PC-FX defective laser lens ?

[cosmos99]

I just have received a boxed FX today , i have some troubles reading mint original game discs , freezes in the FMV , disc read errors... I have swept two times the lens but no real effect , things goes a bit better but troubles are still here. So i think i'm gonna change the lens , i've read in an other thread that the lens replacement is the HITACHI HOP-E1 wich is not expensive at all , but there would be some changes to do at the end of the ribbon cable , any info about it (the topic is closed) ? Anyone ever changed its lens ??? Thanks ! 

the old topic

[SuperDeadite]

How's the condition of your disks?  The FX is very sensitive to scratches.  The smallest blemish is enough to give you the problems you are experiencing.  First thing to do is burn a copy of the game and try again.  The FX will read burns no problem, if they are in mint shape.

[nat]

Calibration on the PC-FX can drift as it does on the Duo. I've had to calibrate FXes in the past in order for them to work properly. I'd try that before buying a new laser.

[alexsduo]

how do you calibrate a duo?

[cosmos99]

I'm using original pristine discs ,this does not come from the games, in fact i've discovered that it would work fine(but for how long ?) when horizontally standing... For the time i will play like this but will surely ask for a partial refund from seller(i told him about blue breaker and scratchy FMV and he answered "do you use american game discs ? " lol , he's Japanese... ). I've opened the system , easy to open ,a few screws to the bottom then it's all clipsed , and checked at the cdrom drive ,regreased a bit , but that didn't changed anything. I've heard the lens was the playstation type but it doesn't seems since it's all metal when the old PS1 model was plastic(and all its troubles...).The best i think like nat said should be to re-calibrate the lens , do you know where the pots are ? Thanks for advice ! 

[TGX16]

I'm using original pristine discs ,this does not come from the games, in fact i've discovered that it would work fine(but for how long ?) when horizontally standing... For the time i will play like this but will surely ask for a partial refund from seller(i told him about blue breaker and scratchy FMV and he answered "do you use american game discs ? " lol , he's Japanese... ). I've opened the system , easy to open ,a few screws to the bottom then it's all clipsed , and checked at the cdrom drive ,regreased a bit , but that didn't changed anything. I've heard the lens was the playstation type but it doesn't seems since it's all metal when the old PS1 model was plastic(and all its troubles...).The best i think like nat said should be to re-calibrate the lens , do you know where the pots are ? Thanks for advice ! 

If I remember it right there are 5 under the left sidepanel and that one of them should fix your problem, just make sure you do a mark at where you start change the settings, I'm not sure but I think VR102 is the one to adjust, Do not qoute me on this one tho.
The text below is something I found somewhere:
"Most FX's like this can be fixed, it is usually not a dirty laser but one which is out of calibration. If you remove the right side panel of your FX (use a micro standard screwdriver to remove the security bits if you do not have the correct bit) and then you will see 5-6 (It's been long enough I forget which number, I think 5) trim pots near where the CD cable connects to the motherboard (top left). Take a micro sharpie marker and makes lines across the trim puts on the side of them so you know where they origionally were. Then adjust the trip pots slowly while an origional game fmv plays. You will find that every FX needs different adjustments entirely for some reason. These resistors will alter how it reads the video as well as the audio. By slowly adjusting your trim pots in a custom manner (some you might take back to the origional position) you can fine tune it to play fmv and audio correctly. Then the true test is to put in an enhanced audio CD from the very modern era, especially a sony one with a rootkit on it and see if the audio player can play the CD without any errors. If the audio has problems in this case but on FX games everything is fine, it means you need a new laser, but as long as you plan to use it as a game machine and not an audio CD player (or only play older CDs on it) you will be fine."

[cosmos99]

Ok fine , many thanks ! I've located those pots ,i will try to get the value with a multimeter before touching them.