PC Engine Duo CD Drive finally shit the bed

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
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Yeah yeah standard Duo, I know.

Anyone fixing these things? I'm not gonna mess around in its insides when I don't have a clue what to do.

The drive spins for a bit (very quiet), then stops, telling me to "set disc".
 

poodude

B. Jenet's Firstmate
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Good luck, I've sent mine out to be fixed and swapped the laser twice. It just made things worse, so I gave up on it. Worst. Drive. Ever.
 

CORY

a.k.a. Mother Teresa
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Yeah yeah standard Duo, I know.

Anyone fixing these things? I'm not gonna mess around in its insides when I don't have a clue what to do.

The drive spins for a bit (very quiet), then stops, telling me to "set disc".

 

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
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Yeah, the black PC Engine Duo has garbage capacitors. Change every last one of them before trying to diagnose anything. Also watch for any leaking caps, that can wreck traces and make things even worse.

You should ask about your Duo at pcenginefx.com, those guys know a hell of a lot about fixing Duos.
 

cdamm

Trust the French?
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We do them but the shipping Ming be obscene. A laser is like 30 bucks and a pretty easy install. Hopefully theres a local nearby that can do it for you.
 

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
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It's not hard to install a laser in a CD drive, the Duo is super simplistic in design.
 

Sarumaru

Kabuki Klasher
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Yeah yeah standard Duo, I know.

Anyone fixing these things? I'm not gonna mess around in its insides when I don't have a clue what to do.

The drive spins for a bit (very quiet), then stops, telling me to "set disc".


You could also try and mess with the pots for the drive. Sometimes making very minute adjustments to VR102 and/or VR104 might help. Just make sure you make a marker of the pots positions before you start moving them around. But as most said, new lenses are easy to install. In which case you may still need to mess around with the pots to get it to play without skips. Is the Duo recapped?
 

RAZO

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They are these little screw knobs around the laser mech. I think they are orange on the duo. You use a small flat head screw driver and turn them. I don't think it's that. I'm going with bad caps.
 

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
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I also think it's the caps because the last time I actually used the drive was quite a while ago and it still worked back then.
 

BladeDancer314

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If the drive spins for a bit and then stops I would first make sure that the caps have been replaced and then adjust vr104 (I think that's the right pot, haven't worked on a Duo in a while)

You could also just play a bit with vr104 and see if that fixes it.
 

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
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Yeah I'm not gonna bother with it. The store here wants 100€ for it and I don't know anyone else who can fix it. I sure as fuck can't do it. Guess I'll just play my CD via Ootake.
 

RAZO

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Yeah I'm not gonna bother with it. The store here wants 100€ for it and I don't know anyone else who can fix it. I sure as fuck can't do it. Guess I'll just play my CD via Ootake.

Thanks for the heads up on the emulator. I still use Magic Engine.

Ok Disregard the picture. That's not where the pots is located.

Edit: I just tried popping mine open. I can't even locate the pots. Fuck that shit. Sell it, repair it, or buy a duo-r.
 
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BladeDancer314

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Thanks for the heads up on the emulator. I still use Magic Engine.

Ok Disregard the picture. That's not where the pots is located.

Edit: I just tried popping mine open. I can't even locate the pots. Fuck that shit. Sell it, repair it, or buy a duo-r.

The pots are just south of the CD drive, they are all marked.

Adjusting the pots is really easy, I use a scope but in reality it can be done by ear.
 

trenton_net

Kuroko's Training Dummy
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Are you talking about these.


Yes, it's clearly marked on the board as "VR104". :-D Find "VR102" beside it and your off to the races!

EDIT: Just to be perfectly clear... You can see both pots in this image as marked. You should take better photos next time. :-)

screenshot.png
 
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RAZO

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Yes, it's clearly marked on the board as "VR104". :-D Find "VR102" beside it and your off to the races!

EDIT: Just to be perfectly clear... You can see both pots in this image as marked. You should take better photos next time. :-)

screenshot.png

It's not my photo. I Googled it.

Which tool do you use to turn those pots?
 

Montatez

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I would agree the laser maybe bad. Its a cheap and easy fix. Maybe worth trying.
 
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