Sega CD Model 2 scratches disks

[dbeamer407]

Does anyone know how to/if a Sega CD model 2 that scratches disks can be repaired? It is the version with the black spindle ring. I bought one for my son for Christmas and it works fine aside from scratching disks. Luckily I only put one original in and the scratch ring is outside of the data. After that I burned a copy and it was also scratched immediately. I assume either some part of the laser sled tray thing is sticking up or that the spindle is sitting too low. I would really like to try to fix this before Christmas if at all possible.

[dbeamer407]

Tomorrow is my son's last day of school and the last chance I will have to try to fix this before Christmas. Does anyone have any advice?

[Hobie-wan]

The part of the spindle that the disc sits on and the black part around the lense should be level and be about 1 mm up from the rest of the tray. If you look in the top of the open lid, there's 2 bars to the side of the clamp bit that stick out the sides and fit over nubs. There are 3 clips around the circle that hold it in. One in front and 2 others at the back evenly spaced. Is any of that askew?

[lwcook]

This seems like an obviously one to troubleshoot. If you cheat the interlock switch and have the disc spin while open, you should easily be able to figure out what the disc is scraping on. Luckily, this is no intermittent problem.

My guess is the spindle is too far down...maybe been forced down over time. Hopefully you have some technical prowess, or else I have the feeling the following advice will do you more harm than good.

Take something like a flat blade screwdriver, (smallish so you have some finesse,) and raise the spindle up little by little by putting the blade under it, levering a bit, then rotate it a bit and repeat.

[dbeamer407]

Thanks for the comments. I took the unit apart and cleaned it with compressed air and put it back together and it didn't scratch disks. I tried lots of different disks and played for about 1 hour. So I wrapped it up and when my son opened it he put in his copy of Sonic CD and right away it was making the scratching sound and sure enough it got the circle scratch (we took it out right away so it will probably still work). I tried to turn it upside down with a burned CD-R game and it didn't make the scratching sound and then when we flipped it there was no scratching sound and it seems to be fine. For now I told him he should just play CD-R's on it so nothing is damaged. Has anyone seen this kind of behavior with a model 2?

[OmegaMaximum]

On a general note, I would recommend playing only backups in a Sega CD as it requires no hardware modification and the games, even unpopular ones, are becoming harder, and more expensive, to get.

As for the scratching, I've had my Model 2 SCD make some pretty nasty sounds when it's off balance. I would recommend making sure the drive setup is sitting properly on its supports, and keep it on a hard, level surface.

Hope this helps!

[bryan_65]

I know this an old thread but I can't really find to much info on this.
I seem to be having this same issues with Sonic CD as my new tester to scared to put other games in,lol. I think my issue is the black spindle on the lid. I have to save my $1 Sega CD!!!!!!

[samsonlonghair]

I know this an old thread but I can't really find to much info on this.
I seem to be having this same issues with Sonic CD as my new tester to scared to put other games in,lol. I think my issue is the black spindle on the lid. I have to save my $1 Sega CD!!!!!!

Howdy Bryan,
Just a thought here, you could stick an old music CD you don't care for in your Sega CD for testing purposes. You could even use a CD-R to test.

Sorry I can't give you more information specific to how to fix the Sega CD beyond what's already typed in this thread. At least you won't damage any games in the meanwhile.