Disgusted

[forsigmar]

After having been out of the Turbo scene for a while I recently decided to jump back in.  l already own a TG16 with about 20 games so I thought a Duo and an Express would complement it nicely.  I purchased a "working" Duo and Express on Ebay a few weeks back.  The Express had the standard weak audio as noted in the description but the Duo was to work fine.  About a week after getting them the screen on the Express went, it is only backlit with sound.  I didn't worry too much about it hoping to try the cap swap in the future.  The Duo was working fine aside from losing 1 audio channel after it warmed up.  Today I go to play Lords of Thunder which I just got in the mail and the Duo only makes a high pitched noise when there is a disc inside, then it tells me to set a disc.  Needless to say I am sick over this since I spent a decent amount on the two together.  Any suggestions on what I should do?

[vestcoat]

That sucks.  I'm sorry to hear about your problems.  Considering ebay, it could have been worse.  The repairs are a pain in the butt but not the end of the world; the problems you describe usually happen sooner or later anyway. 

Obviously, try a CD lens cleaner if you haven't already. 
Next, buy the special screw bit needed to open the Duo.
My Duo made the high pitched noise after I replaced the lens; you may be able to fix it simply by adjusting the potentiometer on the sliding lens unit.  It looks like a white plastic screw.  Try giving it a quarter turn one way or the other, you'll need to experiment and test it.  If that doesn't work, try a half turn.  If that doesn't work, then you'll need to buy a new Hop M3 or whatever it's called. 

It also helps to put a drop of oil on the spindle, metal bars and other moving parts.  I use sewing machine oil.

Good luck and welcome back to the scene!

[Necromancer]

Welcome aboard.  Sorry you're having troubles with your Express and Duo, but at least they're relatively cheap and easy to fix.

[forsigmar]

Thanks guys.  I am starting with the express.  It was really hot and humid out yesterday and I powered it on and the screen worked.  After turning on the AC in my apartment I tried it again and the screed didn't work.  I took it apart and heated up the cap that has been identified as the culprit with a heat gun, it started working again.  That should be an easy enough fix.  I also tried the Duo again yesterday and it worked too, no high pitched noises.  So both systems are far from dead they are just giving me the early warning signs.

[ceti alpha]

Yeah, sucks that all these Duos and Expresses have these problems. At least a lot of people are getting these issues fixed, so eventually most of the Duos and Expresses going around eBay and where ever else will be in full working condition. heh

As for that high pitched sound, that seems to happen with mine if I put in the Sapphire bootleg (a.k.a. "second print" lol) CD. It's not unbearable and all it takes sometimes is just opening and closing the CD lid. I really should just buy a replacement laser now, so it's ready to install when the original laser finally goes on me.

[oldschoolgamer1989]

This is why i can't stand ebay.

[Ratix]

got a little squeak just have the duo tilted to the side a bit!

[forsigmar]

What really kills me is that about 5 years ago I had a perfectly working Duo and Express.  I have learned a hard lesson about selling off my game collection.  It will cost you 2x the amount to get it back, and you will want it back so just don't sell it in the first place.  I really don't miss things like the 3Do, Cdi, Jaguar, but the Turbo, Genesis, Snes, Nes were all greatly missed.

[pcenginesales]

9 times out of 10, problems encountered with CD consoles on eBay are because the damn postal service shook it up and broke it. They would literally break 1 in 5 (most were just the plastic cover on the CD ROM jolting up so the CD would not spin, easily fixable but tell that to some buyers) until I plain stopped selling them on eBay because people would just charge back on Paypal. They'd initiate chargeback before I even got the chance to tell them how to push down the cover so it'd spin. But others were just plain broken. And I lost the money every time because buyers weren't prepared to go the mile for a simple repair, which I would have paid for.

I'd much rather sell consoles on here now because I've read on this forum a few times of cases where a modder sent a CD console only for it to end up broken, and the buyer being a bit savvy got it fixed. I wish that'd happened to me on eBay ever.

I still hate shipping CD consoles, and I have a small dislike of shipping non CD too seeing as I've had the switches on my mods snapped off by the mail service a couple of times despite protecting them considerably in the parcel.

[drdre]

What really kills me is that about 5 years ago I had a perfectly working Duo and Express.  I have learned a hard lesson about selling off my game collection.  It will cost you 2x the amount to get it back, and you will want it back so just don't sell it in the first place.  I really don't miss things like the 3Do, Cdi, Jaguar, but the Turbo, Genesis, Snes, Nes were all greatly missed.

God, I've had to learn this lesson the hard way as well.  You sell cause you think you'll never play it again, and then you regret the decision very fast 

[forsigmar]

Less disgusted.  The Express is fixed, 4 audio caps and 1 video cap and it should be good to go.   The Duo will be the next project.

[mobiusclimber]

9 times out of 10, problems encountered with CD consoles on eBay are because the damn postal service shook it up and broke it. They would literally break 1 in 5 (most were just the plastic cover on the CD ROM jolting up so the CD would not spin, easily fixable but tell that to some buyers) until I plain stopped selling them on eBay because people would just charge back on Paypal. They'd initiate chargeback before I even got the chance to tell them how to push down the cover so it'd spin. But others were just plain broken. And I lost the money every time because buyers weren't prepared to go the mile for a simple repair, which I would have paid for.

I'd much rather sell consoles on here now because I've read on this forum a few times of cases where a modder sent a CD console only for it to end up broken, and the buyer being a bit savvy got it fixed. I wish that'd happened to me on eBay ever.

I still hate shipping CD consoles, and I have a small dislike of shipping non CD too seeing as I've had the switches on my mods snapped off by the mail service a couple of times despite protecting them considerably in the parcel.

That's why I insure every package over $40. Let the post office eat it, not me.

[pcenginesales]

9 times out of 10, problems encountered with CD consoles on eBay are because the damn postal service shook it up and broke it. They would literally break 1 in 5 (most were just the plastic cover on the CD ROM jolting up so the CD would not spin, easily fixable but tell that to some buyers) until I plain stopped selling them on eBay because people would just charge back on Paypal. They'd initiate chargeback before I even got the chance to tell them how to push down the cover so it'd spin. But others were just plain broken. And I lost the money every time because buyers weren't prepared to go the mile for a simple repair, which I would have paid for.

I'd much rather sell consoles on here now because I've read on this forum a few times of cases where a modder sent a CD console only for it to end up broken, and the buyer being a bit savvy got it fixed. I wish that'd happened to me on eBay ever.

I still hate shipping CD consoles, and I have a small dislike of shipping non CD too seeing as I've had the switches on my mods snapped off by the mail service a couple of times despite protecting them considerably in the parcel.

That's why I insure every package over $40. Let the post office eat it, not me.

Doesn't work. You make too many claims because you sell sensitive components, the postal service will eventually put you on a blacklist. Having been selling and converting CD consoles for 15 years, having had a good few situations whereby the CD console had to be sent back to me for repair and I tried to claim back costs, I've managed to have every single address I've lived at put on a no claims blacklist. The joke is it only takes 2 claims in a year for the Royal Mail to start refusing any more, and in fact if you ring their advice line you will be outright accused of fraud by the workers there.

The only way to run this sort of business is just to soak up any losses.

My current address is on a blacklist because the Royal Mail lost 3 parcels last year, all were recorded delivery, all definitely went missing. One game was Dracula X. They refunded for one, the other two were refused because I had "no proof of purchase receipts" being that mine were in Japanese. They would only have refunded purchase costs anyway so you lose labour costs, postage from japan and ebay listing fees.

I never insure packages to the full amount. I only cover them with a signature to stop the buyers claiming non delivery on ebay. The insurance is not worth the paper it is written on. In the case of Dracula X the game was sold for $100 but had insurance of a base $70 (the minimum you are allowed if you fail to pay for extra.) Well guess what, they wouldn't even pay me THAT.

[Michael Helgeson]

The US side of the postal service is different. If you can show the package was indeed abused by them, box dented, ect, and item busted, you get the claim. Its not as big a ordeal here. The postal service doesn't penalize you here for their problems, as long as your are doing a reasonable amount of them and not trying to pull off a large run of postal scams. They do investigate for scams, busted items in un-abused boxes,ect. Stuff that looks fishy.

But yea,if you make  a legitimate claim,you'll get the money back. If you have to do a large number of them in a certain time period, but they are legit, they may want to know why you are shipping so much stuff, so you will prob have to show them proof you are running a legit business,via ebay or whatever. Every now and then too they will want you to show proof of the items value or how much you were paid for it, so if you sold it on ebay you may have to print off the auction details. In that case its best too to print off auction pics of it when it worked prior to being shipped.

If its lost, by them, and insured, all you have to do is file the claim and have the person that was to receive it write a statement saying it was never delivered. You get your money then. All USPS Insurance slips now carry the barcode scanning procedure, regardless of the value. Its treated like any delivery confirm slip. It gets scanned at check point hubs and at delivery. If they lost it, its on them. As bad as USPS is with rates going up,and service slowing down, they have at least been better at trying to prevent lost packages,esp insured ones by requireing all insured ones to be scanned in.

You can even track insured ones now,not online though. You have to call the 800 number for USPS and haggle its automated service until you get a live rep. It takes a few mins. The live rep can look up the insurance number and see where it was last scanned in. Your local post office can do the same thing too.