AAAARRRGHH!! TurboDuo collecting is frustrating!

[Graham Mitchell]

I'm starting this thread to bitch, but I am curious if other people have had some of the woes I've been having.

I've had a Turboduo forever, but a couple of years the redbook audio went out. I wanted to start collecting for it again, so a few months ago I took it from my parents' house and sent it to OldSchoolGamer to get repaired. He replaced the audio circuit, tested it for 16 hours, and sent it back to me. When it got here, there was no left sound channel audible, and after playing for 30 minutes I heard a loud POP!! and then there was no sound at all.

I sent it back to OldSchoolGamer, and when he took another look, there was some of the worst corrosion he'd ever seen in one of these, which he suspected was going all the way to the board. The machine was essentially unsalvagable, so I donated it to him for parts and bought another one off eBay.

$400 later, I'm having a great time playing DragonSlayer and Dungeon Explorer II. Things go well for about 3 weeks. I turn it on tonight to play Dragonslayer. Guess what? No video output. The sound worked okay, so I started switching AV cables and pluggin into different inputs on my TV, but to no avail. I have no clue what's going on here.

Do I have terrible luck with these machines, or are they just poorly-designed pieces of shit? This has been a 4 month ordeal trying to get this working. I had to send my 360 in for repairs twice in the last 4 months, and the hard disc on my mac failed, so I'm pretty frustrated with electronics these days. (It's not my year)

Anybody else sometimes feel discouraged about collecting due to technical problems like this?

[Arkhan]

thats how i feel about amigas, bunch of goony hardware.

the duo seems like you got bad luck though. usually its not that bad

get an R, its a safer bet

[Graham Mitchell]

Well, thank Jesus I discovered the problem...it was actually apparently in my HD upscaler. It appears to be toast. That's okay, it's a much simpler fix than the Duo. I'm getting a signal from another port on the TV now.

Still, I find it surprising how much of my shit fails considering how well I treat it, and really try to take care of it.

I bought a Sharp Twin Famicom over Christmas, so everybody say a prayer for me so that it doesn't catch on fire or get struck by lightening in the next 6 months.

[Jisho23]

Sometimes this stuff just happens.

[Gameguy]

Duos have a big problem with capacitors failing, once they're replaced the system should be pretty durable.

Just curious, how long did you wait before getting your Duo repaired? Did the sound just go shortly before you sent it in for repairs or did you wait awhile(years) before sending it in? I'm mostly curious about how quickly leaking capacitors can corrode through the circuit board. I'm also wondering how he didn't notice the corrosion when he repaired it the first time, since it was apparently so bad.

[Graham Mitchell]

Duos have a big problem with capacitors failing, once they're replaced the system should be pretty durable.

Just curious, how long did you wait before getting your Duo repaired? Did the sound just go shortly before you sent it in for repairs or did you wait awhile(years) before sending it in? I'm mostly curious about how quickly leaking capacitors can corrode through the circuit board. I'm also wondering how he didn't notice the corrosion when he repaired it the first time, since it was apparently so bad.

I waited about 2 years.

[ShinobiMan]

I loved my Duo until something snapped internally. Now the CD's no longer spin or read. HuCards still work fine... but that's not the important part!

They are expensive machines, which is why I have not replaced it yet.

Maybe I should sell my copy of "Dynastic Hero". That'll pay for the machine!

[Arthur-Otaku]

This problem is so simple to solve

Forget turbo duo or pc engine duo, you need a japanese duo r or rx, you will never have sound problem again

About your twin famciom, yes, it will have the belt problem, all have or will have, just forget the disk drive and only use carts

[Emperor Megas]

I loved my Duo until something snapped internally. Now the CD's no longer spin or read. HuCards still work fine... but that's not the important part!

That's what happened to my first Duo. I'll probably get around to fixing it one day, I just haven't gotten around to it since I have have two others that work well. Another Duo, and a PC Engine Duo RX, which is what I use the most.

The same thing is that I don't think I ever played a single CD game when the CD player on my first Duo stopped working. I played a few audio CDs when I first got it, so I know that it used to work, but It just up and died on me out of the blue after barely any use.

[swlovinist]

I play on the original Turbo CD unit with system card 3.0. The system is fugly, but has held up over 10+ years of owning it. I have bought two Duos, and both needed to be repaired. One is fixed, and the other is getting fixed.

[atrionfo]

I had a TurboDuo that started having problems about six years ago. I guess the laser or something was going bad because ALL the CD games started skipping. Before I got a chance to decide if I would fix it or not someone stole most of my electronics (and other stuff). They "saved" me from having to make a decision by taking the system. Like most robberies, they left some stuff behind... including all of the Turbo Duo games (Hu-Cards and CDs)! I gave the Hu-cards away to a friend who still uses a TurboGrafx. I use my CDs, occasionally, under emulation. My son has also downloaded a couple of Turbo Duo games using his Wii (Y's Book I and II and Gate of Thunder).

BUT, you were asking about unreliable systems. I collect, primarily, for the Bally Astrocade (BallyAlley.com is my website). I have eight Astrocade consoles. Six are dead. One works... sorta. The other works, but is very "touchy" (if you touch it while you're playing it, then it resets!).

I'm glad that your Duo turned out to be okay!

Adam

[Emperor Megas]

BallyAlley.com is my website

That's pretty clever.

[Oldskool]

Although the games are fun, the hardware is crap. It's like the 360 of the 90's.

[Soviet Conscript]

when i first saw this thread at a glance i thought it was going to be about Aaaaaah real monsters

thats how i feel about amigas, bunch of goony hardware.

the duo seems like you got bad luck though. usually its not that bad

get an R, its a safer bet

i was going to comment again about how i have a theory you used to work for commodore and got fired and had your pension suspended and thus seem to hate all things comme but then i remembered all the odd problems i had with my amiga 3000, so maybe you have a point.

i've had 2 US duos and both had problems. the first was a simple audio issue which was repairable the second duo...i have no clue and for that matter neither did the 2 people i sent it to. the card slot worked fine but it refused to load cd's. i even had the entire laser assembly replaced and nothing. best we could figure was a chip had died. i eventually ended up just selling the motherboard to a guy that has yet to pay me for it and it been several months....but thats anouther story. i kept the box and shell of the unit cause i figured one day i'll buy a cheap duo mb or one with audio/cd problems and stick it in the old shell (cause the serial # on the shell and box match)

anyways...get a japanse duo-r + a us region mod or converter card thingy and you'll have a pretty reliable unit.

[Aussie2B]

Sorry to hear you've been having so many problems. Can't say I've had any problems, but I went with a PC Engine Duo-RX. The only issue I've had to worry about is that the data disappears if I don't use it for a long time, but that's my fault for not giving it an occasional charge. I do have a second Duo-RX that won't play discs, but I knew I was going to receive it in that state (came with the working one).

[Gameguy]

For those with problems, you might want to check out this site for help.

http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/ind...035&board=19.0

[ScottK]

I've owned 3 different sets of TurboDuo systems over the years and haven't really had any problems at all. The first one I had back at system launch and kept it for 3 years. The second one I had for a few years in the late 90's. The last one I've had for about 3 years. The only problem I did have was the cd laser would get stuck whenever I played the homebrew Meteor Blaster DX. Fortunatly I was able to fix it by rolling the laser back manually.

[Oldskool]

Yeah now that you mention Meteor Blaster DX. No turbo CD systems likes cheaply burned discs, or CD-R's. Sure it may play them for a while, but eventually the thing will crap out. There is just something about them, so don't play burned discs.

[Soviet Conscript]

Yeah now that you mention Meteor Blaster DX. No turbo CD systems likes cheaply burned discs, or CD-R's. Sure it may play them for a while, but eventually the thing will crap out. There is just something about them, so don't play burned discs.

i'm guessing the laser has to output more to be able to read them and it burns itself out?

[Gameguy]

i'm guessing the laser has to output more to be able to read them and it burns itself out?

From what I read the laser can get stuck when reading CD-Rs because the data is written too far over on the disc, and the laser moves too far to read it. The laser moves just beyond the point where it can move itself back, or something like that.

I'm not entirely sure but that's what some people said, they had to manually push/pull the laser so it would get unstuck. Others said that burned discs play fine on their system. I haven't done too much searching about it though.