Laseractive doesn't read Mega LD/CD

[Deubeul]

Hi there !

I need a little help so I can finally play LD games

I received a junk laseractive last week. The tray opens (with a little help), but it would'nt read anything: any type of discs wasn't spinning.

I swapped the lens with another one (BlueBMW, if you ever read this, you can add the CLD-900 to the compatible units list) and now regular CDs and LDs play fine.

BUT Mega LDs and MegaCDs don't work. The discs spin, but don't launch. Cartridges work.

So I need help from the tech gurus to narrow down the source of the issue

- If regular CDs and LDs play fine, should Mega CDs and Mega LDs also work, or could the lens be strong enough to read regulars discs but too weak to read games?

- Or could the Sega pac be faulty? I recapped it a while ago, so I quickly checked my old soldering job and it seems fine at first view, except 2 NP caps that don't look genuine and that I'm sure weren't soldered by me.

- I read in some thread that it's possible to adjust the lens power, but I wasn't able to find info in the service manual or in forums. Does anybody know wich pot(s) is concerned?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Deubeul]

Sorry for the double post, but I was afraid my edit wouldn't be seen

I found where the lens pot is located, so I tried to adjust it: no luck

To resume, so far:

- I have 2 working lens, one from a CLD-900 and one from another non working at all laseractive. Turning the pot didn't help with the two lenses. If I turn the pot clockwise too far (180° for a lens, 90° for the other one), discs wouldn't be recognized anymore.

- With their pot at its original spot the 2 lenses behave exactly the same.

- With or without the Sega PAC, Music CDs and Movie LDs play fine and launch really fast, even with a badly scratched LD.

- Without the PAC, it can read music tracks of a burned MegaCD disc.

- Without the PAC, my MegaLD disc is recognized: A message says that a Sega PAC is needed to read the disc.

- With the PAC, once a disc is inserted, the cursor moves on the screen's "play" button. I press the A button of the controller, the disc starts to spin, but nothing launch. The disc keeps spinning , I can move the cursor left to right, but the onscreen or physical eject buttons don't respond, the disc keeps on spinning with seeking noise from the lens every ~20 seconds.


All this makes me think that the problem does not come from the lenses, but from the PAC or from the INTF assy, but I'd like to hear opinions of members who have the knowledge and some experience on these units.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! [-o<

[antron]

This forum member has worked on one:
https://segasonicfan.wixsite.com/retro/repair-logs

[SuperDeadite]

Might just need to clean the PAC connector. Sometimes when I switch PACs on my LA, LD/CD games will do weird things. Like repeat scenes over and over, skip scenes entirely, or just refuse to boot. It's rare but when it happens, ejecting and reinserting the PAC has always fixed it. I've never done a laser swap though.

[Deubeul]

Thanks for the link Antron.

SuperDeadite, I already cleaned the Pac connector, does not change anything.

I have the MegaCD / MegaLD bios screen, but once I pressed "play", nothing happens, it stays on the bios screen and I can't do anything, even the reset button on the front panel is ineffective. The disc keeps spinning until I turn off the unit.