PCE Duo-R Problem

[forsigmar]

After replacing every cap and the laser in my US Duo and still not getting it to read any discs I decided I would just end my problems and finally get a Duo-R.  I found a nice bundle with a multi tap and 6 button controller.  It looks great and has very little to no yellowing.  It arrived today and I get out my stack of CD games that have been collecting dust for years and hook the system to my favorite old CRT gaming TV.  I threw in Lords of Thunder, flipped the on switch and................nothing.  The screen flashes for a fraction of a second then black.  I have tried a new AV cable, different TV, Hu Cards, Discs and still nothing. 

I am really at a loss for words here.  Combine the amount I spent on caps and the laser for my US Duo and the cost of importing a Duo-R and I have some serious money invested and I still am not any closer to playing CD games than I was 10 years ago.  I have no idea what to do.  Do I ship it back for $80, find somebody to fix it for who knows how much, or just buy another one investing another $200?

Does anybody have any idea what could be wrong with the Duo R?

[HercTNT]

getting a recap from members in this forum is very cost effective and they know what they are doing. I would go that route before i did anything drastic. Pm thesteve, bluebmw, keith courage, or appolloboy.

[forsigmar]

Its just so frustrating!  I love the PC Engine and Turbo Grafx but I swear to god I am being punished everyday for selling my perfectly working US Duo in the late 90's.  At least my US Duo plays Hu's fine, the Duo R is pretty much a paperweight for now.

[HercTNT]

like i said, dont do anything drastic. I have thesteve do all my mods and hes is very reasonable. if anyone can get your machines up to par he can. give him a pm.

[Keith Courage]

Hey man, I am experiencing the same exact problem with a DUO-R I have on hand. I am in the process of waiting for some parts to come in the mail to try and fix it. I have repaired many DUOs but never had an issue with a duo-r not turning on before. When I flip my power switch I see a flash on the screen and then just blackness. I believe the issue lies with the main power transistors on the board since I ran into this problem once with a Gray Super CD rom 2 drive once and a transistor was the issue. I'll let you know when I change the parts if it fixes the problem or not. If it does I'd be happy to help you out with fixing yours.

[forsigmar]

Words can't express how much I would appreciate that!  Let me know what you find out and I would gladly ship it out to you for a repair.  I am getting better about being able to repair stuff myself but I am pretty much useless when it comes to troubleshooting.  I am more used to doing a "order this part and solder it here" kind of fix so this has me clueless.  Assuming the seller was telling the truth about it working then I guess it would have to be some kind of damage during the shipment so maybe something got bumped the wrong way and just needs to be resoldered.

[thesteve]

i have seen 2 duo's do just that, and it was broken addressing traces causing a system halt

[Keith Courage]

So does that mean all you did was re-solder a bunch of connections or did you have to track down each bad trace using a multi meter?

[thesteve]

i had to track them down.
I used a logic probe

[Samurai Ghost]

I really hope you can fix it! I send off junked systems for repair all the time and in most cases they can be repaired if you are willing to try.

Sorry to hear you got burned though... For future reference you could put up a want-to-buy thread here and I'm sure you'd be able to find a working CD system without much trouble. I've got several for sale at the moment, and I make sure to test the systems thoroughly before I send them out, offer free replacement, etc. There are a lot of good people on this forum!

[forsigmar]

A broken trace can't be seen with the naked eye correct?  I wonder if temperature changes from the flight over combined with being bumped around caused this.

[thesteve]

could have

[Keith Courage]

I thought I'd post an update. I just changed out both main transistors on the DUO-R I had trouble with and now it turns on. Don't know which one was bad. I just decided to change both to be on the safe side. The symptoms on the system was when I flipped the power switch on I'd see a flash of white for a split second and then straight to blackness. When powering off the system I'd see a rainbowish type color for a second. It now works great!

[thesteve]

main resistors?

[Keith Courage]

ha, my mistake. I am running on 5 hours of sleep.  I meant the transistors.

[thesteve]

do you mean the 7805 regulators?

[forsigmar]

If it is those even I can find them being attached to two huge heat sinks.  

[Keith Courage]

You got it steve. The 7805 part number.

[forsigmar]

It was indeed the 7805 Regulators.  My local Radio Shack stocked them so I just picked a couple up for a grand total of $3.98.  5 minutes with the soldering iron and the Duo-R is up and running!  Thanks so much guys!  I seriously can't wait to play my CD games that have been sitting around for years.....see ya.

[thesteve]

good to hear it