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Hello! New here, Jaguar CD problem


bender3455

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Hi all! I've been frequenting these forums quite a bit browsing the discussions about well...pretty much anything Jaguar and Jaguar CD. I've had my Jaguar for awhile, but finally got ahold of a CD unit on Ebay. I knew it didn't work, but considering my electronic skills, I wasn't too worried. Initial problem: No spin on CD drive, '?' on screen. I figured the drive mechanism was bad, ordered another off Ebay, soldered it up, and guess what happened............same thing. I can freely spin the center by hand, and I even tried pulling the gear back and rebooting to see if the laser gear will advance, which it will. Due to the design, I don't see a good way to test it while powered up. There are two things to note about this particular unit:

 

1) when I took it apart, the red wire was connected to the red dot position, which seemed backwards to me (I've tried hooking the drive up both ways, red and green)

 

2) the main EPROM (the one that you'd normally replace to play custom bios) already is sitting in a socket which looks soldered in by machine. The chip is labeled:700066-002 A 1995 Atari $2D21. I wasn't aware that any of the units had sockets for their chips. Is this possibly a Dev Unit?

 

Is there anything anyone can recommend to check? Not spinning is the only issue that I can see and I'm really eager to get playing! Thanks a lot!

 

~Ben

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Does the CD mech do anything? Does the laser move, or just nothing, no laser movement and no spindle movement?

 

As for the BIOS, I imagine a dev unit would have a label over the EPROM saying dev bios or something to that effect, but I'm not sure.

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The CD mechanism moves forward, reverse, up, and down. It's just the spindle that has no movement. I see two voltage regulators on the board, and I'd consider one of them were bad.........if the cd mechanism didn't move at all. But since it does everything short of spindle movement, I don't think it'll be the regulators. But I'm also just assuming that too, lol.

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Did you try pulling up on the spindle with a small screw driver? It's not quite clear in your posts. Most "bad" Jaguar Cd's have their spindles pushed down, so they can't move. I think people think it's snap in CD spindle like on the Saturn and PSX, etc., with the little ball bearings, but it isn't, the disc just rests on it. In any case the spindle gets pushed down and the simple fix is to carefully pry it up until it spins freely. Small adjustments may be required for the laser eye to focus correctly. You may be over diagnosing here.

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Gunstar, it's very possible that I'm overthinking it :roll: , but after my latest finding, maybe not. First off, when I took the old mechanism out, it was seized up, but after getting it out, I was able to pop up the disc in the center and it spun freely in my hand again. I didn't realize this until after I had installed the new mechanism into the Jaguar CD. So why haven't I put the original mechanism back in to test it? Here's why:

 

2015-03-23_2146_zpstrzvunpg.png

 

I get voltage on the secondary output, but not the 1st output, which drives the spindle. Still testing currently, I'll keep you guys posted!

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If the spindle does move freely with your finger, then it's not a problem with the spindle being pushed down too far. So

 

Gunstar, it's very possible that I'm overthinking it :roll: , but after my latest finding, maybe not. First off, when I took the old mechanism out, it was seized up, but after getting it out, I was able to pop up the disc in the center and it spun freely in my hand again. I didn't realize this until after I had installed the new mechanism into the Jaguar CD. So why haven't I put the original mechanism back in to test it? Here's why:

 

2015-03-23_2146_zpstrzvunpg.png

 

I get voltage on the secondary output, but not the 1st output, which drives the spindle. Still testing currently, I'll keep you guys posted!

 

 

I didn't mean anything by the over thinking it comment, it's just the spindle being pushed down to where it is not free to turn is a common problem that leads people to think the CD unit is broken electronically or mechanically when it's a simple fix. I once bought a "broken" CD unit off eBay and prying the spindle up fixed it, and I've heard of others doing the same. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this common issue.

Edited by Gunstar
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As you have not mentioned it have you checked that the power unit for your CD drive is working correctly under load?

 

It may be that is can only supply enough current to move the optical head or that the CD unit may be drawing power from the Jaguar to move the head unit but it is not possible for a single power unit to provide enough current to correctly run both the Jag and the CD when the CD motor is running as both unit require about 600mA each.

I have never tested to see what the effects would be of trying to run both units of one power supply as I did not want to risk the damage to my Jag, CD unit or power supplies.

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Hey Gunstar, no worries! I'm in no way offended by your comment! I tend to over-think things in general, lol.

 

Dragonstomper, I'm going to try to check input voltages when I get home. I did notice that if I plug a cart into the Jaguar CD while the Jag CD is attached to the Jag, it will read the cart just fine with no power connected to the Jag CD. So, there is a possibility that it is a power problem.

 

As far as Best Electronics goes, I sent them an email letting them know my problem and also that I don't mind sending it in if they'd prefer to look at it and repair, to just give me an estimate of repair. Their response was surprising to me:

 

"Q. I don't mind sending in the unit to you for repair, but was wondering an estimation on the cost of such repair? Thanks for your time!
A. Ben our 31+ year Atari Super tech will only repair Virgin untouched Jaguar CD Players with problems."
Being an Atari, with the userbase being a bunch of DIY-ers, mixed with the failure rate of these units as high as they are, I don't think there's many "virgin untouched" Jaguar CD players left. I was a bit taken aback by such an approach. If they had said "send it in, but we won't be able to assess a cost until we see what's happened", that would have made a bit more sense.
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As far as Best Electronics goes, I sent them an email letting them know my problem and also that I don't mind sending it in if they'd prefer to look at it and repair, to just give me an estimate of repair. Their response was surprising to me:

 

"Q. I don't mind sending in the unit to you for repair, but was wondering an estimation on the cost of such repair? Thanks for your time!
A. Ben our 31+ year Atari Super tech will only repair Virgin untouched Jaguar CD Players with problems."

 

 

You may want to ask before attempting to send the unit to Best. Turns out, they will only work on "virgin" units that have never been opened and worked on. I think eBay units are rejected.

Great tip, AtariBorn! Where did you hear about that policy?

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I emailed them, a couple days ago, about a Jag CD I've been having issues with. Bradley Koda responded with their policy. Mine wasn't exactly a "non working" eBay unit. It was a "been stored away for years and not sure if it still works" unit. But, with no way of telling if the system has been opened and worked on, without opening it, I guess I'll be working on mine on my own.

 

He was helpful though. The fact that my system boots normally, the reversed polarity power supply that was sent with it wasn't used.

Edited by AtariBorn
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Further progress: I've ordered a cap kit from Console 5. I'm hoping there's an open capacitor preventing power from getting to the spindle. If I still can't getting it going after replacing the caps, I'll probably buy a new unit from Best, and assume that some previous owner fried one of the main chips with an incorrect power supply. I sure can't wait to get it fired up and playing!

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Another JagCD, another Jagcd issue....

 

The Atari ST got 30 years (This year O_o) without problems, jagcd got problems all years !!!

 

I'm always asking if JagCD is really an Atari machine ? ;)

 

The Atari ST isn't a CD player.

 

The other console systems of that generation have the same or higher failure rates as the Jaguar CD players. PSX, Saturn etc. Might as well ask what they are.

 

How is posting that helpful in resolving his issue?

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