Sega Saturn

[kripp]

I've got a Sega Saturn here that will not spin discs. I can see the lens move up and down and it does emit the red laser, but thats about it. I took the unit apart and it looks like something was spilled on it, there is some type of corrosion on the metal piece the CD assembly sits on.

I've removed the CD assembly from the main board and have found a fair bit of corrosion on the legs of a few IC's on the PCB. I went ahead and cleaned it all up with a bit of alcohol, but have yet to test it.

Now if this does not remedy my problem (which I doubt it has), would it seem reasonable to replace the spindle motor, or does this particular problem sound more complex than simple component failure?

Thanks.

[Aidan]

CD/DVD drives are a bit more complex than that. Some drives will actually try to focus the laser on the disc to see if there's a reflection. If the drive doesn't see any reflection, it doesn't bother powering up the spindle motor, as there's no disc to read.

Some other drives just spin the motor in the hope there is a disc there.

I don't know which the Saturn does.  

[kripp]

Well cleaning the corosion did not help, still does what it was doing before I cleaned it off. So my next step is to test the motor that is in there now, if it is dead then it gets replaced. If that does not fix things then it looks like im buying another Saturn, oh well.

Thanks.

[NFG]

Motors don't generally die.  If you can hear the laser go up and down a few times, that means it's not sensing the disc.  There is actually a good chance there's dust inside the lens assembly.

I have cleaning tips for this, I'll dig them out.

[kripp]

Well the Saturn CD assembly must be like Aidan said, if it can't focus the laser on the disc then it doesn't bother spinning. If this is the case then the Saturn is the first CD based console/component I have that does this (that I am aware of).

I would be tickled pink if a bit of lens cleaning got my Saturn going!

Thanks.

[kripp]

Thanks Aidan for the bit of info about the laser focus and reflection, I guess this is the way the Saturn does things.

I took a look a the lens on my CD assembly and it had some junk on it, I removed it and the Saturn was able to playback an audio CD.

Thanks again, I appreciate your help.