Author Topic: Problem with my TG16 CD (Read 872 times)

poizon74 · « **on:** June 09, 2006, 12:25:24 PM »

Hi, I just found this forum and have recently became a very proud owner of a TG16 + CD system that I purchased off of ebay.

The card system works great, and the CD system loads right up. Lights on the CD player light up, but whever I try to play a CD the disc will not spin.

When attached to the TG16 the CD unit lights up with "PC" on the display but again the disc doesnt spin. When it take out the CD unit and try to play an audio CD the display reads "0" and the disc will not spin.

I have noticed when I first plug in the CD unit if there's a disc inside it moves slightly like it's trying to spin, but never does.

I've been all around looking at repair services and no one wants to touch the thing becasue it's so old. I'm actually a physicist and have done a lot of circuity and electronics work. I opened up the drive and looked around, cleaned it with circuit cleaner, but still no disc motion. I assume there must be some mechanical problem.

If anyone has any suggestions or have had a similar problem and found a solution I'd love to hear about it. I'm totaly comfortable with opening and operating on the CD drive, I just don't know what to look for or what to do.

Any help would be really appriciated.

Thanks!

Dark Fact · « **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2006, 05:26:48 PM »

You could turn your Turbo CD system upside down and give that a shot. That maneuver did work for one of my friends' playstation when he couldn't get any of his disc to spin.

If that doesn't work, you should check the connection to the spinning motor.

poizon74 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 09, 2006, 06:06:01 PM »

i actually have tried that, and still nothing. has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks

nnap · « **Reply #3 on:** June 09, 2006, 07:34:26 PM »

is the laser located all the way to the outside? if it is like that you have to open up the unit and bring it back in a bit by spinning the axis connected to the motor.

FM-77 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 10, 2006, 02:33:35 AM »

Can you find any fuses on the motherboard? Bridge them and see it it works.

poizon74 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 10, 2006, 02:44:34 AM »

Hi, I just wanna first say that this forum rocks! Thanks so much for the quick responses and helpful hints.

The laser eye is stuck the whole way to that back. Last time I opened it up i did actually try to move it since it looked off, but I couldnt move the gears that control its movment by man, they seemed stuck. I'll give it another try today though and see if I can't move it a bit.

Where does the laser eye typically sit? towards the center? or in the middle?

Again guys, thanks a lot for helping with this!

FM-77 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 10, 2006, 04:59:44 AM »

Towards the center. Always. This is the case with every CD unit regardless what system it is.

poizon74 · « **Reply #7 on:** June 10, 2006, 05:42:42 AM »

not true, I took a look at my other systems when I noticed the laser eye problem. SegaCD and Sega Sarturn sit in the center as well as 3DO, but GameCube sits in the middle, Deamcast actually sits on the outside (much like my TG16 CD at the moment).

If the TG16 CD eye sits all the way to the center then there is definatly a problem. I'll try to move it again today, but I dont want to force it.

I'll let you guys know if I get it working.

Thanks again

FM-77 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 10, 2006, 06:23:13 AM »

Actually it depends on where it was when you turned the system off, but the starting position is always at the center (it always moves there when you turn the system on).

poizon74 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 10, 2006, 06:26:07 AM »

ok, the gears were jammed, but by moving it with my hand I got them to come loose and move freely. However, when powered up the disc still will not spin.

next I tried manually moving the eye to the center by moving the gears, this was easy enough, but again no disc movement. I'm starting to think that the drive the spins the disc of the drive that moves the eye isnt working properly. I'm going to keep poking around, if anyone has any other suggestions that would be great.

Thanks

Dark Fact · « **Reply #10 on:** June 10, 2006, 08:18:00 AM »

The power to the motor must be pretty weak. Check where it connects thoroughly and see if anything is loose. If a fuse is blown, you may need to replace the fuse or solder the broken connection back together if possible.

Best to check more thoroughly and consider the most probable option.

Keranu · « **Reply #11 on:** June 10, 2006, 02:07:09 PM »

I don't have any helpful comments for this thread, but I would like to say that the laser len aligning info you guys have provided is fun and interesting to read! I wasn't aware of all that stuff myself

.

Dark Fact · « **Reply #12 on:** June 11, 2006, 03:15:21 PM »

I forgot to ask: does the Turbo CD use a rubber belt for the spinning motor? If so, I strongly suggest you take a look at it. If it has been stretched too wide, it has to be replaced immediately. Get an ordinary rubber band with the same thickness as the old rubber belt but with strong stretch resistance and loop that into place.

poizon74 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 10, 2006, 02:52:12 AM »

I don't see any kind of belt on the disc drive.

I went and picked up a multimeter yesterday to poke around a bit more. Seems both my TG16 and TG16CD power supplies provide substantially more negative voltage than they are labled. The TG16 PSU says its a -10.5V but i measured nearly -15V, and the TG16CD PSU says -11, but i measured -16.

I went around then an measured a bunch more of my PSU's from different systems and noticed that many of them were really off from what they say on the front. So i'm guessing my issue isnt just a faulty power supply, though i can't help feeling that my problem is related to the power getting into the unit.

Looking at just the cd-rom unit now, i can get the front pannel to light us when i feed it almost any negative voltage. I tryed -6 and it worked, -9 and it worked, and -12 and it worked. It looks like those front panel displays arent to volitile.

I think i mentioned before when i fist plug in the power the disc flinches just for a second. I measured the voltage going into the drive and it looked to be only about 2V. i wonder if the drive is not seeing enough voltage.

Nijhazer · « **Reply #14 on:** August 11, 2006, 02:48:01 PM »

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I'm having the same problems as Poizon with a Turbo CD I just purchased. I put in a disc, the disc makes an attempt to spin, then nothing. Meanwhile, I do get lights on the "Track Mode" display.

Unlike Poizon, however, I have no experience with electrical surgery. I'm willing to make an attempt to fix this thing but I'll need help. If you guys can offer me some advice, I'd really appreciate it.

Although the problems I'm having are the same as Poizon's, I don't know how to tell if the laser is pushed out as far as his seems to be, since I don't really know what the inside of this system is supposed to look like. I took some pictures using a webcam-- my apologies for the quality; this is the best I can do right now:

Is there anything irregular here? If so, or if not, what should I check next?