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Hello everyone or cdi 490 repair help

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:38 am
by jetblue
Hi everyone :D

My first post :)
I bought a cdi-490 off ebay last week and at first the description said remote,plugs and cord and when i pressed buy it now it i noticed the description was revised to as is no cords or remote.
I got it today and it did come with a electrical cord. Its almost pristine.
I was wondering if I can use a universal remote as a replacement.
Has anyone tried this with the philips universal remote or any kind of remote?
Also what type of remote did it originally come with? I noticed there are 2 kinds of remotes. A flat one and a long thin one.
Also the power cord say's kawasaki on it. Is that the original cord?


Thanks for any info.



Im just getting started in this facsinating cd-i world. Ever since i found a torrent for the games i just had to play them.

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:37 pm
by dealstokie
Hi Jetblue

Either Remote should work, the flat one will defo work, not sure about the power cord.

Hope you enjoy your cdi, I have over 100 games and get a lot of fun out of it :)

Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:35 am
by jetblue
Thanks for the info dealstokie :) I was finally able to find a remote. I could only find a flat one with a joystick from that remote guy on ebay. I cant wait till it arrives,i havent been able to play anything :?

Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 10:21 am
by Bas
you don't need the wireless remote actually, any wired joystick does the same job. But they all work.

The power cord is a universal one, they can be bought everywhere. Just check the plug buy one or rip it from your old stereo.

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 11:20 am
by jetblue
I gota question.
My friend bought a 490 off ebay a few months ago and it works,music cd's load and play,game discs load and play,the only problem is you cant use any remotes or controllers. The cursor just stays still.
So i thought i should see if i can fix it for him. My first thought was a loose wire somewhere. I opened it up but all wires were ok. I unplugged wires and plugged them in with no change.
Then i tryed to take it apart and use parts from my working 490 and transplant them to his to see if its any of the components to single out the problem. I replaced with mine the power supply,front control unit,smaller power unit and even traded the digital mpeg cartridge,or whatever its called,and still no change.
Is this the symptoms of the batterie faliure ive been seeing about in other units? I looked for a batterie but cant find any except for this leggo like chip thats like 3 leggo chips stacked on top of each other. Its numbers are 834103 M5M5256DP-70LL. The rest of the chips are microchips unless the batterie is hidden underneath the pcb where i cant see but the pcb is a tight fit against the case.
Has anyone had any similiar problems with their 490? Or other cdi unit?
Any info will be most appreciated.

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:33 pm
by Bas
The battery causes peculiar failures, but in that case the whole player doesn't work anymore. If only the cursor does not react (what kind of did you use?) it must be something else.

A loose wire sounds possible, but I never heard a story like this actually.

If you want to locate the battery, it is indeed inside the pcb called M48T18, find the details right here

It is located on the down left side below the DVC, when the front panel is facing you. My 490 didn't have the text on it though.

Have you tried different controllers? The plug may be damaged, or did you try it on your own 490 as well?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 5:21 am
by jetblue
Ah cool,so thats where it is,thanks.

Yeah,i tried diffrent wired controllers and remotes,and changed the controller plug and the panel where the ir eye is with my working ones and still the cursor,that damn little arrow,wont move.
I cant even find this sympton on other game consoles. This is a real pickler puzzle.

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:11 am
by jetblue
I have obtained a 3rd 490! But its a pal unit. And it has the same symptoms as my friends cd-i that i now own cause he gave up on it.
Again its cursor will not move. Everything else is fine. Plays music,boots up games. I cant seem to figure out whats wrong with it. I did notice the pal unit came without a video cartridge or it was removed by its previous owner.
Anyone have ideas whats wrong with it?

A expert on electronics told me a few months ago about the second unit that its the motherboard and i should throw it in the garbage. Im not gonna give up on them that easy. Im sure another somewhere had the same problem and possibly fixed it.
If it takes me another year i will find the cause :twisted:

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:31 am
by jetblue
I have returned.
This time i spent an exhausting 2 months trying to fix the damn units.
Checked as many of the components i could with a multitester and checked for continuity.
Then finally after weeks of testing the top of the motherboard i flipped it over to test the bottom components and noticed what i think is the cause,white calcium like substance all over thats not dust and wont come off with a wipe. All the signs of WATER DAMAGE!
If you download the pic and enlarge you can see the white deposits:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... back-1.jpg
I felt a cold chill run through me when i started to piece together all the pieces and that strange very strong not quite burned smell more like ozone smell when i turn it on. Flipped the board over to the top and started to see white deposits
around the controller connections and stuff. Not as much as the bottom part and not really noticeable but its there:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... rontcv.jpg
So i started to clean it from info i found on the web. Using warm distiled water then electronics pcb cleaner from radio shack all the while scrubbing with an old toothbrush.
Removed as much as i could so that you cant even see it but you can see where it was before like its rubbed in. Did the best i could do.
After its dried for days i plugged it in with no change,same symptoms as before. Even with removing the 2 socketed chips and starting it didnt change anything. Was hoping it would reboot or some crap after i removed them.

Might be massive shorts across the motherboard. Probably the main cpu short or whole bunch of resistors and crap that need changing. And even after changing them it still may not work right.
Its beyond me and what im willing to do.

I don't know what else to do. Anyone else have any ideas what i should check or do? Any advice would be most welcome:)




Once i cleaned the motherboard that ozone smell was gone,but i didn't clean the mpeg cartridge and it still smells.

So i opened the second unit and ho and behold white deposits like the other one. But its failure is a bit different. The cursor wont move but i cant get it to play cd's or games. I thought it did but was mistaken


Heres some more pics of the unit:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... tshell.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... pshell.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... thmpeg.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... utmpeg.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... dgetop.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... bottom.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... dchip1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... badpic.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... ivetop.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... bottom.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... boards.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... dsback.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... lfront.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... elback.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... es00n5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... s004-1.jpg


If i cant get any other ideas what to do with these il just offer them for sale here as parts or put them on the ebay.

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:40 pm
by XCLTempesT
Bas wrote:The battery causes peculiar failures, but in that case the whole player doesn't work anymore.
In a short time frame (a few weeks, or months) before the battery of a CD-I player actually is totally depleted, I've encountered all kinds of strange behavior of a player: non-functioning sound, peripherals that aren't detected, discs that don't start, crashing games (sometimes they appear to be reading errors but they are not) etc. etc.

sometime later I try the player again, and it works perfectly again (although the time and save games aren't stored anymore)

I believe that it is because of data that gets corrupted and because of this causes severe problems. After the battery completely dies, all stored data is totally reseted to defaults every time the player starts.

But I suspect other people here know a lot more about the hardware.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:03 am
by jetblue
i should replace the nvram,ive been reluctant to even try it.

I opened it up and under its m5m5256dp-70ll socket is this chip:
DS1216-9816E1
485AB
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/ ... DS1216.jpg
http://datasheets.maxim-ic.com/en/ds/DS1216-DS1216H.pdf

28 pin,too small for my camera to pick up.

Its not like the other nvram i see on these boards or in that tutorial.
How can i possible change this beast. Seems soldered to the board even though its in a socket.
Can this nvram even fail like the others?

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:58 am
by XCLTempesT
The most often used method to fix the battery problem are:

1-replace the entire time-keeper module

or

2-drill a hole in the time keeper module that is non-functioning and connect an external battery to replace the dead one embedded inside the module.
(I think this would be the easiest and the cheapest to do. you shouldn't need to remove anything from the mainboard, 'just' drill a hole at the battery side, solder 2 wires to the freed contacts and contact them to a external battery)

removing the entire top of the timekeeper module is not a useful thing to do, because you still need to connect it because the top contains not only a battery but also a quartz. As far as I know the modules can only be bought as a whole (including memory, battery and quartz), so it also isn't very useful if you want to replace it.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:48 pm
by jetblue
I am an idiot. I failed to do the basic tests with these units and deserve to be beaten and mocked!

Last night when i reassembled the unit i decided to put in a cdr of burncycle to make sure it booted up and worked. I grabbed a controller wondering if i can press play at the startup menu cause the cursor is right over play. It moved.
Right away i thought it was something i had done but then realized i was using the controller from my working 490 and not the controllers it came with or my spares. i keep all the controllers in a box.
I never used my controller from my working unit thinking the others it came with worked. So the only way to prove it was the controller and nothing i did to the unit was to plug in the second pal unit. The cursor also moved.
I didn't know these controllers could break down.
Played burncycle for hours in disbelief.

The 2 units worked all this time
:oops:

Only problem is sometimes i have to open and close the cd tray a few times to make it bootup.

So ends this thread and thank you all for your help.
Let the party begin!!!


update:march 7
Now that i think about it the cdi 490 only uses the longer stick controller and the other gamepad and larger stick controller are not compatible. This could be why i was stumped with them.
Also i never disassembled the other pal unit but i did remove its socketed bios chip and turned it on. Same for the other unit. Its possible it did reset itself internally.
But im not sure if i ever used my working controller in the past. So maybe un seating the bio chip had no effect.
I have learned much from this and will clean and double check av cords and controllers before doing anything inside a cdi or any console. And try multiple controllers and accessories till i get the right one.