Dying laser, PSU, or both?

[thewhitefalcon]

So, my Saturn didn't come from the best home, as you can see here: imgur.com/a/MB2t6

One issue it had was that the spindle was forced down on the shaft, and I had to pull it back up. It's been working okay, but now it's both refusing to recognize discs as games on occasion (instead only offering to play the music tracks) and it randomly quits back to the system menu in the middle of a game. 

I did some searching and saw that it could be either the laser going bad, or the PSU perhaps needing a recap/failing. I didn't see any bad caps (I collect vintage Macs so I'm familiar with the issue) on the PSU when I took it apart over Christmas, but I suppose something could have happened since then.

Anyone have any ideas, or would it just be easier to get a different console? Rhea/Phoebe is a nice idea but a bit out of my price range at the moment.

[zyrobs]

The fault is most likely the laser not reading the discs. You either did not push the spindle down in the right position, or it needs the laser recalibrated, or it needs a new laser.

I actually never heard of a Saturn power supply getting bad caps, only blown PWM chips. The mainboard sometimes has used-up caps that cause system errors, I've seen plenty of those, but I haven't seen any power supplies with confirmed bad caps. Of course recapping always helps, but the PSUs are more robust in that regard.

[thewhitefalcon]

Any way to tell if the spindle is correctly set, short of trial and error? I had a thrift store PS2 Slim that had spindle issues and it ended up being easier to just get a different console.

[thewhitefalcon]

So, an update.

Reseated the ribbon cable, no change. Had Sega Rally resurfaced again, no change. That being said, even with a few passes it still has some scratches. It's also consistently inconsistent if that makes sense; if it's going to crash it will do it at the exact same points each time. My copy of Black Fire is mirror perfect and has no issues; Virtua Fighter 2 is rough but only rarely has a loading issue (usually after the console's tried to run Sega Rally). I wish I had a spare console to try it on, but I don't, and neither do any of the retro shops around here.

I spent some time adjusting the laser (it's back to factory config now) but didn't see any results, so I'm thinking it may just be the disc. As I get more games in it will help narrow the issue down.

These may be the last US games I buy from eBay; I don't trust sellers to ship CIB copies properly, and while the Goat Store may have some higher prices (particularly shipping) I trust them to sell working, well packed copies.