CD/GD/DVD drive work: laser-pickup replacement, lubrication and drive-rail repair.
15 repair logs
+11 photosSega — Wondermega
Full board recap on this Victor RG-M1 Wondermega (JVC's branding of the Sega Wondermega), complete with a laser sled clean. Drew blood for this one; photo evidence in the thread. Everything works; the motorised tray is just waiting on a replacement belt.
+18 photosSuccessful repairNEC — PC Engine CD-ROM2
This NEC PC Engine CD-ROM² threw everything at me: 3D printed gears, a dead laser, a Discman sacrifice and a spindle height mystery, before a full recap finally brought it home. Worth every frustrating hour of it.
+29 photosSuccessful repairSega — Mega-CD 1
A second Sega Mega-CD Model 1, bought after my first died from a non-OEM laser: a full recap, deep clean, optical-drive service and joint reflow brought this one back.
+39 photosSega — Dreamcast
Friend asked me to pick up a Sega Dreamcast VA0 from Japan and make it new again. Full recap, fan and optical drive lubrication, GDEMU install with the required VA0 resistor array mod (5V to 3.3V for GDEMU) and a dummy load resistor for the 12V PSU rail. Also fitted a resettable fuse and a fresh ML2032 clock battery.
+11 photosSuccessful repairMicrosoft — Xbox 360
The laser on a friend's Microsoft Xbox 360 needed replacing: the old pickup refused to read discs 99% of the time, so a new laser and a drive service got it reading again.
+21 photosSuccessful repair3DO Company — Panasonic FZ-1
This is the Panasonic FZ-1 3DO whose laser went to save its sibling. With the drive dead anyway, a full recap and an ODE installation was the logical conclusion.
+5 photosPartial fixNintendo — GameCube
Two spare Nintendo GameCube optical drives (DOL-001) recapped. One came back to life, one didn't. The dead one reads 30 ohms on the motor where the working one is OL, which likely points to a dead motor.
+13 photosNintendo — GameCube
A bit of an identity crisis on this Nintendo GameCube pearl white: DOL-001 board in a DOL-101 shell, transplanted there many moons ago. Optical drive recapped as part of the GameCube maintenance day.
+17 photosNintendo — GameCube
This silver Nintendo GameCube (DOL-001) was recapped twice. First its optical drive PCB, to cure a disc read fault (on these consoles it is usually the caps, not the laser). Later, a full mainboard recap, which kicked off the campaign to recap the mainboards across the whole GameCube fleet. Razor-sharp Tetris blocks to celebrate.
+2 photosSuccessful repairSony — PlayStation 3
Backwards-compatible Sony PlayStation 3 CECHB00 that would accept and eject discs but not read them. The tray mechanism needed lubing and once done, it read PS1, PS2 and PS3 without complaint.
+42 photosSuccessful repair3DO Company — Panasonic FZ-1
PSU repairs on this Panasonic FZ-1 3DO required bridging badly damaged traces, and a missed ceramic cap connection sent the console into a reboot loop. Sourcing a replacement laser meant buying a whole other console, but it runs now, and has since gained an ODE with SD card access through the AV expansion bay.
+8 photosSuccessful repairSega — Saturn
A full recap on a three-euro Sega Saturn NTSC-J Model 2 that booted to corrupted, frozen graphics: PSU, motherboard and optical drive all seen to, plus a reflow and a retrobrite.
+27 photosSuccessful repairNintendo — GameCube
My personal Nintendo GameCube (DOL-001) spice orange. Started life with a PicoBoot and later upgraded to a FlippyDrive. The optical drive also got fresh caps as part of a GameCube maintenance day.
+7 photosNintendo — GameCube
Two Nintendo GameCubes (black and spice orange) restored for friends: Console 5 mainboard cap kit, optical drive and PSU recap, XenoGC chip and new coin cell battery holders. Wind Waker was played immediately.
+3 photosMicrosoft — Xbox
Taking a heavily rusted original Microsoft Xbox back to glory: full recap, optical drive belt replacement, metal parts soaked in a vinegar bath for days then Dremel-sanded clean, shell repainted.
