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Magnavox CD-I 200 problem

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 4:24 am
by Jam00789
Hey guys. I just aquired a Magnavox CD-I 200 unit, and it doesn't seem to want to recognize any disc that is put it in, whether it be CDI, audio, etc. I opened it up to take a look inside and everything seems to be in order, actually quite clean, etc. The disc seems to lift off the tray and spin ok if spun by hand, but won't start on it's own. I'm pretty sure it's not the memory problem that I see around here, as the system still has a whole bunch of game saves on it. I'm starting to wonder if the drive is just broken at this point or what? Anybody have any ideas. I'd love to get this thing working, as I actually aquired this and a Philips 910 player, both which don't seem to want to start up disks, and both flash "err" or "error" when powered on with a disk in them already. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 10:36 am
by WindowsKiller
The laser emitter could be dead, but in most cases, the laser is just misaligned, and that can be fixed quite easily if you have the required equipment.

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 4:23 pm
by Jam00789
Do you think this is the problem even though the disk never even starts spinning? I thought usually with alignment problems, the disk will spin but can't be read. When I put a disk in the player it just sits there, never starts spinning at all. I'm willing to give it a shot though. It already doesn't work, so what's the worst that happens, it still doesn't work...

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 4:31 pm
by WindowsKiller
The disc does not start spinning until the laser beam has been focused correctly. So if the laser is highly misaligned, the disc will not start spinning at all. A slight misalignment will only cause read errors.

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 5:16 pm
by Jam00789
So any idea in a Magnavox 200 player where the adjustment screws would be for the laser?

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 5:35 pm
by WindowsKiller
Depends on the exact modell number. The Magnavox CD-i 200 can either have a CDM-9, CDM-12.1 or CDM-12.4 laser unit. The CDM-12.x units have at least one adjustment potentiometer on the bottom side of the laser head. That one should be for the focus bias, and is the first one to try. Measure and write down the current resistance first before messing around with it!

Not sure where the adjustment potentiometers are for a CDM-9, but I guess they are on the main pcb near the ribbon cable.

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 6:31 pm
by Jam00789
Heh, so of course I have the CDM-9 model. Got apart as much as I could of the player with what I have on hand (2 finicky screws left that I cant get without a longer philips head screwdriver damnit!) , definitely no screw adjustment near the ribbon cable on the main PCB. Looks like I'm off to the store to buy a few tools, and see what I can come up with.

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 10:35 pm
by Jam00789
So I've got everything apart, and for the life of me don't see anything that remotely looks like any type of adjustment knob/screws/etc on this thing. Nothing on the main PCB board, and only 2 small screws that seem to be there just to hold the laser in place. How annoying this is starting to get. Anyone got any ideas, or experince with a CDM-9? Also, is it possible to replace the CDM-9 with one of the CDM-12 type pickups? I'm wondering if I should just give up and try yet another player off of Ebay in hopes of it working.

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 10:14 am
by WindowsKiller
You can't replace a CDM-9 with a CDM-12, but there is one laser unit which is compatible with the CDM-9. I can't remember which one exactly, so give me a few hours to look up for...

Is the laser head of the CDM-9 covered with plastic? Possible that the adjustment screws are hidden underneath.

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 6:38 pm
by Jam00789
So I found the adjustment... it's actually on the ribbon cable, about in the middle of the cable, where it looked like the cable was just clipped to the plastic CD drawer to redirect it from the laser to the main PCB. What a pain in the ass to get too, I had to break through a small piece of plastic just to get to it.

Anyway, I seem to have gotten the player to stop saying "ERR" when it starts up with a disc in it, but still won't start spinning and reading a disc. Guess it's a start though. Have a feeling it's just going to be a bunch of trial and error until things get right, if they get right... I'm considering just replacing the laser at this point, I'm sure it would be much easier than this.

I'd love to know what the laser replacement is, if you can find it. Thanks!

Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 10:37 am
by WindowsKiller
Jam00789 wrote:Have a feeling it's just going to be a bunch of trial and error until things get right, if they get right...
You need at least an ohmmeter. From the original position of the adjustment screw, turn it clockwise until the resistance is about 10 Ohms higher than it was before. Now test if it's working. If not, repeat it until it does.
Jam00789 wrote:I'd love to know what the laser replacement is, if you can find it. Thanks!
I think I mixed it up somehow. It was the CDM9/44 which is compatible with the CDM9 PRO, but that won't help you.

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:11 pm
by WindowsKiller
Did you give it up? If so, please don't throw away the broken laser units. I would gladly take them. :)

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:04 pm
by Jam00789
Na, I didn't give up. I got one working actually, along with getting another Magnavox 200 player, so now I have 2 working units. I think I'm going to keep the 3rd around for parts, just in case.