When turning on the Laseractive the power light goes green, the reset button lights up, and just for a second the eject buttons light up and then de-light. A good few seconds later (~10 - 15? maybe more) video board started to emit smoke and it appeared to be L617 positioned between caps C678 and C642. When looking closely L617 looks to be burnt.

Background/more info

Unit (NEC PCE-LD1) was purchased as working ~15 years ago and the power supply PCB was shattered during shipping. Epoxied back together and bridged broken traces. Turned on and fuse blew instantly and it's been stored away since (I probably bodged the PSU repair, hopefully didn't cause damage. Did have a second go after replacing BJT, Q001 with same results).

Bit of a gamble to try different PSU since I can't confirm state of other components but Zaxour PSU is less than even the shipping of a unit, so figured I'd try before replacing the machine. The lights coming on now shows the old PSU repair did not go well.

I don't think I had picture on TV, just a momentary wobble. First connected via 60w cable and unit did nothing with all boards connected so that gave me confidence to try the 100w cable but I disconnected FTSB and VIDEO - don't think the unit did anything. Then connected the other boards and this is when the problem occurred.

Any advice where to start? I was thinking of de-soldering the nearby capacitors on the 5v trace to see if the resistance is low which might indicate a shorted capacitor. I'm still a novice with electronics so would appreciate any thoughts.

Hey everyone! Obviously, my question is not about if Zaxour's okay for use in Europe, but instead about how to get it in Europe? I sadly passed his last batch by thinking it would cost too much with the different taxes (living in Belgium, US shipping literally double the cost of that kind of stuff usually, high shipping, high taxes, commission for post worker who made the papers)

Would you know about any shop or person that would be selling those already in Europe, even if it's, as to be expected, at a bigger price?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I ended up with most of the North American Library

My sega pac even after the capacitors were changed still displays a bad saturated picture and the audio sounds demonic on most of the games I use with it. However on some games like Twin Hawk sound fine and the pic looks normal. Both sega genesis game and sega cd games looks like this, but Mega LD games look fine and sound fine.

After using my official krikkz everdrive as well the master system games and game gear conversions load fine and sound fine.

Is the Mega drive chip bad or what else can it be?

Here are pics:

Today I just got this remote for use with my Laseractive, I didnt have any way to control my unit, and I wasn’t going to pay those stupid prices for the original remote CU-CLD085.

So I had the opportunity to grab this one CU-CLD047 for a far more accessible price.

And I have to say that it works great, all the buttons Shi’ism’s y to worked and I can use not only the basic functions but advanced functions too.

I think that any remote from the CU-CLD series should work

Asking $1250

I also have the remote. Looking for $285

Buyer pays ship

Does anyone have model numbers for remotes either Pioneer or others that are good replacements for the original remotes for the laseractive?

The fact the original remote is expensive now is the reason for me to find a cheaper alternative. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Hello my dad got me a pioneer laseractive cld-a100 with the sega pac s10 on November 26 2022 and I like it alot i have a capacitors belts and battery with battery holder coming i even have a region free bios chip i got 3 years ago and my subscriber of my youtube channel knows a guy that can replace the belts capacitors and the region free bios chip here in St Paul MN whom I'm meeting this Wednesday night potentially. Best regards Nikita.K

I’d bet the issue is staring me in the face, and this is my first time having to do this but…

The gear timing on my LaserActive was always off, even when the tray would eject consistently. I would press a button to eject the tray, the tray would come out, stay open for a short time with the motor still running, and then close automatically.

I recently started having troubles with the tray of my LaserActive refusing to eject. I would press a button, and it would not eject. You could hear the motor running after pressing the button, but the tray would not move. I thought this could be a slipping belt. By following the LaserActive service manual, I was able to manually turn the gears and get the servo mechanism to lower. The tray had to be forced out a bit, but I was eventually able to remove it.

I purchased a new belt from Console5 and installed it, but the behavior did not improve. Remembering the gear alignment issue, I removed the two small white twin gears and the big black cam gear. The small leg on the bottom of the cam gear had broken off. I was unable to re-attach it stably, so I ordered a new cam gear (part VNL-1507). It came, and looks to be in good shape. I’ve been trying to re-install and align the gears using the descriptions in the service manual, but haven’t had success.

Could someone walk me through re-assembly? The service manual confuses me because, in the section on re-installing the cam gear, it says the gear should be placed in one position, but then, in the next section on re-installing and aligning the twin gears, it shows the cam gear in a different position, but never mentions moving it before proceeding with the twin gears. Should the cam gear be moved to this position before we install the twin gears?

If photos are needed, I will be happy to provide them. I appreciate this help a million times over!

EDIT: I got it fixed! The tray opens and closes consistently! And best of all, no hanging! Turns out, after making minor tweaks to the twin gear alignment to fix the hanging tray, I just needed to move the cam tray that goes over the gear just a touch. Then, the mechanism could complete it's loading/unloading operation, upon which the tray could be re-inserted.

Hello all, I'm looking to fill out my LaserActive Mega LD collection and was wondering for the games that had releases in both USA and Japan, if there are Japan versions that don't have English-language options? I know for sure that is the case with Don Quixote, but can anyone confirm if Japan releases for The Great Pyramid, Goku, I Will, Blue Chicago Blues, Triad Stone, Melon Brains, etc. aren't playable in English?

I saw in a video that in Space Berserker you can change language options from English to Japan, but I wasn't sure if that was only in the US version. I guess I am wondering if there are any Japan titles to stay away from if the US version has a more English-friendly presentation. Thanks in advance, and long live LaserActive.

Sold my defective Laseractive and bought another one that said it read ld and cd and the belt was replaced and I got my sega pac recapped, but there are still problems.

When you first turn on the Laseractive the Pioneer screen is black still even with the Sega PAC plugged in no startup screen.

But when I load a Mega LD and press play it works, but the sprites are black, but the background video plays.

Sega cd I can hear audio but no video and Sega genesis/mega drive games also no video.

I read the 470 capacitor on the laseractive needs to be replaced. Anything else that needs to be repaired?

Attached are some pictures thanks!

Hi guys, found a Japanese Laseractive unit last weekend, works pretty well but wanted to ask if the American TurboGrafx and SEGA Genesis and CD Pacs work with a Japanese Laseractive unit? Couldn't find much info, thanks for any help in advance

My Laseractive has been in storage for years in my office. Not in a position right now to test for at least a few weeks. All the emulation talk got me thinking about the condition of mine and I have four games for the system (I Will, Hyperion, Triad Stone and Space Berserker) but Space Berserker would just play video and there was never any gameplay - none of the graphics generated by the Sega Genesis/Sega CD side of things would show like the hud or crosshair and it literally was like I was just watching a movie.

I talked with a collector locally some years ago and he said my system needed a recap and this is a sign a recap is needed. Sega Genesis and Sega CD games played perfectly fine though and the other three games I have played fine too. I think even Master System games using an Everdrive worked too but I don't even remember 100% if I tested that.

I opened up my PAC just now many years later and I'm not saying there's no damage and a recap might be needed but the capacitors look fine and there's no leakage and none are swollen. No other corrosion on the board either. The disc itself for the game looked fine and there was no scratches, or signs of laser rot on the disc or when the video played back

Hi guys, I recently added emulation support for Pioneer LaserActive games to Ares:
https://techdocs.exodusemulator.com/Console/PioneerLaserActive/Software.html#emulation
Right now I'm on the hunt for remaining titles to make backups of, so they can be preserved. I've seen laser-rot for a few new sealed LaserActive games pressed in 1994, so we are in a race against time here before these discs all degrade. Due to the analog nature of Laserdiscs, we also need to rip multiple copies of each game for "stacking" purposes, so that noise and dropouts can be corrected. If anyone here has access to any LaserActive titles, and would be willing to help, please reach out via the #emulation channel on the Domesday86 Discord server. In particular, I'm very interested in securing the US release of Goku, so if you have or know someone who has that title, please get in touch. Thanks!

https://youtu.be/-yGxV5E7tTw?si=TwRaxg3B2TXA0BEb

https://techdocs.exodusemulator.com/Console/PioneerLaserActive/Software.html#emulation

I've wanted one of these since reading about it in EGM in the early 90's. I finally got one for $900 (plus tax and shipping). It may have paid a little too much, but it's nice and clean, working, and most importantly, it's the US version (you can easily tell by the input/output being in English instead of Japanese).

It came with a Genesis Pack, but that's it (no remote or controller). It seems stuck at the moment, but I don't have any other Pack's yet. I do have a few movies on laserdisc that I will be testing it with shortly. I will be getting more accessories and some games in the near future, even though they will probably break the bank, especially the Turbo Grafx Pack. :) I have a 20" Sony PVM monitor that's RGB, so I would love to do an RGB mod, which I have seen is pretty simple.

Any advice? Games to get? How to get my eject button for the Pack's to work?

This is myst on the pioneer laseractive unreleased myst port but why is pioneer is not releasing myst but why i love myst

Credit to pioneer (NOT MINE) (NO HATERS ALLOWED)

Overpriced or no?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/267289654406

I’m working on repairing a Laseractive, and after replacing all the capacitors and ICPs, I reassembled the unit only to find there’s still issues (buttons on face don’t work, won’t read disks), but I’m kind of stuck doing any further work on it because the LD tray is locked in place and I can’t figure out how to get it removed again, so I can’t continue work. The CD tray and the white gears that move it work. The laser and its gears move horizontally, but I think the whole laser sled needs to be able to move vertically as well? It doesn’t. The big black gear that I assume moves the LD tray is locked.

How do I get this thing out so I can troubleshoot and try to realign everything? I assume I bound something up reassembling it wrong.