REPAIR GUIDE - Laseractive NEC PAC-N1 / N10: Total capacitor replacement chart

[hardgb]

When I turn on the laseractive, I found that the laser lens is bouncing up and down crazy.
I believe the solution to this problem is to "update 3" but I did not understand.
Please, I need help because I'm unable to play cd/ld

[choijimmy]

When I turn on the laseractive, I found that the laser lens is bouncing up and down crazy.
I believe the solution to this problem is to "update 3" but I did not understand.
Please, I need help because I'm unable to play cd/ld

I recall you said the fuse blown everytime when you turn on the machine,  now the fuse no longer blown?

In my update 3, what I mean is you should measure if you get -5v from the power supply board or not.  You can find -5v measuring point from the PCB which have a lot of pots. 
If you missed -5v, then most likely the resistor r301 in the power supply board has issue.  This resistor suppose 2.2k,  check  the resistor value by taking out from power supply board.  If the value is far away from 2.2k, replace it

[hardgb]

Regarding the problem of my LaserActive. He was not working ... but found that the transistor "pcb power" was not working, I will replace and my LaserActive returned to work.
I hope you can understand my English.

[choijimmy]

congrats!

[hardgb]

Please, what are the values of resistors R301, R302, R303 and R304?
They're very light color, I can not identify.

[choijimmy]

Please, what are the values of resistors R301, R302, R303 and R304?
They're very light color, I can not identify.

R301 is 2.2k
R302 and R303 are both 220ohm
R304 in my board is a bridge, not resistor

[leonk]

Hi. I got my laseractive today. The seller showed me video of it working but of course it doesn't now. PAC games work fine but I got no spin on CD.

When I put in music CD, the laser moves to the first track and screen says "compact disc" and CD light is on. When I press play, the disc just ejects. At no point does it ever spin.

With PCE CD games (with super system card in hu slot) the laser mech cycles a few times, disc never spins and eventually I see "set disc" error.

suggestions?

[leonk]

More info:  Tested F101 / F102 on main power board (under silver cover) and they're good

The CD spinner drives plugs into power board (red/green wire) Once in a while it actually does spin (not always) and voltage goes up to 8V on it but tray still ejects.

Is this a sign of a bad laser?  Is it possible for laser to see disc but not play it?

[leonk]

More testing .. more results.

- I tested every fuse on the power board.  All good.
- The boot process is as following:

No disc:
- laser rail comes up
- laser moves to track 1 position
- laser detects no disc
- moves back down

With CD:
- laser rail comes up
- laser moves to track 1 position
- laser white eye moves up down and stops
- Tv shows "Compact Disc"
- after a few seconds the disc ejects!

At no point did the CD ever spin!!  On some rare cases (once every 20 tries or so) the disc does spin! But then stops and ejects.  So I can't imagine it's any of the fuses (fuse either blown or not blown)

NOTE: This is the Japanese LA being plugged into USA mains.  But that should not be a problem as it worked this way for YEARS (I think the first thing after the fuse is it runs into a transformer that converts it to DC power).  The only thing that recently changed was it got shipped to me across the country and I have video of it working before shipping.   

So the problem is either bad motor or something else.  I believe the motor gets its power from the main power supply board (red/green wire that plugs into 2 pin molex closest to back of LA). 

I get the same behaviour when that molex is unplugged.  So I put my voltmeter on in.  Always reads 0V.  On the rare case it spun, it read up to 8V, but never steady voltage (a lot of bouncing around). and then down to 0V and tray ejected.

At this point, I'm thinking it's once of the power regulators on the power PCB under that shield.  I traced one of the pins on that connector to a cap, resistor, and then regulator there.

I've made a youTube video showing the problem: 

Thanks for any suggestions you guys might have.

[choijimmy]

More testing .. more results.

- I tested every fuse on the power board.  All good.
- The boot process is as following:

No disc:
- laser rail comes up
- laser moves to track 1 position
- laser detects no disc
- moves back down

With CD:
- laser rail comes up
- laser moves to track 1 position
- laser white eye moves up down and stops
- Tv shows "Compact Disc"
- after a few seconds the disc ejects!

At no point did the CD ever spin!!  On some rare cases (once every 20 tries or so) the disc does spin! But then stops and ejects.  So I can't imagine it's any of the fuses (fuse either blown or not blown)

NOTE: This is the Japanese LA being plugged into USA mains.  But that should not be a problem as it worked this way for YEARS (I think the first thing after the fuse is it runs into a transformer that converts it to DC power).  The only thing that recently changed was it got shipped to me across the country and I have video of it working before shipping.   

So the problem is either bad motor or something else.  I believe the motor gets its power from the main power supply board (red/green wire that plugs into 2 pin molex closest to back of LA). 

I get the same behaviour when that molex is unplugged.  So I put my voltmeter on in.  Always reads 0V.  On the rare case it spun, it read up to 8V, but never steady voltage (a lot of bouncing around). and then down to 0V and tray ejected.

At this point, I'm thinking it's once of the power regulators on the power PCB under that shield.  I traced one of the pins on that connector to a cap, resistor, and then regulator there.

I've made a youTube video showing the problem: 

Thanks for any suggestions you guys might have.

Do you have laserdisc? if yes, would you try to put in a laserdisc and to see what happen?
I suspect few things

1) belt
2) the motor itself ( when you try to spin the motor by hand, does it spin easily )
3) the main board has loose component ( see attached picture for the board )

Let's try easy one first, put the laserdisc in and to see what happen

[choijimmy]

unable to upload how main pcb look like due to  forum upload folder full ??

Basically, it is the pcb with a lot of pot which control the power/tune of the laser

[leonk]

sorry. No laserdisc and motor does spin freely.

Can you email me pics and I'll upload them? I'm leonki@gmail.com

I was originally thinking it has to be something in the PSU. 14/-14V go to main video board. There an op amp uses the 14V under directions from a processor to spin up and run the main motor. If 14/-14V is mission, I think most of the system will still work (as it mostly uses 5V)

I could be down the wrong path. But then again, solid state devices don't tend to fail from shipping. Loose parts makes more sense!!

[leonk]

OMG! I FIXED IT! BY MISTAKE I FIGURED OUT WHAT IT IS!!! THIS MIGHT EFFECT OTHERS AND HAS NOT BEEN DOCUMENTED BEFORE!!

Background:

On the body of the laser unit, between the laser lens and front of the system, is a copper tab sticking out.  Between that copper tab and towards the middle of the system is a thin copper wire.  On this thin copper wire is a small piece of square copper just hanging there.

Problem:

The laser moves all the way to the spindle, and detects it's a compact disc.  But that copper tab and square should go UNDER the hub of the CD spinner.  If they are bent a bit up, they hit the side/face of the hub.  This cases the entire laser lens to twist almost 30 degrees to the disc!  The laser no longer sees the surface of the disc, player thinks something is wrong, and ejects the disc.

Solution:

Very carefully, push down on the copper tab so it's more parallel/level.  The tab has to go UNDER the hub (black circle that spins the disc).  If it's kept flat, laser detects the disc and motor will start spinning the CD and all will be fine.

Solution 2:

Replace the entire laser assembly.

I wonder how many good lasers were thrown out because of this flaw!

[choijimmy]

Congrats.  Strange enough by shipping the whole laseracrive main unit will bend the little copper wire. 

I do see a lot of shipping broke the laser itself when just ship the laser assembly itself, once a while,  the copper wire is even broke and disconnected. 

In additional,  I am a bit surprised the tray will be ejected in this case,  I thought the laser will just sit back and keep the tray stay in the main unit.

[leonk]

As per service manual, its part of its initialization routine. Laser sees CD first but then doesnt see it anymore. timer runs out and ejects tray.