3DO:Sanyo Disc Drive Repair

Sanyo Disc Drive

3DO Model IMP-21J and the Goldstar models have the same drive.

The Sanyo disc drive is known to also have multiple critical failure points. Most notably the critical failure points are:

-Worm Gear
-Microswitches
-Ribbon Cable

"I can't enter attract mode. All the 3DO does is show the 3DO logo, go to a black screen and keeps looping"

The most notable problems associated with this are the micro switches on the drive assembly and the ribbon cable.

The ribbon cable that connects from the disc drive LSI card to the actual optical assembly card (both cards that make up the 'disc drive') is a known failure point. The ribbon cable will bend and often over time connections that are quite critical are broken. Then the 3DO doesn't know what to do.

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  Poor Condition FFC

A replacement ribbon cable should be longer than the stock cable. The ribbon cable is a 30-pin 1mm pitch cable. Similar to Saturn ribbon cable but it's just much longer and has more pins.

Here is a link for a recommended replacement. It's 200mm long and is longer than the stock ribbon cable. At this point. The metal contacts of the FFC should be on the same side.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/710-686630200001

"My 3DO keeps making some odd noise in the disc drive. It won't read CDs at all"

The kiss of death. On the optical assembly in the disc drive, there is a composite gear that sits between the worm gear and the motor is damaged and destroyed. You will require a replacement gear or ODE to fully fix your 3DO.

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  Culprit in the Center.