the non working state I was able to load a cd but I didn't test much before re-capping.

Is it maybe normal to need pot adjustment after a re-cap since all the caps are new?

[NecroPhile]

Thread moved to mod/repair area to improve odds that steve/chops/keith/etc. see it and give their professional opinions.

For a non-pro opinion, I agree with Zeta.  Get some more games (even if they're CDRs) and don't worry about it if it's just Prince of Persia that it doesn't like.

[geise]

Is it maybe normal to need pot adjustment after a re-cap since all the caps are new? 

Sometimes, yes. Since you got it non working who knows what was done before you got it recapped. If you did the recap yourself I would double check all the caps first. Then try other games before moving onto pots.  The thing with pots is you can get it work great but then you start finding other games start having issues. I had most games working after a pot adjustment years ago, but had issues with certain games like Terraforming and Gradius 2.  There is a pot adjustment guide here in this repair section for the duo.  Do it live like BlueBMW explains is a good way.  Mark Mark Mark before adjusting anything, so you can always go back.

[LowRes]

Update on this.  I got a few more games to test with and I was having trouble loading them.  I tried out a Audio cd and realised I couldn't even play all of track 1 without it cutting out, obviously the later tracks were even worse.  What is crazy is that I 100% completed Dracula X with no problems at all, but anyway I followed BlueBMW guide to adjust the pots live by ear and it now works perfectly with everything I throw at it.  Awesome guide made it easy to do or maybe I just got lucky lol

[NecroPhile]

Excellent!  Another one saved and hopefully ready for years of fun.

[SignOfZeta]

Terrific news.