CD32 Disk Read Problem

Just got my CD32 out of the loft. Unpacked all my games ready to go. However my CD32 doesn't read the disks properly.

A brand new Microcosm CD got as far as the intro screen but no further. Other disks didn't even get this far. Tried a Lens cleaner but no luck.

Anyone got any ideas.

Faling that, anyone want 50 CD32 games and two brand new unused CD32 controllers. Would be sad to see it go, but no use if the machine don't work anymore

[Smiley]

50 CD32 games for free? ^^ Count me in
Also a controller would be handy :P

[Rochabian]

Have you tried to search on aminet the CD32 Lens Alignment??????

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/Pa...dex/index.html

Try this

Before, just test alcohol with ear cleaner on the lens.....

Or readjust the voltage of the lens ( adjust the potentiometer near the lens to have less VOLT on it)

I've tested the second method with success on my CD32 but it's at your own risk

[TheBoss]

I would definitly be interested in some CD32 games

[Magno Boots]

Who knows... it might even have a little damp in it after being in the loft.
Those lens cleaning disks aren't much cop, so maybe a wipe with a spectacle cleaning cloth or similar (as sugguested) may help.

I wouldn't offfload the disks until I was sure the machine didn't work.

[Zetr0]

Heys dougam1,

Welcome to these fair boards Its nice to see another fellow amigan come back unto the fold pleasure to have you .

Now lets sort out your problem.

Magnoboots and Rochabian have the methods to do first.

but i have had vairing results so try using a cd lens cleaner cd first,

then apply Rochabian's method with cleaning alcohole and a cotton bud. and failing that a good gentel wipe with a clean glasses cloth and glass cleaning fluid as Magno Boots suggests.

if these methods dont work you can attempt to re-aligning from that damn handy link from Rochabian or from time to time (very rarely) get lens replacements from EBAY and a couple of other places.

and if worse come to worse you can always sell it to me ), PM me *hehe* i have an idea for the case *chuckles* lets hope it doesn`t come to that.

good luck dougam1, and welcome to the boards

[musashi5150]

Failing all this you could just get another CD32 from eBay - bare systems can go for peanuts...

[JonSick]

Yup... £15 new in box I just snagged one for! Its still coming though. If you are shedding some cd32 games, I'm interesed!

I seem to have found an issue with some of these miggys. It seems that any miggys that have been stored in the loft or anywhere excessively cold, the solder on the componants do seem to deteriorate badly.

I've just repaired my bro's and my friends amigas both with the same problem and I just have had in two a500s that seem to both be having this same problem. Its the soldering around the input jack for the power supply. The solder seems to deteriorate and break away from the mobo. Anyone else seen this?

I found it by playing with a multimeter and finding the 12v shelf on my mate's amiga wasn't coming throuhg, only the 5v shelf. Repaired the solder fired up first time!

Its worth checking out. The amiga boards are nice and big and the componants are nicely spaced out. If you're new to soldering though, don't cuz you could screw something up.

Also, On this a500, I've found that some of the caps aren't really doing as good a job as they are rated at. One cap I found was a 30uF cap near the back of the board... I've calculated it doing more like 12uF... I wonder if I should just do a recapping job.

ANYDANGWAY, there's a french dude who repairs amigas and I've heard he's a bit of a demon, worth looking him up?

Jon

[musashi5150]

I always thought it was common knowledge not to stick anything electrical in your garage or loft... perhaps that's just me though

Same with guitars - never store them anywhere you wouldn't be comfortable yourself

That French dude is good - he fixed my friends Blizzard 060 card a treat. But of course you have to weigh up the item you want fixed vs the cost of international return shipping...

[JonSick]

Originally Posted by musashi5150

I always thought it was common knowledge not to stick anything electrical in your garage or loft... perhaps that's just me though

Same with guitars - never store them anywhere you wouldn't be comfortable yourself

That French dude is good - he fixed my friends Blizzard 060 card a treat. But of course you have to weigh up the item you want fixed vs the cost of international return shipping...

++

All my guitars are in hardcases! And that's a helluva lot of cases!

[Zetr0]

just do a search for AMIGA CENTER, drop JJ an Email explaining what is the problem and he can advise you from there.

@Jonsik
£15 quidies eh? thats a steal.... no fair.... BTW that cold solder fault is quite prevailent I have found also, on 2 A500's and a 1200 that a I rescued from the local tip ( i was taking the garden rubish before you think i hang out there. )

@guitars
Only 3 (2 electric in case one elctric acustic not in case)


@cd32 Rom drive
I would love to get my hands on the pin-out for that cd32 rom connector, I wanna see if i can mod a dvd/rw or cdrw in there

[Chain]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@cd32 Rom drive
I would love to get my hands on the pin-out for that cd32 rom connector, I wanna see if i can mod a dvd/rw or cdrw in there

[Jope]

Wasn't the CD32 one of those where the controller is on the motherboard and the mechanism is talked to directly? IE the laser cable and motor signals come directly from the mobo.

Or is the flat cable a parallel job after all.. I haven't seen the insides of a CD32 myself for 7 years now, only pictures. :-(

[JonSick]

Originally Posted by Jope

Wasn't the CD32 one of those where the controller is on the motherboard and the mechanism is talked to directly? IE the laser cable and motor signals come directly from the mobo.

Or is the flat cable a parallel job after all.. I haven't seen the insides of a CD32 myself for 7 years now, only pictures. :-(

It looks like that paralell cable connecting to the cd-drive is just a standard ribbon cable, but I don't see any of the normal IC's I've seen in other pc cd-drives, which kinda lends to the idea that the cd hardware is controlled directly by the IC's on the mobo.

This CD32 too had some cold solder problems, which I have now reflowed simply cuz I don't want problems later on! The controller I got is buggad though! Can't get the damn thing to work, I think the logic chip on the pcb is dead. Can't get anything out of it. So, looks like I'll just hafta get another one. Still though, £15 shipped isn't bad. Looking at the packet, it cost him £6.70 to post it, so in effect, he only made £8.30 on it!

Damn, did I do well or what!!!

Now if only I had some games LOL! All I got is some demo cd. hahahaa.

Guitars are fine provided they're taken care of. If you don't use a particular guitar for a while, put it in the hardcase with a pack of silica gel - just one! This will stop the hardware tarnishing. Also, if your guitar has a single way truss rod, be sure to slack the strings and the rod so the neck doesn't bow, which it can if under pressure for a while and no adjustments are being made!

I take care of my axes better than I do myself LOL!

[Zetr0]

Originally Posted by Jope

Wasn't the CD32 one of those where the controller is on the motherboard and the mechanism is talked to directly? IE the laser cable and motor signals come directly from the mobo.

Or is the flat cable a parallel job after all.. I haven't seen the insides of a CD32 myself for 7 years now, only pictures. :-(

I belive its only a 22pin connection I am sure that JonSik can confirm for us

if reading address is controlled by the IC then it might be possible to run a ribbon cable over to some other small board and from the board to a std ide dvd/cdrw type device

still i would love to get my dirty mits on them pinouts... i just cannot seem to find them.

[JonSick]

I'll have a look when I gets home. I don't know if the ribbon cable plugged out or was emenating from somwhere underneath the bezel. At the time, it wasn't my concern, just wanted to sort out some of the cold solder joints.

Still not put it back together, but works fine now!

Jon

[Zetr0]

Thanks for the help there Jon

[JonSick]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

Thanks for the help there Jon

Yep, 22 pin connector, but the actual drive mechanism has very little hardware on it. I really doubt you could just do a straight swap of an off-the-shelf IDE CD-R or DVD-R.

Sorry
Jon

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by JonSick

I really doubt you could just do a straight swap of an off-the-shelf IDE CD-R or DVD-R.

Nope. It is very dummy CD device, for example directory and data read commands return raw data and all decoding/error correcting/whatever is done by software.. (in CD32 extended ROM)

[Zetr0]

Thanks for the heads up Toni...

thats a huge board costing overheard considering in what 93-95 when the CD32 was prototyped and launched, there were many SFF roms available form toshiba, phillips etc...

I wonder why they went proprietary... not the thing CBM do, I would hazzard a guess it was to cut corners and make the units cheaper.

I wonder if an interface is possible ? if anyone would know it would be you Toni. something like an IDE to CD32 ROM connector... hmmm

I would also be nice if the firmware that ran the rom could be updated... or at worse replaced....

something like a socket connector to an ide or scsi bus. any thoughts?