CD32 Stopped Working

Came across this forum whilst searching for some answers online, hoping there may be an Amiga expert that can help or offer some advice!

Got a CD32 console that I bought 2nd hand a few years ago which was previously working fine but had been packed away through a few house moves over the last few years. Decided to dig it out a few weeks back - when I plugged it all in and hooked up to my TV the console was powering on, spinning and reading the game disk as I could hear sound from the game intro screen but it wasnt displaying anything on screen.

Thought there must be an issue with the cable to the TV so bought a new one online. When I subsequently went to try it with the new cable the console now does absolutely nothing. It powers on (green light comes on) but it now doesnt spin or read the disk and obviously still nothing on screen. Doesnt even make any noises as if it is trying to do anything.

Anyone any ideas what could be the issue? I opened it up to see if I could see anything obvious like a loose connection but couldn't and other than that im no real electronics expert.

I have read a lot online about a couple of the capacitors on the motherboard that in a lot of these consoles were put on the wrong way at the factory and subsequently fail - from what I have read and what I can see the capacitors in question do seem to be on the wrong way (from my understanding) and do seem to be bulging a bit on the top although no obvious leaking etc.

Got no experience of soldering or anything like that so this isnt something id be confident attempting myself. Seen a couple of places online that you can send Motherboard to in order for them to replace but just slightly reluctant to do that without knowing if that is definitely the problem as i dont really want to be spending any unnecessary money on this - just thought it would be nice to power up and play some old games!

Anyone come across similar issues before and does it sound like it could be the capacitor problem or possibly something else?

Thanks in advance.

[DDNI]

Test your psu with a multimeter and report voltages here.

[bebek]

It most likely caps issue. I could help you fix it. PM me if you need it.

Originally Posted by DDNI

Test your psu with a multimeter and report voltages here.

Thanks for replying - sadly you are dealing with an absolute novice here! I know what a multimeter is and actually saw one cheap yesterday so bought one but wouldn't have a clue what to do with it with regards to testing the PSU. Any decent guides anywhere you know of?

Originally Posted by bebek

It most likely caps issue. I could help you fix it. PM me if you need it.

Many thanks - I have sent you a PM

[DDNI]

Look here

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials...suring-voltage

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/am....html#cd32lead find the picture of CD32 pinout.

Plug psu in to mains. Take the black lead of your multimeter to the GND pin and the Red lead to 5v pin. Read voltage from multimeter screen. Do the same for the 12v pin.

I know you said nothing on screen, but do you mean absolutely nothing? Is there even a change in black levels?
Do you have an Amiga mouse? Try it in port 2 of the CD32. Press and hold both mouse buttons whilst powering on CD32. Can you enter early start menu?

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by DDNI

I know you said nothing on screen, but do you mean absolutely nothing? Is there even a change in black levels?

Very important point, absolutely nothing means something botched with the video circuitry, but if it shows a "different black" (CD32 black screen is more like grey when you power up the machine) at least it means the video is outputting and something else is the problem.

Capacitors are an issue anyway so it wold not hurt to change them.

Originally Posted by DDNI

Look here

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials...suring-voltage

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/am....html#cd32lead find the picture of CD32 pinout.

Plug psu in to mains. Take the black lead of your multimeter to the GND pin and the Red lead to 5v pin. Read voltage from multimeter screen. Do the same for the 12v pin.

I know you said nothing on screen, but do you mean absolutely nothing? Is there even a change in black levels?
Do you have an Amiga mouse? Try it in port 2 of the CD32. Press and hold both mouse buttons whilst powering on CD32. Can you enter early start menu?

Sorry for delay in coming back on this DDNI - appreciate the advice and finally got around to testing the PSU with my newly acquired multimeter.

Voltages for the PSU came back as expected so don't think there are any issues with that.

With regards to query about the screen - I didn't really take much notice the first time I tried this but yes there is actually a bit of a change in the screen, it goes grey with a load of flickering horizontal lines across it and then seems to then go totally black after a short period of time. If you turn off and turn back on again it does the same.

Tried suggestion with the mouse and that makes no difference.

Does this outcome point to anything in particular in your experience?

[Turran]

As the voltages are OK and it does send a "picture" to the TV, I'd leave it on for 10 minutes or so, then turn it off an on again quite fast.

Sometimes, bad caps can start working again if you let them warm up a bit. Its not a fix, but if it works, its 100% capacitors that are at fault.

My bet is that the two through-hole caps are at fault. They are mounted the wrong way on the motherboard and every single CD32 I've ever opened have had them bulging and leaking. I would for sure send it off, in either case, to someone that offered to have a look at it for you. I would not even open it yourself if you are inexperienced as there are two (fragile) ribbon cables that needs to be disconnected to separate the top part from the bottom.

Originally Posted by Turran

As the voltages are OK and it does send a "picture" to the TV, I'd leave it on for 10 minutes or so, then turn it off an on again quite fast.

Sometimes, bad caps can start working again if you let them warm up a bit. Its not a fix, but if it works, its 100% capacitors that are at fault.

My bet is that the two through-hole caps are at fault. They are mounted the wrong way on the motherboard and every single CD32 I've ever opened have had them bulging and leaking. I would for sure send it off, in either case, to someone that offered to have a look at it for you. I would not even open it yourself if you are inexperienced as there are two (fragile) ribbon cables that needs to be disconnected to separate the top part from the bottom.

Thanks Turran - ill give that a go tonight.

Failing that then certainly think the caps are maybe worth a go at least - ive already opened it actually and whilst I wouldn't say the ones in question are obviously leaking or anything they do certainly seem to be on the wrong way round from my understanding.

[Turran]

Originally Posted by stewy_p

ive already opened it actually and whilst I wouldn't say the ones in question are obviously leaking or anything they do certainly seem to be on the wrong way round from my understanding.

Its these two near the power switch. They should be flat on top and not bulging. Picture shows the orginal, most likely, wrong orientation.

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=973697&postcount=12

Edit: It could of course be any other surface mounted cap as well. Just these two are always bad!

[fryguy]

This is how mine looked before recapping.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fkLHMkFozaqrd3mX2

Thanks guys.

Like I say at the very least they do seem to be on the wrong way around so I think a recap is probably at least going to be a good place to start anyway.

[ptyerman]

I can vouch for Bebek, he recapped a motherboard for me and did a great job. You can send it to him with the knowledge it will come back with the job done great!

[BrooksterMax]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

I can vouch for Bebek, he recapped a motherboard for me and did a great job. You can send it to him with the knowledge it will come back with the job done great!

Absolutely my A1200 is still running like a champ and with an audio repair too all these years later. Caps can play havok with AV matters.

Originally Posted by BrooksterMax

Absolutely my A1200 is still running like a champ and with an audio repair too all these years later. Caps can play havok with AV matters.

Excellent, cheers guys thats really good to hear. Certainly an option im going to look at I think.

Just to confirm that decided to send motherboard off to Bebek to take a look and it has come back all fixed and working after a Recap and small track repair.

Can only echo the other positive comments on here about his work so if anyone needs anything similar doing then can certainly vouch for him too.

[xArtx]

If you can get a single colour analogue video signal from either the expansion port or TP9, and connect that, allong with ground to a composite monitor, it will tell you whether or not capacitors have spewed their guts in the video area. If this happens, it stops Composite, S-Video, and RF modulator output from working because they all get their signals from the same Sony CXA1145 encoder. The analogue RGB video is left working, but most people can’t connect to it. Connecting say, the green signal and ground to a composite monitor will be missing the sync, and dance about the display, but enough to see a picture working. The two caps installed reverse polarity, I’ve never seen them prevent a console working, and there’s no reason for them to particularly prevent video from working, especially if other parts of the console are. They are PSU decoupling (because the PSU is attached by a long cable), and would have to be close to short to cause any real problem. For those two, you could simply rock them back and forth until their leads break from fatigue and power the console without them (and of course fix it properly regardless of outcome).