I have two Sony 2x CDU-33’s that need fixing.
The capacitors on the logic boards have burst and spread there junk all over the PCB.
Many capacitors have just fallen off.
Do you think these are worth fixing or not ?
They will need a complete PCB cleaning bath and replacing of all the capacitors.
That will be the only way to completely restore these to a reliable condition.
Of course, especially since fixing is easy. I fixed half a dozen Sony drives so far, since they all have that issue.
I didn't know they had bad caps ! I have one but it still works. I'm going to look after brand new caps then.
What are their refs ?
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I don’t know what brand capacitors Sony used but they were cheap. They bursts and puked all over the PCB’s.
The gunk ate through the solder welds and the caps just fell off.
No wonder there are so few of these drives still around.
Anyone know what brand caps these are ?
Look at the photo above.
I have to look closer at the PCB’s.
The Pads maybe gone.
If it's like with some Macintoshes... You could try to substitute them with solid polymer capacitors... Though this is just a suggestion, I'm not really fluent in electronics.
Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]
I simply used tantalum caps in the drives I fixed. Not pretty, but you don't see them anyway.
Looks like the pads are gone on the PCB. I think I will put these away for now. I don’t have time to try to repair the PCB pads.
So long Sony....
I didn't know those drives have issues with caps. Hmmmm... might need to tear mine down and strike pre-emptively then. Thanks for the heads-up!
Thanks for the information! I also need to check my drive. Last time I checked it was not working very reliable after around 20 years storage. Maybe also caused by this?
All early Sony drives have that issue. They used the same shitty caps that Commodore used in the Amiga 600, 1200, and CD32.
thanks, guess I should also do that
Does anyone know of any paintable copper trace material. That you can just paint on to rebuild the traces and pads ?
What about liquid solder that you can apply like glue and just glue on the capacitors ?
Any such materials exists ?
conductive silver?
Use botch wires instead. Conductive paint is only good for fast-fixing something, but it won't work long-term.
I would also wager it has higher resistance than a piece of copper wire. Which is not what you want for PSU rail bypass caps.
Thats mine. Bought new by myself (seems in 1995) and stored under good conditions.
No damage visible, no need to fix anything. Will check the drive if I still have the read errors I observed last time I tested it...
