TG-CD won't start when cold, + sound randomly drops out.

[papa_november]

     Well, I tried swapping in a different laser from a busted Discman (it looked to have died from leaking batteries, so I assumed the laser was OK), and that only made things worse. The drive won't even turn on now-no LED, no laser movement, no spin-up, no nothing.

     Looks like I'll have to put the old laser back in. Hopefully I haven't messed it up completely.

[2X4]

I may be stating the obvious, but check that you didn't break the ground solder.  I did that when I took mine apart one too many times.

[nat]

It sounds more like you put the ribbon cables in backwards (or at least one of them). I've done that before-- they will only work one way. One of them has to have the pins facing out, the other has to have the pins facing in. I don't remember which is which but I will check when I get home.

[awack]

I agree, it sounds like it might be one of the ribbon cables, if the large ribbon cable isn't connected correctly it will power up but the CD will not spin, if its the small ribbon cable then it will not power up at all, nat is right, one of them faces in and the other faces out, i think the large one faces out and the small one faces in, I'm not really sure though. also look for any small cuts in the ribbon.

[papa_november]

    I tried it again. For a while it would power on and even spin up, but it would simply refuse to read anything. I tried adjusting the laser potentiometer a few times, but it's stopped working again.

[nat]

If you're feeling bold you can adjust the pots on the side of the CD-ROM logic board itself, which fine tune the sensitivity, focus, etc. I find I need to do this with just about all new lasers I install in these things. Beware though, it's a trial and error process, and it takes a while.

[Michael Helgeson]

Worse comes to worse,nab one more discman and try again to be sure if you cant get the current laser going.

[papa_november]

    I just put the original laser back in. It's still dead. I think I must've fried something somehow.

    These CD drives are the worst. They have pointless, redundant grounding wires going everywhere and anywhere, are criminally fragile, and feel like they were built by the Keebler Elves. Even the cheapo late-80s Discmen they're supposedly based off of are much better constructed in comparison.

    That said, what would a (working) replacement drive cost?