Need help with soldering (NeoCD SD related)

[Rock Man]

So, I own a couple of premodded Neo-Geo CD SD Loader consoles. My second console works okay enough... my first unit however has this extremely annoying crackling sound after leaving the game on for a half hour. It gets worse everytime I turn it on before it took an hour and 20 minutes for the sound to bust up. Now it doesn't take long at all! Please note: Not all games did this for instance Breakers and Burning fight there are no sound wrinkles. However, every Fatal Fury after FF2 and all KOF games is where I encountered the sound glitch. Before anyone asks, no it's not the ISOs that are at issue. I sent these disc images to others who also use the SD Loader and they confirmed my dumps worked on their console and I tried those same dumps on my second premodded SDL and they played like a dream. So, the problem is with my 1st premodded NeoCD SDL platform.

Sent it to a tech person, they claimed to have repaired it and left it on without issue. When I got it back, same problem! I don't know if the problem is USPS or FedEX (had it sent out three times) or what! I'm now at a point where I'd like to service the damn thing myself. Problem is I don't know how to solder. My budget for sourcing equipment is very limited. But here's what I figure, I'd like to try a practice board first. A random pcb, that would enable assets to be soldered on, like a cheap LED mod! Of course, I'll need a referral/recommendation to a soldering kit? (is that what they call it?) I'm looking for some equipment I can buy on Ebay or Home Depot. Not too pricey but something that'll get the job done. I need to be able to desolder and solder! Whatever else that goes into retro video game mods is something I'll wanna know!

Once I have everything and am successful with the test pcb, I'd be more confident about going into my actual NeoCD and figure out what the hell is wrong with that thing! So, where do we start?

[jd213]

The problem might just be a bad solder joint, broken trace, or short somewhere. Maybe the PSU, did you try changing the PSU with your other unit?

Otherwise, maybe try opening it up and check suspicious locations with a multimeter in continuity mode. Plenty of retro game repair videos on YouTube can show you the general idea, there's some videos showing NeoCD loader installations too, so those can show you some of the locations to check.

If you find any bad solder joints etc., you probably won't need anything fancy to fix it, but soldering is definitely easier with flux. Plenty of recommendations online if you want to get into more fancy stuff.

If you want to get good at soldering retro consoles, working on other consoles from the same time period would probably be better practice. So maybe look on ebay for broken ones.

[neorichieb1971]

Sounds to me a bit like the PS1.

If the CD you're playing has audio CD tracks on it, the mechanism needs to scan the whole disc, or flip between tracks 2 to whatever it goes up to. The Data part of the disc is all in one place so the laser doesn't need to travel.

Sounds to me like the slider on which is the laser mechanism travels needs oiling/greasing or cleaning.



In the above pic, the laser travels from one end of that empty rectangle space to the other to read the "Whole" CD. Whatever the railing is, plastic or metal trenches, metal poles.. just give a clean and use some kind of electronic greasing liquid to help it move more fluid.

The thing is nearly 30 years old.. things get cranky after that long.

Check the CD's in the audio player and pick track 6 7 8 etc. If it starts doing it then, you know its the railings.

[Rock Man]

Apologies getting back late, real life drama.

The problem might just be a bad solder joint, broken trace, or short somewhere. Maybe the PSU, did you try changing the PSU with your other unit?

Nope, however this would make a mountain of sense.

Ever heard of the Original Xboxes doomsday clock? In actuality it's a clock capacitor that's guaranteed to die and take the motherboard with it! Well, I removed the capacitor from my modded Xbox (I ripped that sucker out) I THINK IIRC it's been a while, however I think that after I did that. Helena's opera stage on DOA2 Ultimate started scratching and crackling around the part where debris is falling! If that's the case, I maybe found the culprit with respect to the NeoCD.

Otherwise, maybe try opening it up and check suspicious locations with a multimeter in continuity mode. Plenty of retro game repair videos on YouTube can show you the general idea, there's some videos showing NeoCD loader installations too, so those can show you some of the locations to check.

If you find any bad solder joints etc., you probably won't need anything fancy to fix it, but soldering is definitely easier with flux. Plenty of recommendations online if you want to get into more fancy stuff.

If you want to get good at soldering retro consoles, working on other consoles from the same time period would probably be better practice. So maybe look on ebay for broken ones.

I'll check for videos on how a multimeter works, I've already looked at a lot of NeoCD repair videos but I'll rewatch because the only way I learn is repitition. Know how to install the Loader.

Flux huh? Some guy used that for my modded 3DO. I'll check for some flux videos, a lot of videos! Totally worth.

Sounds to me a bit like the PS1.

If the CD you're playing has audio CD tracks on it, the mechanism needs to scan the whole disc, or flip between tracks 2 to whatever it goes up to. The Data part of the disc is all in one place so the laser doesn't need to travel.

Sounds to me like the slider on which is the laser mechanism travels needs oiling/greasing or cleaning.

In the above pic, the laser travels from one end of that empty rectangle space to the other to read the "Whole" CD. Whatever the railing is, plastic or metal trenches, metal poles.. just give a clean and use some kind of electronic greasing liquid to help it move more fluid.

The thing is nearly 30 years old.. things get cranky after that long.

Check the CD's in the audio player and pick track 6 7 8 etc. If it starts doing it then, you know its the railings.

Appreciate the post but this is for the NeoCD SD Loader modification. The console in question has it's CD drive removed.

http://furrtek.free.fr/sdloader/

It's an optical drive emulator that will enable you to run backups off an SD card. My sound problem exists with this and is not present in other Loaders.