I need help with the Jag CD

[zektor]

It seems to not spin a game at all. I heard somewhere that there was some kind of lock, and to pry something to unlock it. I dont want to mess it up. It seems really stiff (the cd spinner) so I'm hoping all it is is that its locked. ANy help is appreciated

[Gunstar]

I'm not sure a cd "spinner" being stiff is anything out of the ordinary or not, since an electric motor is connected to it either directly or less commonly, by belt drive or other gears. Please describe the problem in more detail, you say it "seems" not to spin a disc, but do you know this for sure? Have you actually looked through the little Jagcd window when the cd should be spinning and definately see it standing still? I have had my Jagcd since '95, I ran into a problem with it once, which was easily fixed, but I have never heard of any type of "lock" or anything to "pry" to get it going. You don't want to be "prying" anything in there!

So for now, I'm going to take you through the setup and some common trouble shooting. I will be assuming that you are an idiot and don't have a clue as to what your doing (so don't take it personally, ), I just want to cover everything, even the most simple of problems could be easily overlooked.

First, the Jagcd plugs into the top of the Jaguar, you want to make sure that it is inserted all the way and lock in tight like a cartridge, the front of the cd player has a tab that fits into a slot just above the power switch on the Jaguar, right at the apex of the curved mold of the Jaguar that was made for the cd player to attach too. If this is not flush, the cd may not be plugged in all the way. There should be a kind of "click" or "pop" sound when inserting the cd player, just like inserting a cartridge.

Next, make sure the power supply for the Jaguar and the Jagcd (two seperate power packs), and that they are both plugged into a live outlet (one that is working).

Next, insert the cd, making sure it is positioned correctly on the "spinner." close the cd door and make sure it is securely shut. Insert the memory track cartridge at this time if you have one (this is not necessary for operation). Turn on the Jaguar and you should see a different OS screen that with the Jaguar alone, it will not be the Jaguar cube with the atari name falling down and the Jaguar name. It will have some "lightshow" effects behind a glowing red Jaguar name. If there is no cd in the tray or it is not reading it properly, a cd with a question mark will show up. If there is no power to the unit (cd), it will show a picture of the back of the Jag/Jagcd with an arrow pointing to the power socket. if all of this is operating correctly, the game should load, if the disk is not spinning or can't load the program for some reason, it should show the cd/? thing. If it does this, look to see if the cd spins for a bit, then stops, then spins again and/or changes direction at all (this is what happened to me). If it does, then you have gotten a surge of power sent to the Jagcd some how that has caused the electric motor(s) (there are two) to lose their polarity and they are working against each other. I simply took the unit apart, unplug both motors, spun them both in their proper direction (clockwise looking down the shaft), and put it all back together. I don't know what out of any of this that I did corrected the problem, maybe it was just unplugging them (the motors), but when I put it all back together, it worked perfectly. This whole incident happened to me when I had the Jag/cd powered up and was playing a game, and some one shut off a light switch that also controlled the outlets I had the Jaguar plugged into. When the flipped the switch back on (while the Jag's power switch was still on), it sent a spike of power to the unit which cased the problem. So the lesson here is to never plug the Jaguar/cd into an outlet that can be shut off and never turn the power on before plugging it in.

[zektor]

Nevermind. I figured it out. ALl I had to do was take a tiny flayhead screwdriver and pry up the grey spinner *lightly*. It pops back into place and works perfectly. It's some sort of safely thing when they shipped the cd-rom I guess....because it was brand new.

[Gunstar]

I bought mine brand new in late '95 and never had to do that. I've never heard of that from anyone.

[eightbit]

22 year old bump!

 

And, why would I do such a thing? Well, I just could not pass up the opportunity to answer my 26 year old self from the past!

 

In a completely different post elsewhere someone had mentioned they had an "old" account (a duplicate) and wanted to find a way to reclaim or remove it I suppose. I thought back and yes, I did have an old account as well. I was "Zektor" in 2001 and many years before. But, I forgot my credentials here, created a new account under my "new" name eightbit and moved on with my AA life. But tonight I decided to search for my kid self and I found him!

 

So, to answer my younger self, no, what you had to do with the JagCD was not normal and it was not a part of any new JagCD purchase routine to have to use a flathead screwdriver to pop out the spinner in order to get this to function. Your first JagCD purchase from Best Electronics was clearly completely defective, and the new replacement they had sent you was also defective. But, you got lucky that the spinner was compressed and prying it up actually resulted in a functional JagCD.

 

[+madman]

I'm glad it all worked out in the end.