Resuscitating a CDTV!

Hi,

Last night I picked up an old CDTV from a sale. I've only got the unit itself and a keyboard -- no controller or CD drive caddy.

Still, I thought I'd power it up and see what happens!

After connecting the AC, the front panel display turns on (looking very 1990s VCR-ish). When pressing the power button, the CD drive makes a 'resetting' noise and the screen shows dark-grey, light-grey, then white. Then, a number 8 briefly appears to the right of the time on the front panel, and the machine reboots. It'll stay in this cycle until turned off (CD reset, dark, light, white).

I've done a bit of googling and only come up with people having a problem where it's stuck showing just a white screen.

Does anyone know what my CDTV's symptoms mean?

(I'm going to pull the lid off tonight and give the socketed chips a push, as well as remove JP15 to see if it'll boot as an A500 -- I understand it should come up asking for a Workbench disk in this mode? I've also got an external floppy drive on its way to test with.)

(Also, apologies for my lack of Amiga knowledge. I was an ST kid in the 80s/90s, so this is all new to me. After the CDTV's alive, I've got an old Atari 520STFM and Falcon030 to bring back to life!)

[alexh]

If anyone knows it will be Oliver Hannaford-day who used to run cdtv.org.uk or Toni Wilen of WinUAE

Originally Posted by alexh

If anyone knows it will be Oliver Hannaford-day who used to run cdtv.org.uk or Toni Wilen of WinUAE

Thanks, alexh, but I've had a bit of luck!

Had a chance to look it over properly this evening. It's absolutely pristine -- not a scratch on it!

So I've cleaned it up and had a peek inside. A little dusty, all caps look in good condition (although I'll get around to replacing them at some point). It's a Rev2.2A board.

I gave every socketed chip a light push and got a bit of movement out of most of them. Plugged it in, and ... IT'S ALIVE!

Just for giggles, I pulled J15 and let it start up and ask for a Workbench disk

I've got a floppy drive arriving next week. As it's now working, I'll get a caddy and a remote for it. Is the IR receiver already built-in, or do I need to get that too? I understand that any caddy from around that era should work fine.

I think the only hardware mod I'd consider right now is the installation of an SPST switch attached to J15 to make CDTV/A500 switching easy.

Pretty pleased!

[EDIT]: RGB SCART cable ordered too! I need to get a SCART switcher so that the CDTV can share the RGB-SCART-to-HDMI upscaler with my Atari Jaguar. Sweet!

[Steve T]

I see you ordered a floppy drive, are you just looking to use original parts or have a lot of disks to access? - have you seen the Gotek floppy emulator drives? Good luck with it anyway, sounds like a very nice machine!

Hi Steve!

I did see those emulators and may well pick one up. Apparently the drive I've found is a PC drive modded for Amiga compatibility. I'll use it on the CDTV to test the few Amiga floppies I've got.

If I go for the Gotek, I'll pull the FDD out of the chassis and see if I can undo the mod. I've got an Atari 520STFM that's missing an FDD, so I'll see if I can re-use it in there.

Incidentally, the CDTV looks great sat on top of my AV receiver... looks like it could've been built yesterday rather than 26 years ago! Really looking forward to getting it all nicely hooked up to an LED TV and a 7.1 audio system that was the stuff of a madman's dreams back when it was built

[TroyWilkins]

Well done, any chance of some pictures of this beauty?

[alexh]

The best bang for buck add-on will undoubtedly be the Vampire 500 when it eventually goes on sale. If you can't wait until then kipper2k sells an 8MB RAM card with autoboot IDE, you do need new expansion ROMs (very cheap) and a new kickstart (use a 27C800 and have KS1.3 and KS3.1 at the flick of a switch)

[Steve T]

Always thought it was a classy looking system, if you like that kind of 90's VCR/CD player looking thing (which I do), never even seen one for real though, shame all those original keyboards were taken apart for black sprayed 1200's

Seconded on the pics

Thanks, all.

I'll get it set back up and take some photos tonight if I get a chance!

I'm hoping to add a few mods, but nothing that makes it impossible to revert it to stock. I've ordered the DB9 plugs, ribbon-cable and DIP socket to build standard mouse/joystick connectors and I've found a connector to let me attach the switch to JP15 without soldering directly to the pins. I'll run these out through the extension port at the back.

The 8MB/KS3.1 switcher looks interesting -- but that'll be for later. I *think* I've just about managed to get my head around the Amiga's memory architecture (fast/slow/chip RAM). It's all a bit alien to this Atari kid

The nice thing about the CDTV is that it doesn't need desk space. I don't have the space or the spousal-willingness to keep the all-in-ones set up and usable!

(btw, apart from the Ataris, I recovered my first computer -- an Acorn Electron. It powered on and worked first time! Got to build an RGB cable for that one too...)

[alexh]

The down side is the CD is proprietory and impossible to get a replacement for

Ok, as promised, here's a few photos!

Apologies for the graininess -- I'll take some in daylight at the weekend.

Last photo shows the CDTV startup screen, currently via composite. I should have the RGB lead by the end of the week, then I can get it running via my RGB-to-HDMI upscaler.

(and don't fret -- I won't leave the TV stretching 4:3 to 16:9 )

Quick update:

The RGB lead arrived and works nicely, as does the new CDTV remote - both from amigakit.com. I've got a floppy drive arriving today, along with an IDC connector for JP15 that I'll run to an external switch.

With a bit of luck, the CDTV will play its first game for many a year this evening!

I was building the standard 9-pin mouse/joystick adapter yesterday, but had to abort due to a rosin-related burn. (I've no idea what happened -- managed to slop boiling rosin over my finger - got an excellent blister!). I'll get back on it in the next day or two!

[dlfrsilver]

Looks like cool Will you show us some games running ?

[T_hairy_bootson]

Love a cdtv resurrection thread Also don't they look so at home with a nice bit of stereo equipment? My Yamaha amp even has the matching feet.

Get this girl to solder up your components, she looks like she knows what she's doing.

Thought I'd catch up on this thread with the latest news (thanks for the replies!).

I've added the DB9 mouse/joystick ports tonight, as well as an external switch on JP15 to toggle CDTV/A500 mode.

It's also now got an external Amiga floppy drive connected, and it successfully boots the only Amiga floppy I have -- Syndicate -- but only in A500 mode. I guess there's not enough chip ram available with the CDTV ROM enabled.

I was reminded how different the Amiga's drive sounded compared to Ataris and PCs. Much more 'chuggy'.

Next step is to buy a CD caddy and a Gotek floppy emulator to fit inside the external floppy's chassis. I'll be giving up the retro floppy drive noises, but it'll be much more convenient!

[Retrofan]

What a headache of soldering those cables

[Omolungo]

Originally Posted by displaced

Hi,

Still, I thought I'd power it up and see what happens!

After connecting the AC, the front panel display turns on (looking very 1990s VCR-ish). When pressing the power button, the CD drive makes a 'resetting' noise and the screen shows dark-grey, light-grey, then white. Then, a number 8 briefly appears to the right of the time on the front panel, and the machine reboots. It'll stay in this cycle until turned off (CD reset, dark, light, white).

I've done a bit of googling and only come up with people having a problem where it's stuck showing just a white screen.

Does anyone know what my CDTV's symptoms mean?

(I'm going to pull the lid off tonight and give the socketed chips a push, as well as remove JP15 to see if it'll boot as an A500 -- I understand it should come up asking for a Workbench disk in this mode? I've also got an external floppy drive on its way to test with.)

Resuscitating this thread since I have the same problem with my CDTV: I've just moved house and when I connected the CDTV for the first time it started fine.

I powered off it and the second time I pressed the power button, the CD drive makes a 'resetting' noise and the screen shows dark-grey. Then, a number 8 briefly appears to the right of the time on the front panel, and the machine reboots.

I thing it's something I have to check but I don't know what specifically