Pioneer CLD-A100 Region error message?

I've just bought a Pioneer CLD-A100 from Yahoo Auctions which was listed as junk because of an error message. Here are a few pictures of it.




The error message to me looks as if the seller put a US game or PAL Mega CD game in to the player which has brought up this error message. The seller couldn't understand the error message mind you which is why it was listed as junk.

What do you guys think? Could this be a very simple fix or is it something far more serious?

Yakumo

 

It is the Sega PAC or the disc itself that is throwing the error?

This is something that's going to be difficult to diagnose until you get it in hand.

That said, if it was listed as Junk in Yahoo Japan, at least you know it will be in pristine physical condition.

Dare I ask how little you paid for it?

-hl718

 

Total price with shipping = 16100 yen I ended up in a bidding war with some other guy. If he never showed up I could have got it for 6800 yen

The unit was shipped off today so it should arrive tomorrow or failing that, on Saturday. I'll post more info when it comes.

Yakumo

 

Yakumo, that error message is from the MEGA-LD/CD BIOS contained on the pak. By the text on the message, it's possible the pak was opened and modified to play US cartridge games.


A long time ago I patched my MEGA-CD bios to ignore the MEGA DRIVE hardware region by patching an branch instruction on the region check routine with an NOP. If you want I can easily repeat the patch on the MEGA-LD rom.

 

If it is a patch, can it be removed so that the pac is back to normal? I don't need or want one that plays US games to be honest. I'll be mostly using it to play my JPN Mega CD games anyway and if I can find one, Mega LD versions of Time Gal and Road Blaster FX :thumbsup:.

 

[Insert laughter track here] You really going to spend over Y100,000 on both those games?

 

Well, the system arrived today. It won't play audio CDs or Mega CDs. I don't have any laser discs to try either.

Basically, when you put in a CD the drive starts to spin comes up with PLAY on the screen in the top right hand corner then says STOP. The CD and LD buttons stop flashing at this point.

If I have the Sega Pac plugged in it will display that region error message. If I plug in a cartridge it will display a blank black screen.

I'm stumped on this one.

Yakumo

 

The laseractive should play CD and LDs (I'm sure Hard off should have a 105 yen LD you could buy) without the pac connected. If it is failing that then several things might be wrong. Listen to it, to see if the motor is spinning up, the laser is attempting to read the disc, etc. My laseractive (which I bought in Akihabara for less then 5000 yen) just had a slightly damaged spindle, 10 minutes later and it was working

The Sega pac sounds like it's fucked as it should run cartridges directly. Check the cartridge port to see if any connectors are bent or damaged. Try opening it to see if someone has tried to mod it and messed it up.

Still you have a nice looking paperweight if you can't fix it.

 

Update.

Got the CD player section to work. The laser was filthy! It's now lovely and clean thanks to a manual clean with some lens cleaner and a few cotton buds. I'll pop off to Hard Off tomorrow and buy a cheap LD to try. I guess it will work though since the CD player section is now fine.

Hmm, the Sega PAC looks to be untouched. I'll take a good look at all connectors and the ones inside the laseractive as well. Fingers crossed.

Yakumo

 

This looks awesome. Hope you get it to work. There's probably lots of awesome LDs in Japan, too, right? Maybe Macross Plus or something.

 

You must get Triad Stone!

 

If your still having issues try contacting pioneer, i hear they still repair those.

 

I'm going to get a GameBit driver first to open the Mega Drive PAC to see if some idiot has done a region mod on it first. I bought Return of the Jedi LD today for 210 yen which works perfectly so it's defiantly the PAC that's the problem.

 

Good luck hopefully its a simple fix. Had to get the untouched version of return of the jedi huh?

 

oh yes. It's been so long since I've seen how it should be. I'm going to sit down with a few beers and some munchies tonight with that one. To be honest I nearly walked away with about 10 Laser Discs all at 210 yen ranging from the likes of Blues Brothers to a fav' anime of mine, Bubblegum Crisis. Thing is that I have them on DVD already. I may still buy the Bubblegum Crisis ones though since they feature extras that even the Bubblegum Crisis DVD "complete" boxset doesn't feature.

 

Thats a great find Yakumo, I got into laserdisc's last year and now have about 230 of them. Lots of anime too.
I wish i could find a Laseractive over here in the UK, but I'm happy with my Pioneer DVL-909.

 

Well the patch I mentioned was meant to allow the japanese MEGA-LD bios run regardless the status of the region bit be domestic (0) or export (1).

Since you don't need it, all you have to do is find the domestic/export jumper on the PAK and fix it back to the original "domestic" setting and the region error screen will disappear. :thumbsup:

 

Really? Fingers crossed it's going to be that simple. I'll buy the GameBit driver today and post some pictures if I' can't figure it out. I remember modding a Mega dRive 1 years back which was very simple so fingers crossed thi swill be too.

Yakumo

 

Although even if the region setting was different, cartridge games should work regardless...

 

True. This is a very strange problem. The PAC is operational since it gives the region error message but that's all it will do.

I finally got the top of the PAC today. I can't see anything wrong inside but then again I'm no electronics master.

Maybe someone can see something?

The PAC contains two boards. This is the main board. Please click the thumbnail to see the full size image (It's BIG!)


Bottom of the main board.


This is the bottom of the second smaller board.


And the top of the second smaller board.


Yakumo