Atari Jaguar CD Troubleshooting Guide

Jaguar CD with the top case removed, showing the Philips transport

Fault-finding on the Atari Jaguar CD add-on, using Atari's user's guide and the repair guides of Graeme Hinchliffe (Linkovitch) and James Jones. Faults in the console itself are covered by the Atari Jaguar Troubleshooting Guide.

Before you start

Atari's troubleshooting chart for the CD unit:

Jaguar CD user's guide troubleshooting (pp. 15-16, condensed)

Problem	Atari's remedy
No picture	Console and TV on; power cord and wall socket; CD unit seated firmly on the console; TV channel and RF switch box
Screen solid red	CD unit seated firmly on the console; the CD may be defective
No CD sound	TV volume; loose cables; the volume set too low or off on the CD player itself
Power light does not come on	AC adaptor plugged in; power at the wall socket; CD unit seated firmly on the console
CD+G disc plays music without graphics	Select CD+G in the Advanced Options

• The CD unit needs its own adaptor plugged into its power socket. If it has none, the console shows a picture of the back of the CD unit with an arrow pointing at the power socket.
• A game cartridge in the pass-through slot takes priority over a game CD; an accessory cartridge such as the Memory Track does not.
• Volume and Virtual Light Machine settings are kept in the unit, which stores up to 100,000 changes and then stops saving new ones.

Disc does not spin

Work through these in order; the last is the most work.

Lid switch

The CD unit does nothing until it sees the lid closed. James Jones's unit heard the transport tracking and focusing at power-on but would not spin a disc, even after a new transport. The two contacts of the lid switch were not meeting: the lower contact had bent down and was slightly oxidised.

1. With a disc in and the unit on the console, short the switch contacts through the cut-out in the upper contact with tweezers or a straightened paper clip, and power on. If the disc now spins, the switch is at fault.
2. Clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and bend the lower contact back up until the two are nearly touching, parallel to each other and at right angles to their plastic bracket.

Platter slipped down the spindle

Graeme Hinchliffe reports that the platter commonly works its way down the motor spindle until it rubs on the motor housing, so discs spin slowly or not at all and read errors follow. Pull it back up the spindle, pushing down evenly on the corners of the transport so the rubber mounts are not torn, or work it up with a flat screwdriver in the groove under the platter, turning the platter between twists. James Jones received a unit with its platter jammed down, probably in the post, and freed it the same way.

Seized spindle motor

Graeme Hinchliffe's unit only worked on its side and then stopped; the platter was hard to turn by hand and he judged the fault to be inside the motor. He replaced the transport. See Atari Jaguar CD Laser Replacement.

Loud clicking

A continuous loud clicking at power-on, with the laser vibrating beside the platter, is the transport trying to find its home position because the limit (zero) switch is not being read. Hinchliffe traced it to a wire snapped off the switch, and says to switch the unit off at once, because the clicking wears the sled gears.

1. Check continuity from each copper tab of the switch to its pin on the plug at the other end of the wires. If both are good, the switch wiring is not the fault.
2. If one is open, take out the transport (see Atari Jaguar CD Laser Replacement), strip and tin the broken wire, and resolder it to the switch. On James Jones's unit the joints were covered in hot glue that had to be removed first.
3. Repeat the continuity test before reassembly.

Read errors and discs that slip

• James Jones's first unit would only read one brand of CD-R; a new transport cured it.
• A replacement transport with a black platter may have too weak a magnet to clamp the disc against the lid, so the disc skids when it spins up. Fit the original grey platter to the new motor.
• Hinchliffe tests repaired units with a disc that plays CinePak video continuously, because it keeps the drive reading near its maximum rate. One of his units ran it without fault, another failed after a few minutes, and a third would not boot it; he puts this down to the units, not the disc.

Related pages

• Atari Jaguar CD
• Atari Jaguar CD General Maintenance
• Atari Jaguar CD Laser Replacement
• Atari Jaguar CD Capacitor Replacement Guide
• Atari Jaguar Troubleshooting Guide