Broken CD32 drive. Can I replace it

[doctorq]

Hi,

as the title says my drive in my CD32 is broken. I searched the forums, but all I found was a topic saying that I could try Veselia for a replecement drive.

As I have a lot of old CD drives, I was wondering if anyone has found a way to hack a CD drive for use in a CD32? Then I think I will crack one of the old ones to hopefully see the computer come alive once again. I have a drive from a Playstation, could that work?

[Speelgoedmannetje]

my cdtv was once broken, then I found out that these parts are way too specific to be replaced with 'standard' parts. I had to throw it away :cry:

but then again, cd standard caddy's and cdtv caddy's are exactly the same, so I can't really completely exlude the possibility.

[CD32Freak]

I don't think it will work with another drive, because it is a custom design. You can buy a new one on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=8142&item=5105059910&rd=1
Good luck in resurrecting your CD32! :-D

[Stedy]

Hello,

You can only replace the CD32's drive with another Sony CD32 drive.

You sure you do not need to realign the drive?

What makes you think the drive is broken?

[leirbag28]

Yes, it is possible to replace the CD32's CD-ROM drive.  Remove the old one. and get yourself a slimline CD ROM drive from a laptop. The buy yourself an SX32 and connect it via the IDE port (you'll need a hardrive and IDE fix with 4 way adaptor)  then cut a slot shaped like the CD drive infront of the CD32 where the old drive was.


Whalla! only problem is, that your CD32 wont boot from it. At least not the games and CD+G and audio CD's I don't think :-)

[doctorq]

I'm pretty sure the drive is broken as it doesn't want to spin the cds, and if it spins the cd nothing happens.

As a replacement drive only cost around 7 EURO at www.veselia.de, I think I just buy a new drive for it, as I need it to be able to boot from CDs and don't want to expand it with a SX module.

Thanks for the information guys, it's appreciated.

[x56h34]

Yeah, just get a replacement from Vesalia. They are so cheap, and anything else would just give you headaches. ;-)

[Hyperspeed]

LEIRBAG28!

That has to be the most bonkers thing I've ever heard...

:-D :-D :-D

I think it's best not to cut holes and put in other CD-ROM drives on
the IDE interface because that will completely wipe any chance of
loading a CD32-specific game.

I would reccommend buying another CD32, they're just £30 on eBay. If
Vesalia sell the original Commodore lense units then go that route but
surely they'd want more than £7 for then?

Bare in mind what has been mentioned down the list, laser alignment
could be an issue, smoke or dust on the lense (why not try a
laser-lense cleaner first) or your drive motor might be dying.

Sometimes with the Playstation you can tip it vertically to test if a
laser fault is causing your loading errors.

But before you do anything else, try vacuuming inside the CD well and
running a laser cleaner disc for a minute to clean off any impurities
that may have gathered on the lense in the last 11yrs (!)

Also, make sure too that the disc you are trying to load has no
fingerprints or scratches!

:-o

[adolescent]

Hyperspeed wrote:
If Vesalia sell the original Commodore lense units then go that route but surely they'd want more than £7 for then?

Nope, it's actually only ~£4 or ~6 euros as of today (including VAT).  Or, if you really fancy having spares you can get 5 for 20 euros.  I'll probably pick one up with my next order just to have a spare.

[leirbag28]

@Hyperspeed

 Hahaha.yeah, thats the Super expensive route I forgot to mention :-)

Anyway, I would love to do this myself to my CD32 soon. It might even run CD32 games in A1200 mode using the sx32, in the same way that the A4000 and A1200 have a CD32 emulator to run it off any CDrom drive. So since the CD32 with an SX32 pro is actually an A1200, the emulator should work. So you can boot games the same way you boot games with WHDLoad. :-)............Also I have an Image of the CD32 ROM, so maybe someone can create a way to tap into the software on the ROM from Workbench, the same way someone did with the CDTV Toolkit thingy..which lets you boot and run the stuff on the CDTV ROMS like the screen saver and the CDPlayer interface.

[Hyperspeed]

I spoke to this cool guy who has a CD32 in New Zealand connected to a
satellite dish and he gets pictures and stuff down from Noah I think.

He had a souped up SX32-Pro, they seem to get everywhere don't they?

:-D

What I was wondering though, if the SX32-Pro has an IDE interface then
what is stopping you from plugging on the Dataflyer IDE->SCSI adaptor
and having a SCSI scanner on your CD32?

SCSI allows up to 7x devices to run at the same time, so you could
theoretically cut a thin, postage-stamp shaped slot in one of the
CD32's chasis grooves and have a Compact Flash disk drive loading
Workbench in seconds...

Another thing, if you could connect a CDRW to the CD32 via this
Dataflyer method (or even with just IDE) then the CD32 could be the
world's first console you can program games for...   on itself!

Do you get me? Code the game on the console, burn it on the
console.... then play it on the console!

:-o :-o :-D

Any luck with Ruff 'N Tumble leirbag28?

:-) Let me know if you find a spare... ;-)

[leirbag28]

@Hyperspeed

 Boy, all that stuff you just said sounds darn interesting.................the reason I have not added scsi is because I never knew that device you just mentioned existed!  where can i get it?  also it is possible to connect an IDE to CompactFlash adaptor in the IDE port............which I will be doing sometime.............I also happen to have an internal SCSI PCMCIA drive! so maybe I can use that at some point.

I have not gotten any luck out of Ruff N Tumble.

Now what did you mean when you asked "Let me know when you find a spare"    a spare what?

[Kesa]

Hi,

as the title says my drive in my CD32 is broken. I searched the forums, but all I found was a topic saying that I could try Veselia for a replecement drive.

As I have a lot of old CD drives, I was wondering if anyone has found a way to hack a CD drive for use in a CD32? Then I think I will crack one of the old ones to hopefully see the computer come alive once again. I have a drive from a Playstation, could that work?

This is amazing! I can't believe the drive broke before the lid did! :eek:

Amiga's always had well designed cases. Even the most hated of them all, the A600, had a good case. But the CD32 is a mess