Replacement laser for Samsung N501

[cyberdemon]

I have a new N501 that has been sitting for a long time,however i guess time has spent the laser.Samsung doesn't make them anymore.Does anyone know where one could be found?E-bay is a crap shoot so i'm not to interested in trying a used player that the laser could go anytime .

 

[doctorclu]

Hey Cyberdemon, as you can see, this is one of our current challenges along with a source of controllers. I wish I had an immediate solution, but all I can say is I appreciate the problem.

 

[cyberdemon]

Thank you doctor for replying.Yes i can see that it's a big problem.If i can't get it fixed,i might just sell the whole thing.i have 4 controllers(three HPI and one Logitech).Game wise:Tempest 3000,Space Invaders,Ballistic,Freefall 3050 AD,Iron Soldier3(Demo),Nuon-Dome DVD Interactive,Merlin Racing,All in Mint Condition.It's really a shame.

 

[doctorclu]

As much as I'm sure people would love those controllers I would like to encourage to hang in there. I would rather have you around as I am rediscovering the Nuon as well and would love the company. I have a N501 I want to a new CD unit for, so I am looking. I bought another N501 for the homebrews, and regularly use a Toshiba 2300 for my daily game of Ballistic and Next Tetris. I would suggest getting a Toshiba unit for the commercial games. (The Toshiba, as I found out, will play DVD-R backups of your games so you don't have to use up the originals.)

 

[gameblabla]

maybe you could try to scavenge some lasers from old DVD drives ?
Maybe your PC laser will work just fine, after all, any generic CD-ROM laser will fit inside the Dreamcast's GD-ROM.
Just give it a try

 

[cyberdemon]

As much as I'm sure people would love those controllers I would like to encourage to hang in there. I would rather have you around as I am rediscovering the Nuon as well and would love the company. I have a N501 I want to a new CD unit for, so I am looking. I bought another N501 for the homebrews, and regularly use a Toshiba 2300 for my daily game of Ballistic and Next Tetris. I would suggest getting a Toshiba unit for the commercial games. (The Toshiba, as I found out, will play DVD-R backups of your games so you don't have to use up the originals.)

I haven't gave up on it yet.Like you,i would like to find a new CD unit,i know that someone has them.If we could find the people that bought all those spare parts(stock) when the N501 was discontinued,then we would be in good shape.

 

[cyberdemon]

maybe you could try to scavenge some lasers from old DVD drives ?
Maybe your PC laser will work just fine, after all, any generic CD-ROM laser will fit inside the Dreamcast's GD-ROM.
Just give it a try

Has that been tried?It seems that if it has been,someone would have posted it here.I have a repair fellow that could do it if i had the right one and he is good at his job but he checked it out and couldn't find anything that would work.Having said that he is not perfect and could have missed something.On a side note,Dreamcast,what a great system.I finally wore one out but it had thousand's of hours of Quake III Arena on it and we still play that game,online,to this day,every Friday night.Thanks for the thought.

 

[gameblabla]

I would be actually surprised if NUONs were using proprietary parts, as doing so would increase the cost. One thing you could do is to open it up and take some pictures of it. (and try to remove the laser lens to see how many pins it has)

 

[cyberdemon]

Sorry it took awhile getting back to you.I talked it over with my tech and he said it would be cost prohibited because of time involved.He showed me what it took to do it(take apart and put back together and then recalibrate).It looked like a nightmare to me and is most likely why nobody on here has done it,Thanks anyway.

 

[megarat]

Man, I'm sorry to hear this. I just fired up my Nuon on Sunday night for the first time in several years, and I was delighted to see that it was still working.

How common is the problem of a bad laser/drive? I picked up a backup N501, to hedge against such a possibility, but that's only because I'm a packrat, not because I was actually expecting it to have any problems. Is it typical to see the transports go out in these units after a certain period of time?

I agree with gameblabla, in that there is probably a viable swaptronics solution, if not for the laser itself, then for the whole drive. There are probably some 90's-era DVD players that can be cannibalized to solve this problem.

 

[cyberdemon]

Man, I'm sorry to hear this. I just fired up my Nuon on Sunday night for the first time in several years, and I was delighted to see that it was still working.

How common is the problem of a bad laser/drive? I picked up a backup N501, to hedge against such a possibility, but that's only because I'm a packrat, not because I was actually expecting it to have any problems. Is it typical to see the transports go out in these units after a certain period of time?

I agree with gameblabla, in that there is probably a viable swaptronics solution, if not for the laser itself, then for the whole drive. There are probably some 90's-era DVD players that can be cannibalized to solve this problem.

I don't know how common it is,this one was in the box for years and was tested before i put it up and it worked then.Yes there were a couple of other models that would work and they are listed,i think on Nuon-Done.I forgot which models they are but then again,by now,they are old and most likely,in the same shape.


Here you Go.


http://www.nuon-dome.com/disc_read_error_fix.html