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[Console Repair/Mod Center / PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Hi everyone!

Glad to see that this forum is still alive and kicking! It's been awhile and I finally had some time in the last few weeks to start really making some progress on hooking up some of my older consoles. I had been using a Duo RX for years without any issues and all of sudden I'm getting that "Set Disc Error", that from what I'm reading seems to be like a general hardware error for pretty much anything having to do with the CD-Rom.

I've seen some other posts here with similar issues and one member (Joe) said he was able to fix his after his PC-Engine had been recapped. From what I've been reading, a recap can sometimes result in needing to adjust the potentiometers a bit with VR102 usually being the main culprit in most cases.

That's kind of what I wanted to try to play around with first before I start taking things apart from the actual cd-rom/laser assembly. I'm a novice when it come to electronics and a bit worse when it comes to the mechanical stuff... ended up breaking the plastic gears in my famicom disk system for instance, so would prefer to stay in my beginner wheelhouse first.

So the symptoms I've been getting outside of the Set Disc error is that the laser will recalibrate and move to the left to attempt to read the inner data layer of the CD. It will spin the disc for a second, then stop and the laser will move up and down (not left or right) just a bit in an attempt to read the disc. When it gives up the process, it will spin the disc one more time for about a second and then stop.



What I thought I might try first was adjusting the pots, and saw a great guide on the forums here that I was attempting to follow:

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=8926.0

Specifically, I was hoping to try reading the voltage (starting with VR102) of A to B and B to C and C to A, like this guide says:

vr101:AB=12.33 AC=10.65 BC=19.55
vr102:AB=7.89 AC=8.11 BC=11.28
vr103:AB=7.25 AC=7.14 BC=18.46
vr105:AB=0.38 AC=0.00 BC=0.38

But in my case, I'm not getting any where near a DC voltage reading of 7v to 11v, I'm getting like a 2.22v or maybe 2.03v when I adjust the pot a bit. If those values from that guide are showing that they should be much higher voltages, then that makes me think that somewhere along the lines, perhaps a capacitor or two are no longer working as they should and not outputting the proper voltage. The caps at a glance look fine... the PSU is an original one, rated for 9v, but is actually outputting around 13v when I tested it. After it runs through the voltage regulators on the board, I think it goes to around 4v?

I guess I'm just wondering if I'm reading that guide correctly and I in fact should be seeing higher voltages there. I was surprised a bit because it seems like with vr103, the B to C test should be something around 18v and that seemed a bit high considering the PSU being uses is around 9v to 13v.

I was wondering if you did a voltage test on your pots and if you saw something different than what I'm seeing currently. I'm trying to figure out if I should just get a cap kit from Console 5 and just work on replacing all the caps first and maybe that might solve the problem or get me closer?

If you or anyone else has any advice for me or confirmations on what my next steps should be, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

-SkyeWelse

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Nice to meet you all]

Hello Everyone,

I've been here for a few weeks now and so far I think it's a great community. I see a lot of love for the TurboGrafx/PC-Engine and it feels like it is constantly active with many members and projects, and it seems that many of the members here have known each other for years. It reminds me quite a bit of the forum community Ancient Land of Ys where I hail from, as well as the MSX Resource Center.

I used to be pretty heavily active in playing through many PC-Engine CD titles many years ago when Magic Engine was first released and being actively developed, and I was playing just about anything and everything I could get my hands on using that and something called MednafenX for the original Xbox which worked really well! Since I'm getting back into PC-Engine again after acquiring real hardware a few years back, this place really does have a wealth of information that is great for me to catch up on and read about. I'm also pretty excited to learn about new fan-translation projects such as Emerald Dragon, AnEarth, and all new PCE games such as Mysterious Song (which sadly I purchased but not have played through yet, for shame I know... Sorry Paranoia Dragon, and now a really cool Mega Man port with remixed music, Jungle Bros, and Aetherbutt's Atlantean HuCard game. (Also I know Atherbyte through their MSX releases as well, so it's cool to see they are still actively developing games).

It's really all quite amazing and I love seeing new projects come about for classic hardware. It's part of the reason that keeps me so interested in the MSX community, since there's always new hardware and games, even entirely new machines being released for something that is considered to be a "dead system". It's wonderful because it shows that it continues to live strong even today.

Also I asked a friend "So what does "Obey" mean at the PCEFX community? And he replied with the following URL: http://www.pcengine.co.uk/obey/obeypce.htm <== This is true gold right here I must say. I dare say that I may too be tempted to create a few Photoshop additions to this if you'll have them  as I eat this stuff up, for breakfast, with crushed up SNES cartridges for a good source of Fiber. ;)

Here is my TurboGrafx / PC-Engine / Turbo-Duo Collection:



Larger Pic

If you are interested in reading, I'll tell you about myself a bit. I've been an avid gamer and collector for most of my life and I'm into many genres and systems, both new and old, though the PC-Engine TurboDuo is definitely one of my favorite systems, especially the CD-Rom games. I'm pretty huge into Falcom and Microcabin games such as Ys and Xak, and many others, though my all-time favorite series is and will likely always be Panzer Dragoon.

I'm really into graphic design, website design and animation as well as making 3D models, although I haven't had as much time for the latter two after college. I've run a few websites over the years, Suikocastle.net, (now gone) MiraiGamer.net (also now gone), Cavestory.org (was the original creator of the tribute site back when the fan-translation by AGTP was first released and later passed the torch) and I also made a fansite for the Xak series, which really has a pretty bad design and could stand a facelift one of these days. I'm a HUGE fan of the Xak series and I got into that series through Nightwolve's very own Xak III English translation. I guess you might say that Nightwolve created a bit of a monster here with that patch... haha.

I still hope to see the first two Xak games (Xak I&II) for PCE get a translation one day as well as Fray CD. It really is an incredible series and on Par with a few of the old school Ys games too in my opinion. (Watch out Adol... Latok Kart doesn't mess around! He can lawn mow and stab with a sword with the best of them...)

Here's my Xak collection if anyone is interested:



Larger Pic

Nowadays, I mainly run 3 websites, which are not very active yet, retro-type.com which is/was intended to be a gaming blog, which never quite got off the ground due to lack of time/interest on my part. shantae.net which was another Tribute Fansite that I created during the Shantae Half-Genie Hero Kickstarter about a year ago. I'm big Shantae fan, it's an incredible platforming series for sure and extremely enjoyable to play.

And along with a local MSX friend and collector, I run a startup MSX site called USAMSX that was intended to be kind of an entryway/gateway site for Americans to utilize should they ever want to get into the MSX hobby with real hardware and for U.S. based MSX fans to have something to connect with, but unfortunately it hasn't gotten too far in development either, but hey! At least we manage to do some kickass exhibits of our MSX machines at the Vintage Computer Fair Southeast. Last year we had 24 machines! That's probably the largest MSX exhibit in America ever! We even had both of the American-only released MSX machines there as well.

Currently also working on a port and remix of Fix It Felix, Jr for the MSX with the same friend.
Here is our title screen so far:



More currently I'm assisting a Romhacking team for the translation of a Falcom PSP title called Nayuta no Kiseki which is pretty much all ready to go now aside from a few script corrections and errors that I'm discovering and fixing as I play through it. I mainly helped on that project with editing the original Japanese graphics, which I have to say was quite a challenge due to how many hoops you have to go through to get graphics to work correctly... Anyhow it's a fun game if you enjoy the Ys Oath in Felghana, Ys Ark of Napistim, and Ys Origin's gameplay style that had some fast paced action and tons of Jumping/Platforming, then this is definitely another great one to add to the list. The newer Ys games, while still good, are missing that jumping/platforming action that I feel really needs to be there.

Anyhow, it's nice to meet all of you and I guess I better start reading through some threads!

-Thomas