Duo R - Misc Issues/Questions (new to the system)

[PapaBender]

Hello,

I've recently picked up a Duo R - in pretty decent shape. The A/V and controller port have been replaced since looking at them the wrong way could cause issues. lol

The caps all seem fine, but I picked up a cap kit from console5 and will probably just change them out while I have it open.

Its very clean inside, almost like no tampering has been done - the laser in it had died, but it still had the original "goop" on the laser pot. I tried adjusting the laser pot, but ended up replacing the laser now it plays original and CD-R's.

Basically it's just down to the x3 issues below (might even be normal, i'm not not that familiar with this system yet and haven't found any info on the below)

- while playing a CD game (Dracula - Rondo of blood omg how good is that game) a friend bumped the console very lightly by accident. The CD music stopped (and i think spinning) but the sound effects and the game kept going. Is this some kind of fail safe? is there a button combo to get the CD to spin back up again or a more serious problem? It just seems like any vibrations will set off the game music and you just need to restart. Maybe the magnet in the lid isn't spinning?

- so the CD rom bios menu (press run screen) has no noise when you are loading a CD. but after playing a game then using Run+Select to return to the main menu. there is a sort of buzzing/humming noise coming out  the speakers. I'm wondering if that is normal because I used the shortcut to return to the main menu or not. Again, noob here not sure if I should be doing that. Resetting the machine will remove the noise.

- there is a BA6296FP chip right under the open button, which seems to get much hotter than the other chips when playing CD games. This is apparently a "BTL Power Driver for CD Player"
again it plays cd's okay but just wanted to reach out and see if this was normal. 2-3 of the pins on this chip look black, almost burned, but they appear to still be soldered to the board without issue.

Thanks in advance, I have some TG-16 experience but still learning about the do's and don'ts of this nice Duo R

[SignOfZeta]

1: Normal, more or less. There is no skip buffer in an 80s CD player so if you bump it enough to skip the music will stop. It will only come back the next time you load a level or whatever. If the system is *really* sensative then your laser isn't calibrated quite right yet. It should survive people walking around the room and very light taps but if you shove it an inch or two it's going to skip. (In the 80s people were nicer to stuff.)

2: Totally normal

3: Probably normal. I've never measured before but since that chip is doing more work than most of the others I'm not surprised it's hot. The regulators are probably hotter but that chip controlls all the current going through the spindle motor.

[PapaBender]

Thanks so much for the quick reply - stops me from troubleshooting stuff that is somewhat the norm.

[PapaBender]

Just a follow up on this, it does seem like if you tap the system it skips. Obviously this isn't something I would do on a regular basis lol, but would you know which pot to tackle to make it less sensitive?

I realize there are many pots (and to record any settings before making even the smallest of changes) but is there a specific one to start with or would they all need calibration?

I don't think it would be the laser pot as it's playing real and CDR's so i'd be left with:

VR101 = E/F balance
VR102 = Focus Offset
VR103 = Track Gain
VR105 = VCO

Hopefully it would just be 1 VS having to do them all - if that was the case I would probably just pass until it got worse lol

[Keith Courage]

 these CD drives have no skip protection. So it's completely normal  For the audio to cut out if you were to accidentally tap the system in any way.  adjusting the lens in will not improve this.

 Now if the audio seems to just drop on its own without any vibration whatsoever, then some adjustment might need to be done or possibly just a simple cleaning and regreasing of the lens rails.

[SignOfZeta]

It's odd that this is the second or third time that someone has recently asked about the sound chip getting stuck on soft resets in the last month or so. That's not the most common PCE question historically and the forum is virtually dead these days.

As for the skipping, some Duos will skip easier than others for sure from my experience. When they were new none of them skipped as easily as mine do now so...I was assuming that's something that could be dialed out, but I've never tried. As long as stuff works I leave it alone usually.

[PapaBender]

Again a big thanks to both of you, this last year or so has been me flying blind in terms of the PC engine world, so not really sure what is the norm.

Everything is working great then - I'll still go ahead with the recap, since I have them and its open - bot not going to fiddle with anything else.

For the soft reset, I barely noticed it but yea it is there. Only reason I was paying such close attention was that I had opened and cleaned the system and was checking to see if I introduced any new problems.

It's a great system, I already played most of the hu card games via everdrive, but the CD library is overwhelming so I am just going through videos of "top 10,20,50" to see what to try next.