Commodore CDTV CD drive issues

[Mikebloke]

Hi folks. Long time lurker here. I'll be honest and say the amiga scene totally flew past me, as I've been a console gamer for life. When the usual suspects bored me, I moved onto the more obscure and now I'm the proud (I think?!) owner of a CD32, CDTV and a 64GS.

I got a fair deal buying bits for a CDTV, mostly from one seller to be honest but it did work, at least it worked last time I turned it on, and I've played quite a bit of sim city on it. Usually, a console comes out when I buy a new game, so recently bought a CDTV disk and out the CDTV pops again.

This time however, no luck reading the CD. Tried a disk I knew worked before, no luck. Tried a music cd I used when I first got it, no luck. Tried holding the machine at funny angles in the hope that it works (usually does!) didn't work.

Opened it up, realised getting to the CD drive is a right job and not something I should be doing on a work night. So I thought I'd ask if anyone has an opinion on what the problem might be.

What happens is the disk starts spinning, but goes back and forth while the drive clicks for a few seconds. It then stops bothering. All attempt to fudge it in manners such as above failed. I don't have an original caddy, but it's worked up to this point so I'm reluctant to think it's that. Machine has worked fine for over a year getting light use, but always worked before.

Any help appreciated, as stated, I'm not super confident around anything amiga, but I am used to undoing screws and general computer builds/mods. No real knowledge of cd drives other than cleaning the lens.

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by Mikebloke

Hi folks. Long time lurker here. I'll be honest and say the amiga scene totally flew past me, as I've been a console gamer for life. When the usual suspects bored me, I moved onto the more obscure and now I'm the proud (I think?!) owner of a CD32, CDTV and a 64GS.

I got a fair deal buying bits for a CDTV, mostly from one seller to be honest but it did work, at least it worked last time I turned it on, and I've played quite a bit of sim city on it. Usually, a console comes out when I buy a new game, so recently bought a CDTV disk and out the CDTV pops again.

This time however, no luck reading the CD. Tried a disk I knew worked before, no luck. Tried a music cd I used when I first got it, no luck. Tried holding the machine at funny angles in the hope that it works (usually does!) didn't work.

Opened it up, realised getting to the CD drive is a right job and not something I should be doing on a work night. So I thought I'd ask if anyone has an opinion on what the problem might be.

What happens is the disk starts spinning, but goes back and forth while the drive clicks for a few seconds. It then stops bothering. All attempt to fudge it in manners such as above failed. I don't have an original caddy, but it's worked up to this point so I'm reluctant to think it's that. Machine has worked fine for over a year getting light use, but always worked before.

Any help appreciated, as stated, I'm not super confident around anything amiga, but I am used to undoing screws and general computer builds/mods. No real knowledge of cd drives other than cleaning the lens.

Does your caddy's door slide open cleanly when you push it with your finger?

[Pyromania]

Fingers crossed I hope mine still works. Waiting on some caddy's to test.

[FOL]

Clean the laser with Alcohol and a cutton bud.

[Mikebloke]

Originally Posted by AmigaHope

Does your caddy's door slide open cleanly when you push it with your finger?

Yeah, the piece that the caddy moves moves OK, and I believe where it should be moving too, the mechanism appears to complete its movement, its pressed down, and the disk spins. Then it spins the other way... And back again. Sometimes it's for about 8 seconds, once it tried really hard for about 20-30 seconds.

Originally Posted by Pyromania

Fingers crossed I hope mine still works. Waiting on some caddy's to test.

Yeah, mine worked OK all this time. Now it doesn't :'(

Originally Posted by FOL

Clean the laser with Alcohol and a cutton bud.

Tried this a couple of times now. Bit of a struggle without taking everything apart but I've managed it! Still no luck. I've recorded a video of its operation but I'll need to upload it somewhere.

[brufnus]

I know this is an old thread, but perhaps it can be of some use nonetheless.

Apparently the CDTV CD-ROM drives have caps which tend to die (my own drive doesn't even spin at the time of writing), which means the motor doesn't get enough current; thus it either spins a little and then gives up, or doesn't spin at all.
So a cap replacement might well solve this issue.