celerystalker
07-11-2017, 01:21 AM
So, after being awake for nearly 45 hours straight, my dumb ass decides that it's time to work on precision electronics at 2am! My PC Engine Duo R has been flaky ever since I bought it years ago, but over the last couple of years the laser has slowly gotten worse, and struggles with matching directories, causing redbook audio to cut out and stages to not load properly without jarring the unit to get the laser to reset. It also had a shitty AV out jack and controller port, which caused the signal and sound to go completely and controllers to go haywire.
Anyhow, I got a hankering to play Gradius II (my favorite in the series), so I figured it was time to go at it. I found cracked solder joints for both the AV jack and controller port, so I re-flowed all of those points and they now work perfectly. Sweet, right? So I started playing Gradius II, and those same shit issues popped up (and they happen with all CD games), so I ordered a new laser (the Hitachi HOP-M3), but decided to play with the existing laser to see if I could milk it a bit. I fucked it UP.
Tweaking the main laser voltage down just slightly got me slightly improved performance along with cleaning the lens, but then, in my tired idiocy, I decided to pop off the laser assembly and look under it. I knew it was a bad idea, but I was so stupid and tired that I started fucking with the tightness of the tiny screws on the underside if the HOP-M3, and now it won't read anything at all. The laser still moves properly and tries, but sounds very weak, barely spinning the disc on the spindle at all.
Since I have a new laser coming in the mail already, hopefully this will be a moot point in a week, as it's a super easy swap. Still, it's driving me nuts that I had such bad judgement while tired. I mean, it's great that I can play my HuCards flawlessly again, but that laser... so dumb.
Anyone have any ideas on how to get it up and running again so I can keep it as a back up? I'm sure I screwed up its angle or something so it just can't focus, causing it to act like no disc is inserted. I haven't messed with the four pots on the main pcb, as I don't want to screw things up for the replacement assembly. Thoughts?
Anyhow, I got a hankering to play Gradius II (my favorite in the series), so I figured it was time to go at it. I found cracked solder joints for both the AV jack and controller port, so I re-flowed all of those points and they now work perfectly. Sweet, right? So I started playing Gradius II, and those same shit issues popped up (and they happen with all CD games), so I ordered a new laser (the Hitachi HOP-M3), but decided to play with the existing laser to see if I could milk it a bit. I fucked it UP.
Tweaking the main laser voltage down just slightly got me slightly improved performance along with cleaning the lens, but then, in my tired idiocy, I decided to pop off the laser assembly and look under it. I knew it was a bad idea, but I was so stupid and tired that I started fucking with the tightness of the tiny screws on the underside if the HOP-M3, and now it won't read anything at all. The laser still moves properly and tries, but sounds very weak, barely spinning the disc on the spindle at all.
Since I have a new laser coming in the mail already, hopefully this will be a moot point in a week, as it's a super easy swap. Still, it's driving me nuts that I had such bad judgement while tired. I mean, it's great that I can play my HuCards flawlessly again, but that laser... so dumb.
Anyone have any ideas on how to get it up and running again so I can keep it as a back up? I'm sure I screwed up its angle or something so it just can't focus, causing it to act like no disc is inserted. I haven't messed with the four pots on the main pcb, as I don't want to screw things up for the replacement assembly. Thoughts?