First "click of death" from my 'ol PS1

[MasterLink]

Well this is a new one and it's never done this before. For reference my PS1 used to have a 440ADM laser, but it was sadly having many issues and needed to be replaced. I had a PSone with a BAM laser in storage for a long time, kept well and clean but with extremely low usage, so I opted to fit it in my 5501 with an extension ribbon. Using the service manual and oscilloscope, I got it well calibrated for retail pressed discs (and "just" in range for CD-R, to not wear out the laser).

After many trial and errors with burners (and only using Taiyo Yuden media), it has been rather happy, until today. Today it wouldn't read anything, CD-R, pressed or even an audio CD. Click click click, whirrrrrrrr, click click click....whirrrrrrr. Then it would go to the main menu as if no disc was inserted, then out of nowhere, P logo comes up and it boots the game as if nothing was wrong.

Shut it down, tried it again, click click, whirrrr, main menu, then P logo. This makes no sense to me. So I try an audio CD. Click click, then sounds like it's reading, but locks up on the Sony logo, and won't proceed. If I open the lid, then it proceeds to the menu, go to CD player and close the lid, and hey, it founds the tracks and suddenly can play them.

Thinking something must have gone out of calibration I grabbed my scope again, but still everything appears right per the service manual. Nothing appears wrong here. I know the PU-18 has auto focus, bias, all that, but when it was clicking, there was never that audible beep to indicate it was even trying (perhaps it only does this when it actually detects a disc, and not during the checking phase?).

It's alarmed me because it's the first time it acted like this, as if it was completely blind, but then "remembered" it worked just fine, because after the BIOS reset and tried again, every 2nd attempt was without fail. FMV's are not even skipping, it seeks fine, nothing sounds off when it does read. But cold starts are now a problem.

Can this ultimately be coming down to the capacitors on the PU-18 board itself? I hope not as I really do hate SMD caps, but at the same time, my Plextor PX-708A also needs new SMD caps (it can't see DVD's or CD's, and it's literally new old stock the laser has zero hours on it), so I'm starting to guess this is a capacitor problem.

I'm happy I was able to confirm at least it wasn't just CD-R's, proving it was doing it with pressed discs as well, but I'm not sure where to go from here. I'd re-test the BAM laser in the PSone, but it is completely fried, it's dead and does power on but barely outputs a video signal, so I know it's caps are very much gone.

I will point out though, once it gets passed that initial boot issue, I can complete games without read errors just fine, it's only now cold-boot causing issues (ironic since the PSU is always warm, but yea, the mainboard itself is cold). Voltages were good off the PSU as well, but this PS1 also has issues booting from PIO at times (you can have a cheat cart installed and sometimes it just pretends like it's not there, perhaps related).

[MasterLink]

It's not doing it anymore. It's acting normal again. I have no reason for this behavior. I shook it and blew on the lens, so perhaps one of the cats hair made it somewhere it shouldn't have gone. That's the only reasonable thing I can conclude.

EDIT: Yep, maine coon hair, just spotted it trapped between the lens and mirror. My goodness this cats hair manages to find it in places it shouldn't get to. Kinda surprised it could boot anything at all after re-attempting multiple times, the disc managing to spin up must have moved it just enough. It's cleared now, and back to normal operation.

[masterg0r0]

Was it the laser that you replaced or the mechanism? For all I know, those dodgy Chinese lasers are prone to snapping and wearing out after you first install them. My word of advice, is to replace the laser from a donor unit and tune it to the best of your abilities.

Alexfree has a great guide here. https://alex-free.github.io/unofficial- ... ce-manual/

[MasterLink]

I took the whole assembly from the donor PSone, and used a ribbon extension to reach it, with double-sided scotch tape to prevent it from binding and staying down.

Since the removal of the hair it's working fine. I have not used any Chinese lasers, only originals.

[NarcisoLeannon]

Well this is a new one and it's never done this before. For reference my PS1 used to have a 440ADM laser, but it was sadly having many issues and needed to be replaced. I had a PSone with a BAM laser in storage for a long time, kept well and clean but with extremely low usage, so I opted to fit it in my 5501 with an extension ribbon. Using the service manual and oscilloscope, I got it well calibrated for retail pressed discs (and "just" in range for CD-R, to not wear out the laser).

After many trial and errors with burners (and only using Taiyo Yuden media), it has been rather happy, until today. Today it wouldn't read anything, CD-R, pressed or even an audio CD. Click click click, whirrrrrrrr, click click click....whirrrrrrr. Then it would go to the main menu as if no disc was inserted, then out of nowhere, P logo comes up and it boots the game as if nothing was wrong.

Shut it down, tried it again, click click, whirrrr, main menu, then P logo. This makes no sense to me. So I try an audio CD. Click click, then sounds like it's reading, but locks up on the Sony logo, and won't proceed. If I open the lid, then it proceeds to the menu, go to CD player and close the lid, and hey, it founds the tracks and suddenly can play them.

Thinking something must have gone out of calibration I grabbed my scope again, but still everything appears right per the service manual. Nothing appears wrong here. I know the PU-18 has auto focus, bias, all that, but when it was clicking, there was never that audible beep to indicate it was even trying (perhaps it only does this when it actually detects a disc, and not during the checking phase?).

It's alarmed me because it's the first time it acted like this, as if it was completely blind, but then "remembered" it worked just fine, because after the BIOS reset and tried again, every 2nd attempt was without fail. FMV's are not even skipping, it seeks fine, nothing sounds off when it does read. But cold starts are now a problem.

Can this ultimately be coming down to the capacitors on the PU-18 board itself? I hope not as I really do hate SMD caps, but at the same time, my Plextor PX-708A also needs new SMD caps (it can't see DVD's or CD's, and it's literally new old stock the laser has zero hours on it), so I'm starting to guess this is a capacitor problem.

I'm happy I was able to confirm at least it wasn't just CD-R's, proving it was doing it with pressed discs as well, but I'm not sure where to go from here. I'd re-test the BAM laser in the PSone, but it is completely fried, it's dead and does power on but barely outputs a video signal, so I know it's caps are very much gone.

I will point out though, once it gets passed that initial boot issue, I can complete games without read errors just fine, it's only now cold-boot causing issues (ironic since the PSU is always warm, but yea, the mainboard itself is cold). Voltages were good off the PSU as well, but this PS1 also has issues booting from PIO at times (you can have a cheat cart installed and sometimes it just pretends like it's not there, perhaps related).

Even if you have calibrated the laser and checked with a meter, replacing the SMD capacitor on the PU-18 board may be necessary, as a bad capacitor can cause erratic behavior. Additionally, you should check the power supply and mechanical parts of the machine to ensure they are working properly

[MasterLink]

Even if you have calibrated the laser and checked with a meter, replacing the SMD capacitor on the PU-18 board may be necessary, as a bad capacitor can cause erratic behavior. Additionally, you should check the power supply and mechanical parts of the machine to ensure they are working properly

Yes I already solved this with a cap kit. PSU was fine, and mechanics were already taken care of.

In fact professional in-circuit testers were not capable of testing the SMD's but out of circuit they did have high ESR.

[KarimPolska]

That's most likely a bad connection between the laser and the motherboard to blame is the extension ribbon...