Need some advice on my TG-CD

[djkcel]

What's up everyone...you know how it goes.  I'm new here but am very gratified to be a part of this community

I just got a Turbografx with CD attachment from a guy on craigslist.  Of course, the CD player isn't working, though he never guaranteed that it would work.

Here's the question:  regardless of whatever the problem is, is the $85 that the guy on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/Turbo-Grafx-and-PC-Engine-CD-Drive-Repair-system-duo-/110632633518?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c23804ae) is charging for CD repair outlandish?  The reason I ask is because the guy lives in Valparaiso; I'm going to Chicago next weekend and Valparaiso is right on the way.  Maybe I could drop it off there and have him take care of it.

But I don't want to do that if $85 is a complete rip-off.  It seems a bit pricey to me, though if that would guarantee that it could practically work forever and not break down anymore then it might be worth a shot.  Would it be better to have someone else take care of it? 

If it helps, the problem is:  screen hangs at "just a moment" and doesn't spin anything.  After about half an hour, the CD starts spinning, but screen is still stuck at "Just a moment."  I don't have any games yet, so I was just using an audio CD.

[nat]

$85 seems pretty steep to me. There are members here that would probably do it for less. I would, certainly, if I was still doing this sort of thing for people.

[SignOfZeta]

$85 seems pretty steep to me. There are members here that would probably do it for less. I would, certainly, if I was still doing this sort of thing for people.

Does anyone here know how to fix that problem yet?

IMO $85 isn't bad if his work is good. Right now though I think we're still trying to figure out where he gets his "better" gear from, and (I think) the nature of his warm up fix.

[nikdog]

Dear nikdog05,

These are gears from many older sony discman cd
drives.

- cheapnicecomputers

[Official Ninja]

His reply to me on ebay:

Well I can definitely fix/replace the gear issue
but the warm up thing is a different story. To my knowledge no one has actually been able to track
down the exact cause of this. I have been able to
improve the warm up times on some drives by
adjusting a few of the potentiometers on the board
but this does not always work so I cannot make any
guarantee. I have one drive on hand that I was
able to improve the warm up time from about 10
minutes to 2 minutes.


- cheapnicecomputers

[SignOfZeta]

It sounds like all his R&D comes from this forum.

[nat]

$85 seems pretty steep to me. There are members here that would probably do it for less. I would, certainly, if I was still doing this sort of thing for people.

Does anyone here know how to fix that problem yet?

IMO $85 isn't bad if his work is good. Right now though I think we're still trying to figure out where he gets his "better" gear from, and (I think) the nature of his warm up fix.

I guess maybe we're thinking about two different things... I was thinking more along the lines of $85 for a fix of djkcel's problem, which is what he asked initially. His problem doesn't really sound like the broken gear issue, although I suppose it's possible. To be honest though, it sounds more like he just needs some pot tweaks. $85 for pot tweaks seems pretty steep to me.

[BlueBMW]

Considering I'll try and repair anything for the cost of return shipping... yeah $85 seems steep   Although I don't have any replacement gears yet.

[djkcel]

Thanks so much to everyone for the advice.  The ebay guy e-mailed me back and said it'd be cool if I dropped it off at his place, so I have that option.

I still don't know...$85 for a repair could be a total waste of money if it's something as stupid as some pot tweaks, but if he gives it a full "tune-up" that makes it good as new and gives it endurance, then I'd be all for it.

But I feel like some people on this site might be able to better evaluate it and give it the repair it deserves.  I would like to choose this option, but what about the issue of gear replacements?  I've heard that they're pretty elusive and people are currently working on trying to find a good solution.  If the ebay guy is using old Sony walkman gear units, can these be trusted?

Sometimes TG decisions can be pretty tough to make.

[MotherGunner]

Welcome to the forums man.  Why not just sell the player for parts and use the money towards a duo-r/rx?

You would be better off.

[BlueBMW]

Im perfectly willing to check your unit out and at least rule out a bad gear or a bad laser. Let me know man.

[djkcel]

Once it warms up and starts spinning, I can take it out of the TG, plug it in with a standard Turbografx (10.5 V) adapter, and then it will play the audio CD without problems.

But why won't it play the CD when it's attached to the Turbografx?  Can't get past that stupid startup screen. 

[BLADES OF STEAL]

You my have a bad system card. If your player works, and reads cd's the problem might be that. Try cleaning the card contacts.

[djkcel]

I'm a few steps further (now that my docking station is working again, cough).  If I play HuCards for a while it will warm the system up, so that when I put the system card in and press "play" on the CD player, it only takes 3-4 mins for the CD to start spinning and actually playing the audio through my TV.  That's admittedly pretty cool.

I press stop on the CD player and press "run" on the controller.  This makes the CD player say "PC" instead of the track number of the CD and go back to spinning.  However, it's still stuck at the "just a moment" when this happens.  Stupid system screen.

Could be the system card, but I should probably try with a real game first.  So I'll get a game on ebay...like, are there any games that can play on a system card 2.0?  I'm looking at the list on Wikipedia and it looks like Fighting Street is the only notable game that doesn't require a super system card...

[SignOfZeta]

The best non-Super CD is Ys 1&2. Fighting Street is pretty awful.

The problem isn't your System Card, btw.