PCEngineFans.com - The PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 Community Forum
NEC TG-16/TE/TurboDuo => TG-16/TE/TurboDuo Sales & Trades => Topic started by: LEO EL INCOMPARABLE on September 06, 2007, 11:09:09 AM
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My turbo grafx original cd player doesn't spin. when a press start nothing happens. but if a open the cd player and move the lens motor or unplug and plug again all the cables, then works perfect for the day. If i try to play the next day, i have to do all over again the same process to play. please someone help me 1!!
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Your drive is old. This is not an uncommon issue.
If you feel adventurous, you can open the drive up and lubricate all the moving components. That should eliminate the problem.
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Are you playing CD-Rs?
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thatk's nat, i will try to lubricate the system. the sad thing is i bought this system brand new 4 yeras ago in tzd.com so it's so anoying that new system give me this problem. But maybe it's dry inside and he need lubrication, thaks for the tip. i will doit and i let you know thr result's. Leo
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yes signofzeta, i have only 2 cdr games: cotton & dragon knight III. maybe the cdr's have something to do with the problem, but i'm no longer playing this copied games in the old system just in case.
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Well there is a problem that happens with CD-Rs where the laser will park itself beyond its range of travel, requiring you to wind the laser back more towards the center. This only happened to me once since I don't play CD-Rs very often, but I've heard of it happening to others so I though I'd ask.
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This is the exact same problem I am having with my TG16 CD unit. What do I lubricate inside and what do I lubricate it with? I dont want to use the wrong type of lubricant or get it where it does not belong. I have not looked for screws either - is there anything special I should be wary of when trying to open the unit?
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Hey guys,
I've been doing some pretty involved research on this subject (my oldest TG-CD has had this problem since early 2001...and now my newer one is starting to flake out too!). Here's what I can tell you:
Despite what I initially thought, both motors are OK. I took them out of the assembly and applied power, and both spun quite freely.
I applied a bit of red "Mystery Grease" I stole from work (seriously...I think it's Aeroshell #65 or some nonsense) to the poly gears that drive the laser, as well as to the guide bar that the laser itself travels on.
Then, just for the hell of it, I reapplied power to the motor (while installed). It drove the laser for about a second, and then stopped dead.
Upon closer examination, I discovered that the source of the stoppage was a spot on one of the drive gears where two teeth had broken off. It was just sort of "bound up" like that.
I began turning the drive gears by hand, and in doing so I stripped EVERY TOOTH off of the busted gear. All the other gears were fine.
I reassembled the TG-CD completely, and put in an audio CD and pressed "Play". This time, I could hear the laser motor turning speedily along, with nothing to mesh with.
I'd say given the fact that we all have TG-CD's and are all having the same symptom, it's pretty likely that you also have one or two busted teeth on your drive gear.
Now, what's the solution?
-I don't think lubing would do an immense amount of good, but if you use a PROPER LUBE for plastic/poly it certainly couldn't do any harm (I add this emphasis because I suspect the red grease may have helped make the gear even more brittle).
-I have been looking for a mechanical fix for the TG-CD. I don't know how to go about replacing just the one stripped gear (they all seem mounted to the shafts pretty securely...how would I reattach them without slippage?), so my solutions all tend to gravitate toward:[ul][li]finding a SCSI-based NEC CD-ROM drive from the same general era and gutting it[/li][li]buying a PC-Engine CD on schnebay and harvesting just the CD/laser motor assembly[/li][li]finding somekind of generic "CD player rebuild kit" online...I don't hold out much hope, though. [/li][/ul]
Honestly, I'd always rather use NEC parts for a project like this, and for the relatively low price for a PC Engine CD-ROM unit ($50-60 last time I checked) and the little labor involved, I think I'm gonna go with the second choice.
But, as I've said in my other thread, I'll keep y'all updated on my progress. Just bear in mind that the Chrastmas shopping season is all up ons, so I can't be spending as much time and money on this as I'd like.
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It's too bad you didn't have this problem four years ago.
I had a black CD-ROM^2 with a blown out laser I ended up selling on eBay for $10 to someone who thought he could fix it. I definitely would've donated it to your cause.
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Honestly, I'd always rather use NEC parts for a project like this, and for the relatively low price for a PC Engine CD-ROM unit ($50-60 last time I checked) and the little labor involved, I think I'm gonna go with the second choice.
If you know where to buy the units - especially at those prices, I am all ears. I cant find a shop that repairs these at all anymore (they charged $60 to REPAIR them when they did so!), and the only units I find for sale are on eBay as part of the total units for several hundred.
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Then you're getting ripped off.
A complete TG-CD console (core, CD-ROM, interface, controller, Sys 2 card) should run you in the $100 ballpark.
A CD-ROM alone should be much, much less.
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can you show any pics of this cog and the surrounding gears? im good at finding parts. should be a regular sony cd assembly.
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Hey Chop5! I got some photos for you, just moments ago.
In the picture below you can see three different gears (they're all reddish because of the grease...). The middle gear used to have a larger diameter gear on the same shaft that meshed with the bottom gear.
The second picture is the closest match to what the gear used to look like. I stole the image from some plastic gear company.
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Then you're getting ripped off.
A complete TG-CD console (core, CD-ROM, interface, controller, Sys 2 card) should run you in the $100 ballpark.
A CD-ROM alone should be much, much less.
Places / websites / whatever where you see those prices please.
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Prices like those will sometimes appear on eBay, but most sellers would rather gouge than be fair.
Beyond that, keep an eye on for sale forum here. Also, subscribe to the Turbo List.
I just sold a TG-CD player for $115 shipped, and that's only because it was going international. Domestic would've been around $100.
Never try to use eBay as a value guide for American TurboGrafx stuff.
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thanks for the pics. wow i can see the damage where it broke off. This is gonna be a toughy to locate a part. But nothing is impossible to find,let the searching begin!
can you show one more pic of the opened unit getting all of it in? I could open mine but since you got yours open already
And you say the gears are kinda like bolted down? can the gear area be removed? I wonder if the broken area can be cut flat and another gear slid in and krazy glued over the stub.
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Prices like those will sometimes appear on eBay, but most sellers would rather gouge than be fair.
Beyond that, keep an eye on for sale forum here. Also, subscribe to the Turbo List.
I just sold a TG-CD player for $115 shipped, and that's only because it was going international. Domestic would've been around $100.
Never try to use eBay as a value guide for American TurboGrafx stuff.
Word, though systems bundled with extra controllers and 10-15 games regularly sell on ebay for about $150. Selling off the extras would easily get the system's cost below $100, albeit with the hassle of reselling and shipping.
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Well, yeah, having bundled games included does tend to raise up the price a bit.
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What do I lubricate inside and what do I lubricate it with? I dont want to use the wrong type of lubricant or get it where it does not belong.
I was thinking more about this....about what's a good, innoccuous lubricant for plastic. And then I remembered when I put together my old Revell "V8 Engine" Model Kit!
There were so many moving parts in there that you had to lube it a bit. What did the instructions call for?
Drumroll Please.......
Vegetable Oil!!!!
So, that should be good for our needs.
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Beyond that, keep an eye on for sale forum here. Also, subscribe to the Turbo List.
Has The Turbo List changed it's homepage and signup email? I tried to sign up with no return responses yet, and tried to go to the home page here http://joyce.eng.yale.edu/~bt/turbo/ but the site is down.
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Has The Turbo List changed it's homepage and signup email? I tried to sign up with no return responses yet, and tried to go to the home page here http://joyce.eng.yale.edu/~bt/turbo/ but the site is down.
Subscribe Instructions (http://blog.mindrec.com/index.php?itemid=11)
If this no longer works, try contacting BT Garner directly.
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Beyond that, keep an eye on for sale forum here. Also, subscribe to the Turbo List.
Has The Turbo List changed it's homepage and signup email? I tried to sign up with no return responses yet, and tried to go to the home page here http://joyce.eng.yale.edu/~bt/turbo/ but the site is down.
Yes.
The site moved to the following URL:
turbo.mindrec.com
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Awesome. Thanks you two!
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can you show one more pic of the opened unit getting all of it in? I could open mine but since you got yours open already
And you say the gears are kinda like bolted down? can the gear area be removed? I wonder if the broken area can be cut flat and another gear slid in and krazy glued over the stub.
Chop5,
here are three kinda lo-res pics of the inside of my TG-CD. I don't know if they'll be of any use to you, but I feel I was procrastinating long enough.
I do have one addition though: I tried to remove the broken gear from its shaft. It was being held in place with a small clip or ring (see last photo) that I tore off with pliers. Upon doing this I realized that the shaft had always been stationary, mounted in place, while the gear spun freely on it.
So, now I feel that a complete mechanical fix could be in place if I could:
-find a replacement gear,
-remove the little bit of remaining metal on the shaft (leftover part of the clip that I couldn't remove)
-install the new gear (and a new clip) onto the shaft.
It should be good as new if we can do this!
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cool thanks kid rondeau. I should of searched the forum better cause i found this pic of a pc engine cd opened. I can see the complete gear in it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/pcengineopengc4.jpg (http://pic.photobucket.com/bwe.png)
i looked through my parts box and couldnt find a gear close to it. Il gut some old sony players later during the month.
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Chop5,
did you see how yellow the offending gear was in the picture you just showed? I'm starting to think they used a defective batch of plastic on those gears.
Man, I gotta get crackin' on this!
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There's another thread where we discussed trying to find replacement gears, or even order newly manufactured replacement gears, but AFAIK nothing ever came of it.
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There's another thread where we discussed trying to find replacement gears, or even order newly manufactured replacement gears, but AFAIK nothing ever came of it.
All those high tech parts and in the end it is a cheap gear people have problems with ](*,)
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Mochiron desu. It's ALWAYS something simple. As complex as modern CPUs are, bad capacitors on the mobo usually give out first. And in mechanical products, gears. Make stuff cheaply and you pay the price.
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Hey guys,
I've been having some promising results looking at Robotics Components websites. They seem to have a lot of small plastic gears. Of course, I don't believe I'll find the exact "2 in 1" gear I'm trying to replace, but I do think I can locate two separate gears to fit the bill, and glue them together as per Chop5's post.
This weekend I'll open one of my two "terminally ill" TG-CD's and extract the gear in question. I'll bring it to work next week and look at it under the magnifier to count teeth and use the calipers to measure bore and diamater.
And of course, I'll update you all on my findings. Dude.
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There were so many moving parts in there that you had to lube it a bit. What did the instructions call for?
Drumroll Please.......
Vegetable Oil!!!!
wouldn't that attract bugs eventually?
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Well, I suppose it could...but I honestly think there's so few openings where bugs could get into, that it's not a primary concern. Plus, hopefully the rotation of the gears would crush the bastards!!
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There were so many moving parts in there that you had to lube it a bit. What did the instructions call for?
Drumroll Please.......
Vegetable Oil!!!!
wouldn't that attract bugs eventually?
Even worse, it'll turn rancid and stink horribly.
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Well, after three or four years of use my engine kit never stank...I'm not talking about an abundance of oil here, just a light coating.
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OK!! Breakthrough time!
Here's my situation:
I have 3 TG-CD units. Of these, one has a broken gear, and the other two work, but only intermittently.
I finally got off my ass and looked inside my two "working" units and noticed something quite interesting...
No broken gears! Everything looked fine!
Confused, I decided to follow Nat's original suggestion and lubricate the three drive gears and the leadscrew (the long, gold-colored, threaded rod which moves the laser assembly). But what to lube it with?
I mean, I learned my lesson with the red mystery grease....I think that's what broke my gear in the first place! Or at least, it made the plastic brittle enough to break all the teeth off.
And I would feel moderately confident with vegetable oil, but I wanted to be sure. I can get a new engine kit, no problem...but TG-CD players are a little harder to come by!
I ended up going with a graphite spray lubricant from Home Depot. It was called "TDL" for "The Dry Lubricant"...supposedly safe for plastics. If you've never seen it, it sprays on wet, and dries into a very slick grey powder.
I sprayed down the moving parts in both units, and hand turned them to both extremes of travel, to really work it in.
And now, they both work perfectly!
God damn! Nat was right again!!
In any case, I no longer believe the plastic in the gear is to blame. But also, since getting measurements of my broken gear requires harvesting another unit, I'm not going to bother unless someone has a "for parts only" TG-CD they want to give me or sell for a low enough price.
But yeah, two working TG-CD's! All's right with the world!
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But yeah, two working TG-CD's! All's right with the world!
:clap: Gratz. Happy, happy, joy, joy!! :dance:
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God damn! Nat was right again!!
I would never steer you guys wrong. Glad to hear you saved two more from the scrapheap.
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Update:
Had a bit of a scare this morning...pressing Run didn't make the CD spin. But I reset my system and tried again, and it worked fine. But this isn't really good enough by my standards...I'd like it to be more robust than that.
I opened it back up, and upon inspecting the mechanics of the gear assembly, I think I may have overdone the graphite a little bit. To be fair though, it was my first time using it. Anyway, the really annoying thing I noticed was that the gears still felt a bit stiff to move.
I took some 70% rubbing alcohol (I would have used 100% but I don't know if that's readily available in the consumer market) and cleaned off everything, and let it dry. The simple act of cleaning the gears with it made them spin WAY better.
After a little bit of tweaking, it appears to be as good as new. I've got my fingers crossed, but I'd really like to be able to stop worrying about this! Rarrrrr!!!
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There's definitely a "sweet spot" when applying lubricant. I've never tried the graphite you speak of, so YMMV.
I always use either vegetable oil or clear machine oil for mechanical parts in electronics (disk drives, Turbo CD-ROMs, etc) and as long as dried up lubricant is the issue, it works 100%.
I've never had an instance of vegetable oil used this way becoming "rancid" or producing odors of any kind.
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Hi!
I'm new to the board, and I have been reading this tread to see what kind of conclusions you might come to. It appears that you have been able to revive your cd-rom unit which is great! There is one place that you could check for gears and shaft for the drive mechanisim. None of these cd-rom unit has anything special about them more then likely they are using standard off the shelf components for the drive assembly. One place that you might want to look at is http://www.sdp-si.com/ Stock Drive Products. They specialize in miniature components, and if you can figure out what kind of gear(s) etc. You might be able to find it there or ask the question.
I'm a Mechanical Designer, and I have used them in the past for work projects. I'm willing to bet they are stock gears. Take a look and see what you find! Just want to give another potential source for the community to utilize! :)
Regards Everyone!
Efrain
Update:
Had a bit of a scare this morning...pressing Run didn't make the CD spin. But I reset my system and tried again, and it worked fine. But this isn't really good enough by my standards...I'd like it to be more robust than that.
I opened it back up, and upon inspecting the mechanics of the gear assembly, I think I may have overdone the graphite a little bit. The simple act of cleaning the gears with it made them spin WAY better.
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Hey gents, update:
In July 2008 I got an NEC external CD-ROM drive for a computer on ebay, just to see if the inner workings could be harvested for a TG-CD.
Well, nearly two years later, I finally got off my lazy ass and checked.
No, the parts are not the same. It's different mechanics in there.
Just wanted to give you guys a little closure.
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There were so many moving parts in there that you had to lube it a bit. What did the instructions call for?
Drumroll Please.......
Vegetable Oil!!!!
wouldn't that attract bugs eventually?
Even worse, it'll turn rancid and stink horribly.
I agree use a silicone-based clear oil, for light machine parts. It will turn rancid.
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You know,
I have no vested interest in the use of vegetable oil (despite having purchased stock in Wesson... :-")...but I think you guys are exaggerating the oil's capacity to rot...a thin coating of vegetable oil isn't any risk, and it's safe for plastics, hence its storage in plastic bottles.
Like I said, I'm not here to champion veggie oil...in fact, if anyone has a foolproof, inexpensive plastic lube, I'd totally use that instead.