PAL CD or CDZ

joe8

margarine sandwich
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joe8 doesn't even own a NGCD and never has. Stop talking.
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You don't need a step down for the AES, so I can't see why the Neo CD would need one. But as I said, somebody else might be able to confirm that.
 
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RAZO

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?
You don't need a step down for the AES, so I can't see why the Neo CD would need one. But as I said, somebody else might be able to confirm that.

Who said you don't need a step down for the Aes?

Just because it works doesn't mean it isn't doing damage to your console over a long period of time.
 

madman

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You don't need a step down for the AES, so I can't see why the Neo CD would need one. But as I said, somebody else might be able to confirm that.

You talked about loading times, dipshit. You have zero experience with any of this. And if you need someone else to confirm something you obviously don't know what the fuck you're talking about. So shut the fuck up.
 

titchgamer

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Defo need a step down over here.

Our 240v supply will blow a Jap 100v system to shit!!
 

edd_jedi

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Where's best for me to get a step down transformer? Only I read somewhere a 45w are not great for the console but that's all I can find to buy online

I bought one of these and it works great:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153031098525

It arrived in less than a week. As others have said 100v transformers are actually quite hard to find, most are 110v for USA. Better to get a matched PSU like above.
 

edd_jedi

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That's another thing, the Neo Geo CD has a CD player inbuilt, which has moving parts which will fail over time. The AES/MVS have no moving parts. Moving parts will wear out quicker than non-moving parts (like silicon chips).

In my experience cartridge slots wear out way quicker than CD lenses do. Just look how many replacement NES cartridge slots are for sale on eBay. Neither will last forever though.
 

RAZO

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In my experience cartridge slots wear out way quicker than CD lenses do. Just look how many replacement NES cartridge slots are for sale on eBay. Neither will last forever though.

This is not true at all. A cartridge slot IMO lasts way longer than a cd lens does. The Nintendo had a shitty method of inserting the cart which forced the pins and caused them to bend. That's why the BLW was invented. The Famicom never suffered from these same issues.

Out of all the consoles that I owned, the only time I replaced a cart slot was the Nes. Never had to replace a cartridge slot on my other consoles.

That Being Said, I think alot of times people think that when a console stops reading discs, it's automatically the laser that needs to be replaced and that's not true. Sometimes silicone greasing the rails, cleaning, and adjusting the laser light fixes most problems. I would hate to replace a quality stock laser with a after market one unless it's completely dead.

I had a JVC X'eye a few weeks ago stop reading discs and after a little maintenance, everything was working fine. I have had lasers on some consoles fail.
 

edd_jedi

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Fair enough, just my personal experience. I still own a Mega Drive, SNES, N64 and Saturn, and the cartridge slots on all of them are temperamental, it often takes a few in/out attempts to get the cartridge to be recognised. I also still own a Saturn and Mega CD, both still working just fine on their original lasers.
 

titchgamer

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Fair enough, just my personal experience. I still own a Mega Drive, SNES, N64 and Saturn, and the cartridge slots on all of them are temperamental, it often takes a few in/out attempts to get the cartridge to be recognised. I also still own a Saturn and Mega CD, both still working just fine on their original lasers.

That wont be a faulty slot, That will be dirty contacts on either the cart or the slot.
Dirt on the contacts can cause games not to work at all or even cause anomalies on screen.

I used WD40 Electrical contact cleaner (not regular WD40!!) And spray a tiny amount on a cotton bud stick to GENTLY rub the cartridge contacts clean.
I use one of these to clean my cart slots: https://www.1upcard.com/collections/console-cleaners

I brought the NES one then just remove the cleaning bit from the case to do all others.
 

RAZO

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Fair enough, just my personal experience. I still own a Mega Drive, SNES, N64 and Saturn, and the cartridge slots on all of them are temperamental, it often takes a few in/out attempts to get the cartridge to be recognised. I also still own a Saturn and Mega CD, both still working just fine on their original lasers.

All I can advise is to clean everything. You dont have to clean the contacts on the slot all the time but at least every once and awhile. When you buy a new game regardless if it's mint, clean the contacts with a q-tip, rubbing alcohol, and some deoxit. Shit goes a long way. Also keep one of those air can dusters around. Dust off as much dirt or whatever crap as you can.

Also, avoid those aftermarket adapters if you could. Those MVS to Aes converters, I'm not a big fan of. I had a super converter which put a ton of stress of my cartridge slot.

Finch has a issue with his cart alot but the issue he has I dont think happens too often. I've had so many Aes and MVS units past through my hands and they got a shitload of play and never had a issue with the cart slots.

Some of those arcade mobos were sitting inside rat and roach invested Arcades for over two decades with games in the slots and are still going strong.

You really can't do anything about failing chips inside a console. That shit just happens just how chips fail inside a cart but regular maintenance is so important in this hobby.
 

RAZO

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Sorry for the grammatical errors. Posting on my cell phone and can't edit my posts lol.

Infested

Not invested.
 

titchgamer

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All I can advise is to clean everything. You dont have to clean the contacts on the slot all the time but at least every once and awhile. When you buy a new game regardless if it's mint, clean the contacts with a q-tip, rubbing alcohol, and some deoxit. Shit goes a long way. Also keep one of those air can dusters around. Dust off as much dirt or whatever crap as you can.

Also, avoid those aftermarket adapters if you could. Those MVS to Aes converters, I'm not a big fan of. I had a super converter which put a ton of stress of my cartridge slot.

Finch has a issue with his cart alot but the issue he has I dont think happens too often. I've had so many Aes and MVS units past through my hands and they got a shitload of play and never had a issue with the cart slots.

Some of those arcade mobos were sitting inside rat and roach invested Arcades for over two decades with games in the slots and are still going strong.

You really can't do anything about failing chips inside a console. That shit just happens just how chips fail inside a cart but regular maintenance is so important in this hobby.

Truth!

I have never had a card slot fail on any console (Even my NES is still going strong but I am not sure how if I am honest!)

I have had PSU's fail, Fuses blow and the most common problem I have ever come across is.... Dirty contacts!
I have literally brought consoles "back from the dead" just by opening them up, cleaning them out and cleaning everything!
 

Niko

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Who said you don't need a step down for the Aes?

Just because it works doesn't mean it isn't doing damage to your console over a long period of time.

When I first got my AES I had read online that a step down wasn't needed and just took it as fact. After reading your post, I decided to do some more research and wanted to post my finding here in case anyone else is also curious.

According to the Neo Geo Dev Wiki, there are two version of the PRO-POW PSU's for the 5V AES systems. PRO-POW for the JPN region which is 100V AC ONLY and PRO-POW-UL which is 120V AC ONLY. The same wiki states the 5V AES models do not have a voltage regulator and anything above 5.2V will more or less kill the system.

So I took my multimeter over to my PRO-POW PSU and measured 5.4V output directly at the barrel tip while powered via 120V AC. So I bought a 120V to 100V step down converter from Amazon and decided to measure the output voltage again. I first started with measuring the voltage out from the transformer (101V AC) just to ensure it was working as advertised. I then measured the output voltage from the PRO-POW PSU connected to the step down transformer and to my surprise its still outputing 5.4V. Once the PSU is under load ( powering the AES ). The voltage probably levels out.

So with that, I don't believe its doing any damage to the console itself, but you are probably shortening the life the PSU.

I'd be curious to get my hands on a PRO-POW-UL and compare the internals against the PRO-POW. They might be the same.
 
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