[HELP] Cd-Rom2 unit needs repair

[onetunafish]

Hello guys!

A few years back I bought a falty CD-ROM2 in hope to get it fixed. At the time it was barely reading games, had audio issues and what not. Now I've found a new interested in trying to fix the thing and the CD-ROM2 unit does nothing. All I get is a red PC on the cd-rom2 display and the "just wait a moment" on the screen.

I checked the infamous gear, it is yeallowed but still rotating the other gears. And when I manually move the gears, the laser unit does not move at all, is that normal? That could be one issue, but I'm so not sure. I have a new repro gear and a set Keith sent to me a while back. I took a look at the board with my untrainned eyes and I did not find any caps leaking or broken traces, everything looks good.

I'll track down a new laser and perhaps a new spindle motor. I just find really weird the laser doesn't move at all. Any advice at this point is very much appreciated!

Thank you!

ED!

[Keith Courage]

Check to see if the spindle motor even moves when you hit the play button. Take off the gear I sent you and see if anything happens. It could be possible that the track and or gears have some old grease in then making it too hard to turn everything.

[turbokon]

If the laser is not moving when you manually move gears, check the teeth of the laser that sits on the spindle.

[onetunafish]

Ok, I've removed the old yellowed gear, actually it crambled itself in the process. I turned the power on  without the middle gear and no motor worked. So that was something. Unfortunatelly as careful as I though I was being I managed to lost the small black ring that holds the middle gear in place. It flew away to limbo in one of my attempts to put it back into place. It must be here somewhere, but so far no luck finding it. Any tips for a replacement for that?

I have a new gear that I've got from YAJ which fits like a glove, and I also have the set Keith sent me. I imagine Keith's set won't need that small black ring. However I can't seem to find the step by step guide for this method, I thought it was a sticky. If anyone could send me the url again that would be fantastic.

And finally, the teeth of the laser that sits on the spindle seems to be completely worn out.  I figure the only way around that is a new laser, is that right?

And btw, thank you for the help so far!

[turbokon]

A replacement laser won't have that teeth. You will need that little ring to hold the middle in place as that has to spin freely.

[onetunafish]

I have improvised a replacement black ring with some thin wires, the gear is secure in place for the time being. That said, the laser moved, slowly, but moved. But the spindle won't spin at all, could that be just the spindle motor?

[Keith Courage]

When you say spindle are you referring to the lens motor or the motor that actually spins the CD. I have never seen a motor that spins the CD go bad so if that is what you are talking about then there is another problem. Possibly a bad lens or even bad capacitors. However, even with bad capacitors the CD drive usually still tries to do something. Meaning it may spin the disc but not play any music, load a game and skip like crazy.

[onetunafish]

Hello!

Yes, the spindle that holds the CD does not move at all. I actually installed your gear and laser motor seems super strong. It is making a lot of noise though. I'm starting to feel this might be out of my league. I wonder if I could send it to somebody here on the forums.

[onetunafish]

I managed to test the spindle motor connecting 2 AAA bateries to it and it spins like the wind. I think maybe the large flat cable is damaged or the caps, or something else completely. I'm afraid this one will become a donor for parts.

[onetunafish]

Hey Guys, some progress!

So today I woke up and took to whole cd-rom2 apart down to the laser unit. I managed to tight the teeth that holds the alser to the gear's shaft, and it took a few tries, but now effectively the gears are moving the laser as they should.

I put the whole thing back together and now the thing seems to be sort of working. At first I've tried the cd-rom2 alone with music CDs. The weird thing was that it would only play music when standing vertically, horizontally would "scream" and not play anything. A couple of hours later it is it playing horizontally.

I've been testing the unit for a few hours now with different CDs, music and games. Some games won't play at all (Gradius 2, Dracula X) others play perfectly (R-type complete), others struggle a bit but after a while will play (Fighting Street). It seems as the unit is working better as it is getting warmed up, but I'm not sure.

I'm still using the original laser and I haven't played with the potenciometers yet. I'd like to ask, are these the symptoms of a "tired" laser? I'm pretty happy with progress as now the unit is partially working instead of dead