Messages

[Buy/Sell/Trade / WTB: Pop'n Magic]

Just saw one pop up on eBay for $50 shipped - really tempted to take it, but I figured someone in here could probably beat that price, so hit me up if you got one you want to let go!

minimum CIB, don't care about spine and useless registrations cards or whatever.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: RGB mod on IF Unit or PC Engine?]

Yeah, it's a CoreGrafx (as mentioned in the first post )
It's a model 1 (blue logo)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: RGB mod on IF Unit or PC Engine?]

Ok this doesn't make sense to me anyway now... I just tried playing a CD game with the AV cable plugged directly into the normal DIN plug, rather than the RCA plugs of the IFU, and the CD audio plays just fine, so I don't see why an RGB mod in the PC Engine unit itself shouldn't be able to take the audio from the exact same source without any problmes.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: RGB mod on IF Unit or PC Engine?]

Good point! I didn't even think of that.
I'll have to make a custom RGB cable anyway, so I guess I'll have to mix an RCA plug into it for the audio input

[Console Repair/Mod Center / RGB mod on IF Unit or PC Engine?]

Another stupid newbie question from me, I think - but once again I (strangely) couldn't find the answer anywhere else.

Most RGB mods on PC Engines I've seen were made in the interface unit itself. Which makes sense I guess, since this is the one you usually hook up to your TV set, but I'd like to be able to detach my PC Engine (coregrafx) unit when just playing a HuCard game, and still make use of the same mod.

Is there any reason not to make a RGB AV output directly on the PC Engine unit in an area that's still accessible while it's plugged into the IFU, and use this when playing CD-ROM games as well? I assume it would still work, or..?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-ROM2 Unit seems to work, but the disc won't spin when loading a game :(]

Lol

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-ROM2 Unit seems to work, but the disc won't spin when loading a game :(]

here in the US we dont bother with the stepdown converters 120V 100V close enough

Yeah, you have that advantage.
I don't think finding a proper 230v substitute should be much of a problem though, but all my Nintendo adapters output AC, and the Sega ones are center positive.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-ROM2 Unit seems to work, but the disc won't spin when loading a game :(]

I thought so too!
Actually the problem was with the stepdown converter I was using, I thought it was the one I had always been using for my PC Engine.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-ROM2 Unit seems to work, but the disc won't spin when loading a game :(]

Wow, seems the problem wasn't with the drive or interface unit at all. It was the power supply that was unable to supply enough power for both the CD unit and PC Engine unit at the same time. Was a pretty easy and stupid fix, too.

But thank you guys for directing me away from the drive itself as the source of the problem!

I am finally able to play PC Engine CD games again, amazing!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / CD-ROM2 Unit seems to work, but the disc won't spin when loading a game :(]

I've been trying to search around for similar problems, but it's difficult to find out exactly where to look for someone with the same problem.

Anyway I recently replaced the broken gear in my CD-ROM² unit with this one, and that solution works just fine (I can't recommend it enough), if I just plug the power into drive and put headphones into the Line Out plug in the back, I can play an audio CDs, and all the audio tracks from a PCE game, with no problems at all.

However, once I plug it into my Interface Unit, and try reading game data through it, it's as if the drive isn't even able to spin the disc. When I press the "Run" button, it just starts loading, and the CD drive displays "PC" like it should, but the drive is only able to spin the disc for a couple of millimeters before stopping and trying again, going into a constant "stutter". I could try to record it, but I think you get what I mean.

I think this problem might have existed before messing with my gear repair (I remember being able to help loading get going by tapping/hitting the drive on the side), but it might also be related to me messing with the insides of the unit - I tried messing a little with the pot meters, but I'm not sure what each of them do, so I won't go too far from the current configuration which plays audio tracks fine, after all.

I can actually make the disc spin by opening the lid, giving it a spin manually, and then quickly closing the lid to push the Run button. It's not helping the game load, though.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo CD / PCE CDROM2 Broken Gear / Warmup Issue - Solutions in Development!]

Just popping in for the latest developments in this issue/fix.
First let me say that I think it's beyond awesome that as late as 2011, there are people willing fix an issue with this age old hardware (we're talking the very first disc based console here ). I haven't been able to play my PC Engine CD-ROM games for several years, and I seriously miss them. I actually passed up on buying Nexzr for a decent price because I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to play it.

A friend helped me pinpoint the issue a couple of years ago, and there's really no doubt, once we found out that damned tiny rubber gear is missing a tooth. I'm amazed I was actually able to play a few seconds of CD audio despite this. At the time things were looking really grim, considering I probably wouldn't be able to find a replacement gear anywhere other than salvaging it from another CD-ROM2 unit, and buying a broken one of those, I bet there'd be a pretty big chance the problem was the same.
The same guy then discovered this forum thread, and it seriously made my day! Now we both want one of those replacement gears.

Reading through the thread, it seems the best fix is Keith or Chop's replacement gears? As far as I can tell, Keith's is able to speed up loading times, too? That does sound really sweet! I've sent you both a PM regarding it, hope you don't mind.
The belt solution looks very nice too, but I don't think I have the guts to modify my system that much.