>plug in Duo R>never once replaced capacitors, laser, etc, only repair work was reflowing solder on the controller port a couple years ago>pop in literally 30+ year old CD-R >spins up, loads right away, no skipping>hook up original XBOX which used to work just a few months ago>now it won't recognize discs>not even a regular CDIs it just dogshit capacitors causing XBOX, PS2, etc drives to fail despite being relatively young consoles? Crappy lasers? I'm hoping it's just capacitors, don't really want to buy a new drive.
>>11512828i thought the Duo-R had less capacitor issues than the original Duo?
>>11512834It might. I've had mine for over 20 years and never had a problem with it. I'll probably replace the caps as a preventive measure.
It's a crap shoot. Bad caps are actually a cool trick - a US company had THE formula for good quality electrolytic caps and the CIA warned them that the stinking Japs were trying to steal the formula. So the company came up with a formula that would degrade after a while and let the Japs have THAT instead. Bing bang boom, Japan's reputation for top quality semiconductors NEVER recovered and they are a minor and failing player in that arena TO THIS DAY, OVER A QUARTER CENTURY LATER.Serves them right.
>>11512828Almost all Xbox DVD drives are garbage-tier, and the Samsung drives are the ones that tend to have the most PCB failures.Philips are the best most commonly-available ones. The best ones (Hitachi) are quite rare.You might have some luck taking apart your drive, cleaning out the dust, and cleaning the laser - especially with Thompson drives.
>>11513068I have a Thomson drive. I cleaned the exterior of the lens, but it sounds like there's another space under it which can get dirty as well, guess I'll clean that when I open it up again.
>>11512828https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
>>11512834That's right, only the original Duo has the dodgy caps
How reliable are Duo Rs anyway? Are the lasers a pain in the ass to replace in the event that they inevitably fail? Do they suffer from any major reliability issues? Thinking of buying one.
>>11513051Crazy conspiracy. But it rings true because Japan lost its space to Taiwan after the 1990s
>>11512834I know the RX has better caps than the duo
>>11513271It's not a conspiracy at all, this is all settled history.
>>11513258It's probably the most well built system after the AV Famicom. The lasers do fail but it isn't a given when buying an untested system from a Japanese seller. The HuCard always works.
>>11512828I’ve owned multiple ps2 and there’s always something in the laser assembly that eventually breaks. I just need to do the mod already.
>>11512828My regular US Duo plays discs fine, but the CD music will occasionally stop playing until the game is required to reload it. Is that something fixable with cap replacement?
>>11512834Exactly. That's why OP had the experience he did. The original Duo had surface mount electrolytics that were made during a capacitor plague and are 100% guaranteed to leak. They must have realized this because the Duo-R went back to using through-hole caps like the older models.
>>11512828it's because Duo R is barely ever used
