FM Towns Marty

[Elrinth]

CD not spinning up. Diskdrive making a constant weird sound.
I just purchased this. Seller claimed it was working fine and that disk drive was working aswell.
Here's how it works for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjCK9s09nlg

I'm considering sending it back, but should I do something before I send it back?!

[kamiboy]

Japanese PC hardware being shipped working but arriving broken is nothing new. That kind of hardware is just really fragile, and plagued by known failiure points.

As for the CD drive, I recommend trying a regular audio CD to see if it can play music, if it can then the CD drive is fine. If not it could be the laser diod having died, which is a heap of trouble, or capacitors needing replacement.

The floppy drive on the other hand has a known issue of the drive belt rotting with time and needing to be replaced. You can use the same replacement belt being used for Panasonic MSX floppy drives. Easy to find on Yahoo auctions, will set you back about 800¥ just for the item.

[Elrinth]

The seller claimed in the description that he had replaced the belt. Not sure when tho.

When I turn on the console I can see the cd inside spin for like half a centimeter or something.

[kamiboy]

Hmm.... Interesting, I cannot say anymore about the floppy drive without you opening it up to have a look. Might be something got knocked loose during shipping. Hear anything rattling around in there? Also, does the CD spin at all?

[Elrinth]

cd spins half a centimeter or so when starting the console. else not at all.

maybe the transformer I am using isn't strong enough? It says it should be able to power 110VA.

I'd rather not open up and get blame for breaking it incase I'd like to return it because it came broken.

[kamiboy]

110 VA is 1amp I believe, sounds a bit too low for what is essentially a 386SX PC crammed in a console shell. Try to look up the specs of the Marty power supply to see how many amps the machine needs.

[Elrinth]

bah then I don't have a transformer which is okay for this yet.

[Elrinth]

might I have damaged any of the console by using too weak transformer?
will this transformer do? http://www.tradera.com/item/302429/2620 ... mator-500w

[nem]

Feeding it 240V will likely output 120V or thereabouts. Japanese voltage is 100V, so it's outputting quite a bit more.

Airlink Transformers are the go to transformers when dealing with Japanese arcade cabs, however, they're quite pricey when you factor in shipping. Pounds are cheap though!

[Elrinth]

Feeding it 240V will likely output 120V or thereabouts. Japanese voltage is 100V, so it's outputting quite a bit more.

Airlink Transformers are the go to transformers when dealing with Japanese arcade cabs, however, they're quite pricey when you factor in shipping. Pounds are cheap though!

ty for the link nem! just a question which I would need: http://www.airlinktransformers.com/japa ... onverters/
Right now I'm using a transformer which converts from 220/230V down to 110V. But the transformer I have can max handle 110VA, which might be too few.

I think this one sohuld do: http://www.airlinktransformers.com/japa ... EU-JA1000/
and I can use it for two units... I actually bought a 1500VA one incase I wanna use it for computers.

[kamiboy]

Both those transformers should do fine, you can safely feed 110v to Japanese electronics, or at least that is what I've been doing for years. I have no idea whether you can damage electronics by feeding them insufficient amperage.

[Ed Oscuro]

One of the Western developers noted that Fujitsu was really proud of their super cheap CD-ROM drive, and so they had a lot of trouble trying to load development copies from a physically heavier glass master.

Without details about the transformer being used I wouldn't guess that this is a power problem, but it does stand to reason that if you aren't feeding the motor enough power that it might not be able to spin up the disc.

But I'm with nem on this one, might as well buy a quality transformer so long as you're getting one.

[SuperDeadite]

From the video, it looks the game you are trying to boot is one of the Queen of Duelist games. I do not know about the original game, but the later versions (Alpha, Gaiden, Light) all require their own copy-protected boot floppy disks. And I'm not sure if this series will even run a Marty, they really need a 486 to play properly, on a 386 they run very slow.

As far as the CD goes though. Recently it's been discovered that Marties in particular tend to have failing caps in the PSU. I know of at least 3 different Marties that would boot up to the bios, spin cd for a few seconds then stop. All 3 of these units were fixed by recapping the PSU. Everyone thought they were bad cd drives, but nope it was just failing caps.

[Elrinth]

From the video, it looks the game you are trying to boot is one of the Queen of Duelist games. I do not know about the original game, but the later versions (Alpha, Gaiden, Light) all require their own copy-protected boot floppy disks. And I'm not sure if this series will even run a Marty, they really need a 486 to play properly, on a 386 they run very slow.

As far as the CD goes though. Recently it's been discovered that Marties in particular tend to have failing caps in the PSU. I know of at least 3 different Marties that would boot up to the bios, spin cd for a few seconds then stop. All 3 of these units were fixed by recapping the PSU. Everyone thought they were bad cd drives, but nope it was just failing caps.

ahh this is good information... thanx SuperDeadite

seller allow me to send back and he send me a different marty. with some money inbetween so I'll accept this.