Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to read

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Austin
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Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to read

Post by Austin » Tue Apr 21, 2015 5:36 am

I received a JP FZ-1 console a few weeks back and on the first night of hooking it up had some issues with it. I actually let it run for about an hour or two while doing stuff around the apartment and it seemed fine (I had DOOM in it). Then I went to play it, in which DOOM seemed to play fine for about 20 minutes. Then I popped in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and that's where problems began to arise. The game wouldn't read at first, and it took many tries to get it functioning. Once it did finally read, the amount of loading between fights and select screens was atrocious. I eventually tried a variety of other games, and they either kept resetting to the 3DO logo splash screen, or like SSF2T, took forever to load. The top of the unit was extremely hot, to the point where I put an ice pack on top of it (haha). I had no idea if this was normal behavior for this model of the 3DO, so I just kept dealing with it (I have only previously owned FZ-10 and Goldstar units).

A couple of things of note and some questions:

1) All the games I have tried were backups. I never once had an issue with them on my FZ-10 (same discs).
2) I purchased a couple of real games but haven't gotten to try them yet.
3) Are FZ-1 systems known for getting hot? If not, what could cause this?
4) Are FZ-1 systems known for having disc drive/motor, or laser issues?
5) Have Japanese FZ-1 systems been known to act up when plugged into USA electrical outlets? I know our power output is a little bit greater, but I have never had an issue with using a Japanese console before in a US outlet.
6) No odd noises are being made as far as I can tell, and the disc tray opens and closes just fine.

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by BryWI » Sun Apr 26, 2015 12:34 am

Not sure about the heat, but the disc behavior is a sign the cd drive is going. It will probably still read original discs decently, but CD-Rs will put the machine through hell. My FZ-1 has this same exact behavior. It used to be fine but I think I killed it playing too much Star Control II on a CD-R.

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by Austin » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:53 am

BryWI wrote:Not sure about the heat, but the disc behavior is a sign the cd drive is going. It will probably still read original discs decently, but CD-Rs will put the machine through hell. My FZ-1 has this same exact behavior. It used to be fine but I think I killed it playing too much Star Control II on a CD-R.
Ah, ok, thanks for the response. I still haven't gotten around to trying original discs yet, but I will post an update when I do.

When the drive completely goes, what does it take to replace it?

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by BryWI » Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:35 pm

I do believe there is a thread about repairing it somewhere, but the laser lens will likely be the culprit and will need replacing. I think someone found a source for these... I can't remember. I also don't know anything about the repair. It's nothing I have ever done before. My FZ-1 just sits in a drawer next to a snes and an original playstation. I know, it doesn't seem right. :)

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by Aer Fixus » Fri May 01, 2015 6:46 am

BryWI wrote:I do believe there is a thread about repairing it somewhere, but the laser lens will likely be the culprit and will need replacing. I think someone found a source for these... I can't remember. I also don't know anything about the repair. It's nothing I have ever done before. My FZ-1 just sits in a drawer next to a snes and an original playstation. I know, it doesn't seem right. :)
The thread is here: http://3do.cdinteractive.co.uk/viewtopi ... =25&t=3291

Since then, I've also seen this listing on AliExpress (totaling $27.12 for me).

The user in that other thread runs (or is affiliated with) this store: http://www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk/shop
I can't find the laser on the store, so I'm not sure if he/she sold out or stopped carrying them for whatever reason. Once again, this was why I wanted to get the exact numbers so that we know for sure what part it is and we don't have to rely on stores that run out of stock or lose interest. I'm fairly certain SF-92.5 4P/11P is the correct part number (the 4P/11P is important because it indicates the shorter ribbon cables). I have yet to confirm this yet, though. Both of my 3DO (and the multiple 3DO I've repaired) just needed lube and a lens cleaning so I haven't needed to purchase a laser yet.

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by Austin » Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:33 am

I finally got around to trying normal discs yesterday. I tried Icebreaker first and played it for about 40 minutes. I then swapped to Soccer Kid, but it wouldn't read the disc. It would try, but then it would just spit it back out. The disc is fine so I'm not sure what's going on. I then tried Shockwave and made it to the second level. The system was warm again--not the blazing hot it was before, but still pretty warm. The far back left of the top seemed to be the hottest part. So, it seems to me like using real discs might help, but the system is still getting hot. I say *might* help, because Soccer Kid wasn't able to be read. I tried a few other CDr discs afterwards since they were all I had left asides from my three official releases, several of them gave me the same outcome as Soccer Kid (system spit them back out). A couple did work, but DOOM in particular froze at a black screen after stage 2. The system was still warm/hot. I might have to crack it open to see what area is causing the abnormal amount of heat.

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by dark » Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:51 pm

I got an FZ-1 recently along with about 5 retail games. I had some CDr games as well from a few years ago when I had a Sanyo 3do. The retail games work fine, no serious issues with skipping video or music. The CDr games which worked fine on a different system are unplayable. Often they load but ingame music skips very frequently and the FMVs are slideshows which basically don't function at all for video or sound.

It could be the laser unit being very old, but perhaps the FZ-1's laser is a little more finicky or weaker than the other 3do variants?

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by Austin » Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:25 pm

It could be. It seems mine is at the point where it doesn't really matter though, CDr or otherwise. :(

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by dark » Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:26 am

Hi there, you might know me as Sirlynxalot on the atariage forums. We were discussing one of my 3DOs over there - the one I am selling that partially works (tends to read commercial discs but no CDRs at all).

As an update, I cleaned the laser lens with isopropyl alcohol. All of a sudden, all of my burned games appeared to work fine, loading relatively smoothly with FMVs and music playing smoothly and correctly. I was all set to tell you of my wonderful findings, when I noticed the games were starting to play choppily, load times were increasing and FMVs were starting to crap out and skip frequently. It seems like there was a 20 minute window where things worked pretty good, and then quickly got progessively worse, until I was pretty much back where I started - commercial discs mostly working fine, burned discs being ejected from the disc drive without loading.

I let the console sit for awhile, and I got the impression that the burned discs worked again for a little while, and then progressively got worse very quickly until they were out and out rejected very frequently within 15 or so minutes.

I haven't solved the problem yet, but the cleaning the lens effort did surprise me with the sudden and dramatic results. I've since cleaned it again, but not quite had the same result.

I'll have to mess around with it a bit more over the next few days - I don't know how overheating could create this issue, but it is a thought I have since the console getting progressively hotter and the games working progressively worse each occur the longer you have the console running... In order to adjust the pot, you must dissassemble the entire CD drive assembly, I'll have to steel myself up for that challenge (not super difficult, just really time consuming to take apart and put back together in order to do a single test).

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by goldenband » Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:26 pm

That's interesting, my first FZ-1 did the exact opposite thing: it wouldn't read burned discs for the first 10-30 minutes it was powered on, but after that it read them with no trouble. OTOH my Sega CD does something similar to what you're describing, though it's not so much of an issue of silver vs. CDR as clean vs. scratchy discs.

I'm guessing it's a capacitor issue in both cases, though overheating could be a factor too; you might try aggressively cooling it somehow and seeing if it makes a difference.

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by Austin » Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:59 am

A friend over at AtariAge sent me a PC-CD drive that uses the same components/parts as the FZ-1 drive. Hopefully soon I can crack open both it and the FZ-1 to see about doing a swap, assuming it's in my range of capabilities (i.e., not very capable, hehe).

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by dark » Thu Aug 27, 2015 3:35 am

See my thread on that subject here:
http://www.3do.cdinteractive.co.uk/view ... =25&t=3643

In my case, the pc cdrom drive wasn't a direct swap, but there were plenty of the same components, including the laser unit and the notorious worm gear. In my case, the worm gear in the pc drive was cracked, so that wasn't a suitable replacement.

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by Austin » Wed Dec 30, 2015 3:46 am

A while back I received a replacement CD-ROM drive. I went ahead and decided to finally attempt to swap it out yesterday. I didn't really know what I was doing but managed to figure it out. Swapped the laser assembly (that part just pops right out), put everything back together, and low and behold, it works!

The system is still having a hard time with backups, but an original Wolfenstein 3D disc played fine. I left it running for a couple of hours and played a few levels here and there. The left side of the system was still warm, but not as hot as it got before.

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Re: Japanese 3DO FZ-1 overheating (I assume), discs hard to

Post by Austin » Tue Jan 12, 2016 5:37 am

Original discs are perfect. I tried about ten different games and they all boot up immediately. It still won't read a single CD-R though, which is odd.

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