damn mechanics

[Michael Helgeson]

My CDROM died recently too and I think it's the same problem with the gears.  The drive is powers up, but the laser doesn't move at all. Luckily I have a Duo, but I like playing on my briefcase system.  I guess nearly 20 years of service ain't too bad.   But it sucks that a piece of crappy plastic is the cause.

Though non-moving laser issue can be the gear, I would suspect the laser eye pickup first.  The PCEngine laser pickup tries to "see" if there's a CD-ROM inserted, then if it doesn't find anything (because of a bad laser pickup), it assumes that there is no disc inserted and the gears won't move.   This is an easy fix, as posted around on this forum (though I don't know if the common HOP-M3 laser eye pickup also fits in the briefcase system).

It does not fit,its a completely different type of laser. The best fix is to buy a USA Tg-16 cd system and steal the discman off of it and use it in your briefcase. Its a much cheaper option then buying another briefcase complete. The black TG cd drive works just the same as the white cd-drive and the fit is the exact same.

[termis]

but in this case, the system gives you immediately a feedback on the screen "please insert a disc", while the problem caused by the gear, the system shows you "just a moment please" probably till the end of your life!!

Ah, yes.  I was more specifically referring to akamichi's and now el nino's cases.   But yours does seem like more than just the bad laser pickup.   

Just putting that out there since you can still see the red laser from bad laser units, so some people may be assume that the laser is still good when it's not, and look somewhere else for the problem. 

In general, I've just heard many more cases of bad laser pickups rather than bad gears.

[Tatsujin]

 But yours does seem like more than just the bad laser pickup.   

yes, that's because my gear weels really missing some teeth like after a T-800 punched in your face

[Tatsujin]

bought a DUO back today

and finally can play all the recently bought games

[Keranu]

Sweet. Can you give us any tips on how you survived without CD games for so long?

[nat]

Drugs. Lots of drugs.

[Tatsujin]

yeah. quite hard it was
but now i have the damn problem with the sound crackle and i'm just to lasy to fix it at the moment. they really pissed me off at super potato. great prices but didn't made a porper hardware check before puttin' it in the shelf

[elnino]

yeah. quite hard it was
but now i have the damn problem with the sound crackle and i'm just to lasy to fix it at the moment. they really pissed me off at super potato. great prices but didn't made a porper hardware check before puttin' it in the shelf

That's the punishment you get when you don't send me games quickly enough!

[Tatsujin]

me lucky man. just bought a lose brief case in a junk-corner for about $4 and didn't expect a lot, but take out the broken gear wheel out from the cd-rom to replace it. so first when i tested the whole set, nothing seemed to be wrong with it. everything works 1A!!

[elnino]

Holy guacamole, I thought my CD-Rom had died today!! When I inserted the game for the first time, the disc simply didn't start to spin. After some Run+Select, Run tries, the disc was still not moving at all. Reminding the Duo incident whose CD-Rom drive had the same cause of death, I was cussing for maybe half an hour like a crazy maniac before I finally decided to open this little stink piece and try to fix it. I just opened the drive and gave those two white wheels as well as the yellow one a little kick in the ass by manually forcing them to turn around. With little hope I tried again and was very surprised that the disc was now moving! I guess the wheels slightly stuck together, maybe they had not been moved an inch for too long.
Well, it's probably the most boring story ever, but I had quite a shock today!!

[esteban]

Holy guacamole, I thought my CD-Rom had died today!! When I inserted the game for the first time, the disc simply didn't start to spin. After some Run+Select, Run tries, the disc was still not moving at all. Reminding the Duo incident whose CD-Rom drive had the same cause of death, I was cussing for maybe half an hour like a crazy maniac before I finally decided to open this little stink piece and try to fix it. I just opened the drive and gave those two white wheels as well as the yellow one a little kick in the ass by manually forcing them to turn around. With little hope I tried again and was very surprised that the disc was now moving! I guess the wheels slightly stuck together, maybe they had not been moved an inch for too long.
Well, it's probably the most boring story ever, but I had quite a shock today!!

[nat]

Holy guacamole, I thought my CD-Rom had died today!! When I inserted the game for the first time, the disc simply didn't start to spin. After some Run+Select, Run tries, the disc was still not moving at all. Reminding the Duo incident whose CD-Rom drive had the same cause of death, I was cussing for maybe half an hour like a crazy maniac before I finally decided to open this little stink piece and try to fix it. I just opened the drive and gave those two white wheels as well as the yellow one a little kick in the ass by manually forcing them to turn around. With little hope I tried again and was very surprised that the disc was now moving! I guess the wheels slightly stuck together, maybe they had not been moved an inch for too long.
Well, it's probably the most boring story ever, but I had quite a shock today!!

That is actually not uncommon for PCE and Turbo systems that sit for extended periods of time. A few years ago when I was getting back into Turbo gaming I busted out my ol' TG-CD and it wouldn't spin up.

I did what you did-- manually applied pressure and got that sucker loose as a... well, nevermind.