Potential laser problem?

[Willja]

Finally got round to testing the console I bought a couple of days ago. Initially, it would just freeze on boot, even wihtout a disc! So after a bit of investigation through some threads on this subforum, I tried the suggestion of disconnecting and reconnecting the ribbon cable that attachs to the laser assembly and that solved that problem.

Tried Rise 2 in it and it worked fine. Then tried Virtua Racing, it goes right as far as starting a race before it either freezes or goes black. Tried cleaning the laser and the disc with no luck. Same result. I've tried the VR game in another 2 consoles and it works fine in those.

Any other ideas anyone?

[zyrobs]

If it freezes even without the disc, then its likely not the laser assembly being at fault, but either some damaged component or simply just a lot of dust in the machine building up and causing shorts.

[mick_aka]

That ribbon cable you reseated may need replacing, also check the connectors either side of it for any obvious signs of damage or wear.

[Willja]

The inside of the console looks really fresh. There's a little scuff mark on the VR disc and I wondered if this console was just having trouble reading that section of the disc where my other console is managing it ok? The couple of other games I tried seem to run just fine, hence why I thought perhaps the laser was starting to show it's age.

Incidentally, I tried to get into the motherboard beneath the metal plate and i removed 9 screws that I could see that were holding the metal plate to the base, but it just wouldn't budge! Are there hidden screws somewhere?

[zyrobs]

Even if you already removed all the screws, the metal shielding is held tightly to the other parts of the machine, so you need some force to pry it off. Did you also remove the screws around the cart slot, and the one in the same corner as the video cd slot?

[Willja]

Yep. four along the top and along the bottom as well as removing the power supply board.

[mick_aka]

My first port of call would still be that ribbon cable before tearing the system down.

[Willja]

Ok. Thanks for the advice Mick. The problem I have there is that the other machine has a different cable layout. Two smaller ribbon cables with a lttle circuit board in between. Are these ribbon cables easy enough to pick up?

[zyrobs]

Just look for 1mm pitch FFC/FPC cables in your local electronics shop. Chances are you won't find 21 pin ones only 22 pin ones though, but you can just cut the last pin off so it fits.

[mick_aka]

Yep, this ^^

[Willja]

Cool. Thanks guys.

[zyrobs]

How do games freeze, though? They just stop loading the next scene, or do they crash and hang mid-game? I haven't seen too many of those ribbon cables give out, but I've seen a few cases where dust/junk inside the console created a short, but wiping the board clean with alcohol fixed it to as-new status. (which meant I got a machine for a third of its normal price)

[Willja]

On one occassion the screen just went black and I had to reset the console. The other few times I tried, the picture just froze like pressing pause!