Two portable Philips CD-i players (CDI350) came into my care last month. They show common errors, such as not loading any CDs and not storing any settings, and also flickering screens. Let’s have a look inside and repair them.
The screen becomes normal after a while so that I can navigate.
What if your favourite CD-i game refuses to start or shows some weird behaviour? Most likely, this is to blame on a defective Timekeeper and/or laser. This topic has been covered years ago. There is another problem with the game The 7th Guest, which is completely unrelated to the problems mentioned above though.
Earth Command isn’t my favourite game. It makes some fun for a while, to tamper with the various settings and eventually watch the world burn, but it never got me hooked for a long time.
Then the reports of some people caught my attention. Some had trouble starting the game, as the screen just turned black after the intro, while others had no problems with the game at all. There was no common denominator to pin down the problem, as all the CD-i players they’ve used were of different revisions and generations.
The PSIO development cartridge, that I had preordered in June 2017, finally arrived this month. The whole package is very well made and looks almost like a genuine Sony PlayStation peripheral. The cartridge requires a modification before use, the PSIO switch board installation. The switch board detects the presence of the cartridge and switches the signals from the ODD to the parallel port.
Another quick mod – I ordered a Super CIC board by borti4938 along with the SD2SNES upgrade board from VideoGamePerfection. It’s time to upgrade my 2CHIP Super Famicom.
This is an old rev. E1 SD2SNES cart, that I’ve bought several years ago from Krikzz.
SD2SNES did undergo some revision changes in the last couple of years. First there was Rev. F, that fixed some interference with 1CHIP units. Then there was Rev. G, that fed the DAC with +5V to improve the MSU-1 volume (and added some noise). And finally in Rev. H, the +5V change was reverted and an opamp added to fix the MSU-1 volume for good.
Continue reading SD2SNES Rev. E1 Upgrade to Rev. H
Two quick fixes for my Super SD System 3 v2.
I inverted the orientation of the C60 tantalum electrolytic capacitor:
Continue reading Super SD System 3 C60 and Audio Buzzing Fix
This is a quick fix for dusty environments, to have at least some kind of protection: MVS Cartridge Slot Covers.
When I finally fixed my consolized MV1FZS last month and was able to play some games again, I noticed that it outputs mono sound only. It is now time to make some additional modifications to it.
MVS boards need both 5V and 12V voltages, and 12V is used for the audio amp only. As I’m going to add a new stereo audio circuit, there is no need for the 12V feed anymore. This consolized MVS draws the 12V from the now obsolete XL6009E1 DC-DC converter:
After having a great time with my MV2FS, I was looking for something more compact that I could use in the living room. I came across a pre-consolized MV1FZS and played the entire Neo Geo library with it.
Then it suddenly stopped working:
BACKUP RAM ERROR
ADDRESS WRITE READ
00D00000 5555 B255
2018 will be a great year for the PC Engine. Terraonion, the maker of the NEOSD cartridge, has announced the Super SD System 3 add-on.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to use it with my Duo-RX and GT, and the SuperGrafx is too bulky and ugly to take it out for gaming. I ordered a cheap CoreGrafx from Yahoo! Japan Auctions which came with a Tennokoe 2 backup memory device attached to the expansion connector.
Continue reading Tennokoe 2 RGB Output
