CD32 cd drive problems

phantomphanatic · 03 April 2018, 01:42

Hello,
New to the forums so I do aplogise if this is a repeat and discussed before.

Today I found out my old CD32 and powered it up. It started up fine, picture quality was great but unfortunately the disk drive did not work. Just nothing, not even spinning briefly. The disk I was trying is a genuine copy of Microcosm.
Soon after, I also lost sound when it rebooted.

I took it apart and I did spot that the two large black capacitors near the psu port were domed and had a strange brown residue on them. Could this be the cause of the problem or is it likely an issue with the disk drive? Obviously I do plan on replacing those capacitors anyway.

Any help and advice would be appreciated. I would love to get it back up and running.

Thanks

Stephen

Amiga1992 · 03 April 2018, 16:15

CD32s do need recapping, if your sound went off and it isn't a cable issue, it could be capacitor related. But usually not the through hole ones, but the surface mount ones are the ones that go. Post pictures of what you found anyway, to have a better perspective. I think the ones you mention are power-related so it also COULD be (if you lose teh -12V line you will affect sound)

As for the drive, the lens also do tend to go, so it could be that , but it's an easy replacement. I made a guide here:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=84408

Let me know how you get on.

phantomphanatic · 03 April 2018, 21:06

Hi, thanks for getting back to me.
This is how those caps are looking. I definitely want to replace these going by how they look and especially after hearing that Commodore fitted them backwards!
I'll also read up on your replacement lens guide.

As for the drive problems I was having, it seems to have fixed itself. But I'm not fooling myself that this is permanent.
I took it apart again this afternoon to take that shot and I heard a ping, which I assumed was the rf shielding. Turns out it was a screw holding the cd lid spring in place. So after putting it together, testing and finding that it works, I can only assume that this spring was stopping the lid from fully closing. The lid preventing the drive starting seems to be a common problem after reading similar posts. Or it could be that the cd drive ribbon has been seated in it's connector properly . Either way, it's now playing the game and some audio cd's I tried.
I'm also now using a new composite video cable rather than the old rf I was using yesterday. Picture and audio are great. Would try the Svideo but none of the TV's in the house have an input.
I'll keep my eye on things anyway and I do plan on a recap in the near future as I want to fit the TF328 with IDE while it's still available.
It's great to have the old girl up and running and hopefully I'll get years more out of it after some much needed tlc.

Cheers

Amiga1992 · 03 April 2018, 22:37

Yeah those are dead and spilled over, hopefully the damage on the motherboard is not serious or, better yet, is non-existent. You need to clean that area thoroughly, remove all the corrosion!

Paul_s · 03 April 2018, 22:40

^^ Those caps need changing asap, they're toast.

I had similar issues with one of my CD32's and the transport lid/spring - they seem to loose their clamp force over time.

If you ever come to changing the laser module on a 32 be careful around the mechanism plastics as they tend to go brittle over time/easily break

phantomphanatic · 03 April 2018, 23:07

Rest assured I have a couple of new caps on the way. Till then I'm leaving it alone, can't do much with it anyway at the moment.
If I have anymore problems I'll be sure to ask for advice.

Thanks again for the advice.

Amiga1992 · 04 April 2018, 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by phantomphanatic

Till then I'm leaving it alone, can't do much with it anyway at the moment.

You can and should remove the crappy spilled over caps ASAP, while you wait for the replacements. You need to clean that mobo and make sure no damage has been done.

phantomphanatic · 04 April 2018, 22:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

You can and should remove the crappy spilled over caps ASAP, while you wait for the replacements. You need to clean that mobo and make sure no damage has been done.

Hopefully I'll be able to tomorrow once I get my soldering iron back. Thought I had it but it's still back at my folks. Looking at it I don't think there's any damage that I can see but we'll see once they're off.
Took the opportunity today to clean the case of more than 20 years of dust and dirt. I also have a new sticker for the case in the post as that to had come off and disappeared.

xArtx · 08 April 2018, 14:37

If the CD drive acts up, open the lid, place some white card or paper in front of the lens at 45 degrees facing you so you can see the laser safely. place some card, paper or other object down the slot to the right of the CD tray which closes the gap between the IR LED and IR receiver, which is there to tell when the CD drive lid is closed. The CD32 will make one single attempt to focus on the CD surface which you can see on the paper you’re holding in front of the lens. If you see the laser and the drive has issues, it’s probably an alignment problem, or if using CD-Rs, the wrong type for your drive.

phantomphanatic · 08 April 2018, 23:15

Thanks, I'll remember that trick.
Luckily I haven't had any problems since which leads me to suspect that it was either the lid not closing fully or the ribbon causing the problem.
Anyway, I've changed out those two capacitors and can happily report that the operation was a complete success and my CD32 is still alive and well. As soon as I can, I will get the others changed but may have those done professionally. They're a bit outside of my skill set.
And I also found the original aluminium name plate and reattached that. The replacement I'll use on something else.

Stephen

Glen M · 09 April 2018, 14:35

Bit late to the thread but just FYI on some CD32 boards those caps are installed and even denoted on the board the wrong way around. Best to bell out the ground leg to another ground point on the mobo with a meter before installing.

And do check it, don't just assume they are installed incorrectly as my CD32 was correct!

phantomphanatic · 14 April 2018, 19:15

Hi Glen,
Thanks for the advice. I'd already swapped out and installed the new caps though. I checked out a few other repair videos on youtube (Retromancave and GadgetUK164 have some very good repair videos) and forums and mine were the same as everyone else who changed them over. In hind sight I probably should have tested, but don't have a tester! Really need to pick one up and I have no excuse.
At some point I will get the whole thing recapped so we'll see how it comes back from someone who knows more about it. Replacing those surface mounted caps is really not within my ability.

03 April 2018, 01:42	#1
phantomphanatic Registered User Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: BIRMINGHAM Posts: 23	CD32 cd drive problems Hello, New to the forums so I do aplogise if this is a repeat and discussed before. Today I found out my old CD32 and powered it up. It started up fine, picture quality was great but unfortunately the disk drive did not work. Just nothing, not even spinning briefly. The disk I was trying is a genuine copy of Microcosm. Soon after, I also lost sound when it rebooted. I took it apart and I did spot that the two large black capacitors near the psu port were domed and had a strange brown residue on them. Could this be the cause of the problem or is it likely an issue with the disk drive? Obviously I do plan on replacing those capacitors anyway. Any help and advice would be appreciated. I would love to get it back up and running. Thanks Stephen

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03 April 2018, 16:15	#2
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,644	CD32s do need recapping, if your sound went off and it isn't a cable issue, it could be capacitor related. But usually not the through hole ones, but the surface mount ones are the ones that go. Post pictures of what you found anyway, to have a better perspective. I think the ones you mention are power-related so it also COULD be (if you lose teh -12V line you will affect sound) As for the drive, the lens also do tend to go, so it could be that , but it's an easy replacement. I made a guide here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=84408 Let me know how you get on.

03 April 2018, 21:06	#3
phantomphanatic Registered User Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: BIRMINGHAM Posts: 23	Hi, thanks for getting back to me. This is how those caps are looking. I definitely want to replace these going by how they look and especially after hearing that Commodore fitted them backwards! I'll also read up on your replacement lens guide. As for the drive problems I was having, it seems to have fixed itself. But I'm not fooling myself that this is permanent. I took it apart again this afternoon to take that shot and I heard a ping, which I assumed was the rf shielding. Turns out it was a screw holding the cd lid spring in place. So after putting it together, testing and finding that it works, I can only assume that this spring was stopping the lid from fully closing. The lid preventing the drive starting seems to be a common problem after reading similar posts. Or it could be that the cd drive ribbon has been seated in it's connector properly . Either way, it's now playing the game and some audio cd's I tried. I'm also now using a new composite video cable rather than the old rf I was using yesterday. Picture and audio are great. Would try the Svideo but none of the TV's in the house have an input. I'll keep my eye on things anyway and I do plan on a recap in the near future as I want to fit the TF328 with IDE while it's still available. It's great to have the old girl up and running and hopefully I'll get years more out of it after some much needed tlc. Cheers

03 April 2018, 22:37	#4
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,644	Yeah those are dead and spilled over, hopefully the damage on the motherboard is not serious or, better yet, is non-existent. You need to clean that area thoroughly, remove all the corrosion!

03 April 2018, 22:40	#5
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,333	^^ Those caps need changing asap, they're toast. I had similar issues with one of my CD32's and the transport lid/spring - they seem to loose their clamp force over time. If you ever come to changing the laser module on a 32 be careful around the mechanism plastics as they tend to go brittle over time/easily break

03 April 2018, 23:07	#6
phantomphanatic Registered User Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: BIRMINGHAM Posts: 23	Rest assured I have a couple of new caps on the way. Till then I'm leaving it alone, can't do much with it anyway at the moment. If I have anymore problems I'll be sure to ask for advice. Thanks again for the advice.

08 April 2018, 14:37	#9
xArtx Registered User Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 685	If the CD drive acts up, open the lid, place some white card or paper in front of the lens at 45 degrees facing you so you can see the laser safely. place some card, paper or other object down the slot to the right of the CD tray which closes the gap between the IR LED and IR receiver, which is there to tell when the CD drive lid is closed. The CD32 will make one single attempt to focus on the CD surface which you can see on the paper you’re holding in front of the lens. If you see the laser and the drive has issues, it’s probably an alignment problem, or if using CD-Rs, the wrong type for your drive.

08 April 2018, 23:15	#10
phantomphanatic Registered User Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: BIRMINGHAM Posts: 23	Thanks, I'll remember that trick. Luckily I haven't had any problems since which leads me to suspect that it was either the lid not closing fully or the ribbon causing the problem. Anyway, I've changed out those two capacitors and can happily report that the operation was a complete success and my CD32 is still alive and well. As soon as I can, I will get the others changed but may have those done professionally. They're a bit outside of my skill set. And I also found the original aluminium name plate and reattached that. The replacement I'll use on something else. Stephen

09 April 2018, 14:35	#11
Glen M Registered User Join Date: May 2017 Location: Belfast Posts: 750	Bit late to the thread but just FYI on some CD32 boards those caps are installed and even denoted on the board the wrong way around. Best to bell out the ground leg to another ground point on the mobo with a meter before installing. And do check it, don't just assume they are installed incorrectly as my CD32 was correct!

14 April 2018, 19:15	#12
phantomphanatic Registered User Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: BIRMINGHAM Posts: 23	Hi Glen, Thanks for the advice. I'd already swapped out and installed the new caps though. I checked out a few other repair videos on youtube (Retromancave and GadgetUK164 have some very good repair videos) and forums and mine were the same as everyone else who changed them over. In hind sight I probably should have tested, but don't have a tester! Really need to pick one up and I have no excuse. At some point I will get the whole thing recapped so we'll see how it comes back from someone who knows more about it. Replacing those surface mounted caps is really not within my ability.

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