TG-16/CD Power Adapter

[ctophil]

Hi everybody,

I'm new here to PCEngineFX.  But I just bought a Turbografx-16 CD System.  It didn't come with a power adapter.  So I had to "frankenstein" it by purchasing a power adapter at Radio Shack.  I heard that the power requirements for an American TG-16 CD is 11v and 1.53a.  So I bought a Universal adapter that goes up to 12v and 2.5a.  It works great at 12v for about 2 hours.  My question is if it's 11v, is it okay to use 12v?  The Universal adapter adapter doesn't have 11v.  I can do 9v or 12v. 

I played the system for about 2 hours or so, then it started glitching up with the graphics and freezing.  Could this be the cause of the 12v or something else?  Thanks!

[SephirothTNH]

I've been using a Genesis Model 1 adapter with my tg16 and have had no problems.  It outputs 9v 1.2a.  Not sure if 12v would cause graphical issues though.  The tg16 has a 7805 regulator in it so sending in 12v shouldn't be a problem.

Edit:  Disregard I just noticed you are talking about the cd unit. 

[schweaty]

Hi everybody,

I'm new here to PCEngineFX.  But I just bought a Turbografx-16 CD System.  It didn't come with a power adapter.  So I had to "frankenstein" it by purchasing a power adapter at Radio Shack.  I heard that the power requirements for an American TG-16 CD is 11v and 1.53a.  So I bought a Universal adapter that goes up to 12v and 2.5a.  It works great at 12v for about 2 hours.  My question is if it's 11v, is it okay to use 12v?  The Universal adapter adapter doesn't have 11v.  I can do 9v or 12v. 

I played the system for about 2 hours or so, then it started glitching up with the graphics and freezing.  Could this be the cause of the 12v or something else?  Thanks!

I am using a radio shack 9v 1.2a and it has never given me a single problem.  I would recommend trying your adapter on the 9v setting.

[ctophil]

Thanks, guys, for your responses.  The first power adapter I got was a 9v, 1.5a, and the TG-16 CD gave me a lot of graphical glitches and game loading issues right away.  So when I upgraded to the 12v, 2.5a one, it worked fine for 2 hours.  But I will try it at the 9v, 2.5a to see what happens.  I will update this thread when I get the results so that other folks on the forum will benefit from my experiments.  :-) 

[schweaty]

Edit:  Disregard I just noticed you are talking about the cd unit.

I just noticed that you noticed he was talking about the CD unit.  I also withdraw my bullshit comments as I was talking about the deck only

[cr4zymanz0r]

Yeah, I was attempting to use two different Turbografx CD units with a 9V 3A adapter and it wouldn't boot game or music CDs. After I gave it 12V it worked immediately. I haven't gotten a 2+ hour play session on it yet though.

[Keith Courage]

The CD drive may need some slight potentiometer adjustment. When I test CD drives I let them run for over an hour to see if they still read well. 50% of the time I find small adjustments need to be made after a 90 minute period. Usually a spindle speed adjustment.

[ctophil]

Yeah, I was attempting to use two different Turbografx CD units with a 9V 3A adapter and it wouldn't boot game or music CDs. After I gave it 12V it worked immediately. I haven't gotten a 2+ hour play session on it yet though.

Let me know how it goes when you play the Turbografx CD for 2 hours or more.  My TG CD might just need adjustments like Keith Courage said.  But I need to know if it's a power issue first.  Thanks. 

[ctophil]

The CD drive may need some slight potentiometer adjustment. When I test CD drives I let them run for over an hour to see if they still read well. 50% of the time I find small adjustments need to be made after a 90 minute period. Usually a spindle speed adjustment.

That's probably something I might have to do.  I've worked on modern consoles from the NES, SNES, & Sega Genesis all the way to Xbox 360 and PS3.  I have never worked on a Turbografx CD unit.  But I'm willing to give it a try if necessary.  Do you know if anybody who sells new lasers for the Turbografx CD?  Maybe a reproduction or compatible laser? 

[schweaty]

Do you know if anybody who sells new lasers for the Turbografx CD?  Maybe a reproduction or compatible laser?

There is a sticky on this topic:

http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=7193.0

[ctophil]

Okay, update on my experiments.  The Tubografx CD would not play on 9v.  So I went back to 12v and 2.5a.  I played for another 2 hours.  This time it worked just fine.  It had a graphic glitch one time at 1 1/2 hours.  But then, the system cleared itself and worked fine for over 2 hours. 

So what I believe is that my Turbografx CD just needed to run itself for extended periods of time to re-adjust whatever problem it had.  It's kinda like an automobile.  You need to occasionally drive the car to keep the engine working in top performance.  The Turbografx CD I bought from someone on Ebay apparently has not used it for years.  I think the laser is also working fine.  Loads very quickly.

Well, I just wanted to update for other people who are curious with the same issues I had.   

[Akina86]

I am no expert, but it might be time for a "tune up" on your drive, that might help things. what i mean by tune up is to take the unit apart and clean the worm gear and apply new lithium grease to it. i wouldn't mess with the "middle" gear if it is working fine, or maybe if you want to do a little preventive maintenance go ahead and order up a new middle gear and do everything at one time. like i said; im no expert, but you never know this might just help.

[ctophil]

I am no expert, but it might be time for a "tune up" on your drive, that might help things. what i mean by tune up is to take the unit apart and clean the worm gear and apply new lithium grease to it. i wouldn't mess with the "middle" gear if it is working fine, or maybe if you want to do a little preventive maintenance go ahead and order up a new middle gear and do everything at one time. like i said; im no expert, but you never know this might just help.

Thanks for the advice.  I will surely do that if it acts up again.  Like I said, I fix current generation consoles for a living.  So, opening up a Turbografx-CD is not a problem at all.  But normally, I don't like to mess with my personal consoles unless I really need to.  In my 26 years of gaming, I never had to open up a console until recently when I cleaned out a regular Turbografx-16, but I sold that one a couple of months ago.  I have since bought a new Turbografx-16 in better condition.