Introduction
This guide will teach you how to disassemble the GameCube Optical Drive Assembly for the purpose of accessing the Optical Drive and the laser.
Outils
Pièces
Aucune pièce spécifiée.
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Turn over the Gamecube so that the bottom side is facing up.
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Locate the four screws (circled in red) on each corner of the device. Then, use a 4.5 mm Gamebit screwdriver to remove all four screws.
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With the bottom side of the GameCube facing upward and the screws removed, carefully pull the outer shell of the unit away from the top half. Then place the inside of the unit facing up.
This can also be done whilst being in the normal upright position after all 4 of the 4.5mm Gamebit screws have been removed. Pull the top of the shell directly upwards and it should slide off easily.
Less chance of snagging any wires or parts.
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Gently press down on the clips located on either side of the the back panel, as shown, and carefully remove it from the main part of the device.
A second picture clearly showing which direction to pull the back panel away from the unit would be nice.
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With the back panel removed, carefully unclip the controller ports at the front of the unit.
well... what happens if accidentally i disconnected it?
presumably nothing major. The CMOS battery is attached to the controller ports, so the most i'd expect is that the gamecube loses it's date/time setting. As long as you reset that before jumping into animal crossing or something, you should be fine. I'm currently doing a teardown of my gamecube, and if something does prove to have gone wrong, i'll report back.
sigoshi -
okay, i finished putting it back together. gamecube works fine and surprisingly still remembers what year it is. boots into smash bros and shows memory card contents fine.
sigoshi -
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Use a Phillips screwdriver to remove the two 2 screws(circled in red) that are located on the back of the control port.
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Carefully separate the gray outer casing of the control port and the circuit board.
must do this?
That step is not needed for the laser replacement.
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The left side of the unit contains the cooling fan and its housing. Carefully remove the two (2) screws attaching the cooling fan housing to the unit.
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Do not detach the red and black cooling fan wire from the main unit.(red wire)
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At this point, your optical drive assembly should be separated from your GameCube (picture 1).
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Flip the optical drive assembly upside down
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Shown in picture 2, remove the 6 Phillips #1 screws with a philips screwdriver.
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Once the screws are removed, gently lift and remove the metal plate (shown in picture 3).
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Be careful not to disturb the brown ribbon cable (highlighted in the yellow).
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Remove the blue wire by gently pulling.
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Disconnect the Brown cable. This is done by gently pulling the black tab away from the white plastic. This will loosen the tension on the brown cable allowing it to gently be slid away from the tab.
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Shown in the third picture, remove the 4 Phillips #1 screws connecting the circuit board to the optical drive assembly.
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Gently remove the circuit board (the large green square) as shown in the three pictures.
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Red Wire
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White ribbon Cable
What would happen if I accidentally separated the white ribbon cable... because I watched a video of some guy going through this same process. Separated all the cables and his worked. My cube stopped reading disks recently. Laser is calibrated properly. Begins to spin then stops
Ps
Is there anyway I can save my cube
I'm just guessing here, but I think they mean there's no need to separate those cables to complete the repair—just be careful not to pull or stress them. Like you said, nothing bad will happen if you choose to disconnect a couple cables. As for what's wrong with your cube, you might want to try asking your question over in the Answers forum.
There is a small tab to the left of the red wire that you need to pull out to release the circuit board.
Why do we need further disassembly that this ? The potentiometer is already accessible at this point. Why do we need to tear down the lens from it’s slot in step 16 ?
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Once the top half of the drive assembly is detached, turn it upside down.
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Using a philips screwdriver, carefully remove the 3 final screws located near the bars of the lens assembly.
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Once the the three final screws are removed, the lens assembly can be extracted (as shown in the second picture).
what kind of screws are these on the laser lens i lost one and need to buy new ones cause i cant find the 3rd
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
Annulation : je n'ai pas terminé ce tutoriel.
14 autre(s) ont terminé cette réparation.
4 commentaires
What type of optical drive could I use to replace the one in said GameCube once I've broken it down?
Did you ever find out, Bob?
I found OEM parts (removed from other Game Cubes) available on Ebay. Just ordered the part for about $16.
Good walkthrough. My 8 year old completed this repair with minimal help from me. Thanks!