Turbo Duo drive/spindle issues

[allyourblood]

Hey gang!

So I finally broke down and bought a Turbo Duo. I got what I thought was a good price for a half-working US system with a couple games. The HuCard portion works as expected, but the CD spindle is set too low in the CD housing to spin a disc properly.

The seller I won it from claimed that it works fine "with the cover off", but now that it's here, that doesn't make sense to me. Once you take the cover off, there's no pressure holding the disc against the spindle, so the disc just lies on top of the spindle, scuffing away. Even if he were referring to that plastic shroud thingy that covers the drive "carriage" or whatever, that doesn't work either: I tried playing a disc with it off, and while it spins, it makes a heck of a lot of noise and still won't read.

I did a search, and found several old threads discussing this very issue (wasn't sure if folks would be mad if I bumped one, so I started a new thread myself). I read a few people talking about pulling or prying up the circular metal piece that the disc rests on, but I'm not sure if we're talking about pulling the metal up while holding the black plastic shaft in the middle down, or if I'm simply supposed to pry up on the whole upper segment of the spindle, away from the black plastic base beneath. In any event, I tried giving both methods a shot (as carefully as I could) and that metal ring does not want to budge, at all! I know people say you have to use quite a bit of force, but what level of pressure are we talking about here? This thing seems so "stuck" I can't imagine what force it would take to pry it up.

Is there a replacement for this? Should I just yank away on the thing 'til it comes up, against all better judgment?

[Keith Courage]

I had this problem on a system a while back. I literally had to take a screw driver for leverage and pry the spindle upwards. I had to use so much pressure that it felt like it could break but it didn't. You will most likely pry it up too far at first and have to tap it back down again. I tapped mine lightly with a small hammer cause just pushing on it would just not cut it. Be careful that the metal circular part doesn't get bent.  If it does you will have to bend parts of the metal circle to level it out again. This did work for me but was kindof a pain to get it leveled just right again.

[allyourblood]

Thanks very much for the reply. Yeah, yours was one of the threads I was reading. Man, that makes my stomach turn thinking about wrenching away on that thing with a screwdriver like that.

One thing I forgot to mention: After removing the plastic piece that covers the drive (not the case or lid, that little 4" or so piece of plastic), and putting the case back on, I got the CD to spin, as mentioned earlier, although it was noisy and slow, and still wouldn't read. When I push my finger down onto the drive lid while it's spinning, the drive gets a better purchase on the disc, and spins more or less quietly. However, it still won't read the disc.

Is this because I'm applying too much pressure and the disc isn't able to spin at its optimal speed? I guess what I'm driving at, is whether or not there's some way to determine if the drive works before pulling on the spindle shaft. I'd hate to break or damage it before finding out whether the seller was even telling the truth about the drive working.

Any thoughts?

[thesteve]

the laser focus is set to a specific distance from the lens, with a range of compensation, if its too low or high it wont read.

to pry the spindle up use 2 screwdrivers and with the cover (4") off pry from as close to the motor as possible, to avoid bending the plate or shaft.

[allyourblood]

the laser focus is set to a specific distance from the lens, with a range of compensation, if its too low or high it wont read.

to pry the spindle up use 2 screwdrivers and with the cover (4") off pry from as close to the motor as possible, to avoid bending the plate or shaft.

Thanks for this. I'll try it shortly and report back.

[BlueBMW]

If you break it, I've got a spare laser mechanism for a Duo

[allyourblood]

Sigh... So I used the two screwdrivers like thesteve mentioned -- worked beautifully, by the way, without bending or tweaking anything. But after raising the metal ring a couple times, it still seemed too low. I brought it up a third time, but that last time, it jumped up way too high (as Keith Courage experienced), so I gently tapped it back down. Got it to where it looked about perfect (to my eyes, anyway), and put the top of the case back on.

Now the disc won't spin. It tried once, but stopped before it had much of a chance of doing anything. I've not had any prior experience with a Duo, so I'm not sure if I killed this thing or what. Any advice or ideas would be immensely appreciated. I have a feeling this thing's bought the farm.

[thesteve]

its the pot adjustments.
someone had adjusted the focus range trying to get it to read pushed down

[allyourblood]

its the pot adjustments.
someone had adjusted the focus range trying to get it to read pushed down

So it won't spin if the spindle ring is pulled up too high? Should it start to spin again if I push it down farther?

[thesteve]

yep.
the system looks for its reflection first.
if the laser reflects back it trys spinning the disk

[BlueBMW]

But like steve said, you might be better off trying to adjust the laser with the spindle deck at the higher position (like its supposed to be)  Read the threads on adjusting the laser pots for more info.

[allyourblood]

Okay, I adjusted 102 and 104 until I got it spinning while set at the correct height. However, no tweaking of 101 and 103 will get a game or audio CD to play. I turned them all in various degrees, listening for the noises and sounds BlueBMW mentioned in another thread, to no avail. I simply can't get it to load a thing. I'm guessing the seller was full of crap on this one. Huge bummer too, as it wasn't a bad price if the smushed spindle really was the problem. Looks like it might be something more, which kills any money I might've saved. I'm not quite ready to give up on it, but I'm not sure what to try next.

I do really appreciate all the advice you folks are offering. It's awesome!

[BlueBMW]

You may also try adjusting the pot on the laser itself clockwise slightly.  Worst case you may need a new laser.

Just read it again... this is a regular US duo... have the caps been changed yet?  If not, do them as I've seen systems not read cds as a result of bad caps.

[thesteve]

you may just need a cap change or regrease at this point

[allyourblood]

Ugh... Okay, a cap change I can do. I suppose it's gonna need it anyway. Man, it would have to be one of the harder-to-find systems that would have this many issues. (I'm scowling in the general direction of my 6+ Sega CDs that all work perfectly.)

I'll post back once the cap change is underway. Thanks again!