Sony PSOne (PlayStation) CD Drive Repair 

That's it! I remember using rack and pinion in the old Lego go-cart kit you used to be able to buy. Thanks =D

Thanks =D Res Evil was great! One of the first games I played all the way to the end I think.

Glad it helped =D

Mark Felton Acetone is used a lot by us in the 3D printing community as it's a solvent for ABS and bonds it really well so I always keep some lying around.

Thanks, great idea on acetone - someone mentioned that on my 65XE video. I will give some of that a try!

Haha, yes, they are so small you could almost fit one in your pocket! It's smaller than the Atari Lynx lol.

No worries =D Will give you some more shoutouts at some point!

They are lovely little systems - so small lol. LOL @ using one as coaster, I can how you might think that - they are pretty unique discs. I always thought the black coating made them look cooler than other CDs lol.

Yes, that's true! But ultimately all caps fail - its just a question of time. If the PH balance inside them is not kept to a certain level, they eventually leak, or dry out. More likely they will just dry out over time, if they were going to leak I would have expected it to happen by now.

Thanks =D Camera is just a Samsung R10 - you can buy them pretty cheap now, and even better cameras than this one. This camera seems to have a problem with 1080 and Apple iMovie though - not sure if its the format at 1080p or the crappy Apple software. Yes, I dont agree with piracy either - certainly on current generation systems. Having said that, DRM really really p******* me off. Recent case in point - new copy of the Starwars Rogue One 3D Blu Ray. Put the disc into my PC, Power DVD doesn't have the key to be able to play the movie and I don't want to pay $100 to update Power DVD. Any DVD HD expired so won't auto update, forced to re-new Any DVD HD just to watch a film - that really makes my blood boil lol.

Yep, p'd me right off as well this, it's still an absolute pain trying play BDs on a PC.

Thanks =D

Turning the pot 2mm fixed a gear? Come on, be honest, you didn't watch the video ;)

No man, my machine wouldn't read disc's properly either, it wasn't a gear problem at all, but turning the POT slightly allowed it to read again, and it is a mega easy fix, and I watched the video fully twice, I was just putting my 2p's worth in in case someone had the issue I did and it could help them.

Sorry but... what actually is POT???

Perhaps there's a fault on the main board! Check the ribbons need to connect the drive and the connectors, to make sure there's no damage.

vic20kid Don't use petroleum based lubricants on anything with plastic parts as it acts as a solvent and can weaken or erode them. Using a silicone based grease will ensure parts are undamaged but only put it on areas where there has already been lubrication or areas where you're sure it will be of benefit and avoid any optical or magnetic pickups.

Yep, a silicone or lithium grease is what you need.

Check the connector(s) are plugged in properly. Have an inspection of the drive too. Try cleaning the lens with a cotton bud and 99.9% IPA.

I think that goes to the motor(s) and perhaps the switch.

@@GadgetUK164 what's it called? I'm trying to figure out what it's called because it's the only cable I'm missing.

Which cable - the one on the CD drive? If its a flex ribbon its probably easier to replace the drive! They are available on eBay or AliExpress but the quality varies a lot - best to buy 3 or more from one seller and see which work and which do not.

It probably needs a new laser!

@@GadgetUK164 New laser is cheap replica from China. I want to repair original hardware.

Good luck finding one! You might get a new "old stock" unit if you're lucky, but most of the lasers out there for sale are repro / compatible ones from China. To be fair, they are so cheap - just buy 4 or 5 and a few are bound to work and last.

@@GadgetUK164 I didin't know that, thanks for info. Also can you please look for my laser problem video ? It's short so don't waste your time so much. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tzGlSwRruHk.html

That problem is quite common and is caused by the plastic sled that the laser moves up and down being worn away. As the laser moves across it drops and the focus goes out. That's why when you turn it upside down it works OK. You could swap out the laser assembly, or find a faulty laser assembly and swap the laser over to the other plastic carriage.

Someone probably can! Maybe there's a 3D model for it already?

You could try replacing the laser, or the drive unit.

You could try 3D printing one, but tbh a replacement drive unit is really cheap - like £2 or £3 on AliExpress. Although the quality of the units on AliExpress or eBay can be low, the gears are the same and easily interchangeable.

GadgetUK164 thank you for the response. I tried to look for just the gear but no luck. I am not sure what gear would work. In Aliexpress all I got is packages of several of them but they don't look like the one I need. Do you have by chance a link in Aliexpress to it? Regards!

I just ordered a complete laser assembly - for like £3 each. The gear is the same on all the ones I bought from AliExpress.

Did the price go up? I’m seeing >$15 usd. Thanks!

Have you tried swapping out the carriage? It could be a faulty BTL driver chip on the motherboard if there's still no life.

What is not moving left and right - do you mean the controller directions left and right do not work?

@@GadgetUK164 laser eye... Not move some time left and right

I have a PS1 repair coming up soon - I will try and cover it in that video if I can. I am not sure the PSX uses the same mechanism. Isn't the PSX based on PS2 hardware?

@@GadgetUK164 i just replace motors, but cable is really too short, the entire unit can't fit in a PSX

Faulty one - you mean the faulty laser? No, you cannot really fix the laser unit! If your laser doesn't bob up and down at all, that could indicate a few things. The BTL driver chip could be faulty, or you could be lacking a voltage on the PSU. Check the capacitors on the PSU board - there will be a BA6398FP (or similar BAnnnnnn) chip on there, that would be my first guess if the PSU is OK. Did you remove the anti static solder blob on the new laser before you installed it?

Thanks for the quick response! I see that the laser emits laserlight when I push down the lid button. I'm not sure what you mean with the anti static solder blob, afaik it didnt even come in a anti static bag. I think it's a cheap kina copy of some sort. Still they both behave the same, the old and the new laser. I did check for any faulty capacitors, I found no loose or bulging capacitors. I didn't find any with a BA number, but this is the litle ps one with the PSU in the wall socket.

See at 5:54 (IC 722 - bottom left, smaller thin chip with two ground tabs (one on either side) - that's possibly when its not focussing. Typically those chips will drive the motors and the tracking & focus coils. Sometimes the laser wont bob up and down because the spindle height has been adjusted. You could try (whilst door switch is pressed), holding a CD manually over the laser at different heights - if the laser gets a reflected signal back it will start to bob up and down to focus. If that doesn't happen, there's clearly either a focus problem, or something else wrong with the drive logic.

After some more searching and looking I see it has been filled with water and / or laundry soap (smells like it) and it has residue after it, (noticed when I took up and loooked under the board) so atm I'm cleaning my board, hoping only cleaning it will make it work. Not holding my hopes up tho. But this might turn out to be a difficult task to diagnose. Thanks again for your help, I will get back to you either way if I get it working.

Sorry, I haven't! But you could probably get one from a spare drive on eBay, or if you can get the part number off the motor, search on AliExpress. I have found new replacement motors for cassette decks on there.

as long as you can find 12F628's or 16F84's, there's bound to still be open source firmware available on various websites. Can't link 'em directly, but a google search will turn up a lot.

Yes, you can easily make one using a PIC chip. I will do that at some point for a couple of the PS1's I have.

nice thanks, will watch that video as well :)