Locating the CD-i Timekeeper Battery in a CD-i 200/210 player
>> Sunday, November 11, 2007
When your CD-i player fails to start playing a disc and keeps giving you error messages chances are high your Timekeeper battery is empty. Unfortunately Philips manufactured CD-i players in a way it's no easy task to replace a simple battery, but handymans like us are not scared away by a little mechanics. Together with a few CD-i members some pictures are available to locate the Battery in a Philips CD-i 210 player. This is exact the same player as the CD-i 200 which was released under the Magnavox brand (100% Philips). Interactive Dreams improved the material available on the locked "Le Monde du CD-i" website and later on Terratrons own Technical Archive. So now you have a better look at the CD-i player' inside view. Additional help on how to replace the battery you can find in our tutorial right here.
Follow the pictures one by one and especially look at the parts coded on your player: The timekeeper is called "M48T08-150PCI". Basic instructions from Le Monde du CD-i: "Step 1. First open up the case, then remove the video cartridge and the video cartridge compound, remove the cd-drive and disconnect all connectors from the main PCB. Remove the screws holding the PCB and its connectors (at the back of the player SCART, Controller port etc…). Now you can remove the Main PCB. Behind the SCART connector (in the CDI 210) you can find the Timekeeper Ram M48T08-150PCI."
Terratron continues: "This 8 kb memory chip has a Lithium battery onboard and this battery holds the memory. If this battery is getting a little old like a year or 10 then the problems begin, losing your high scores and even failing to play some disks or locking up the system (I had a problem with Earth Command not starting and other titles not playing well!). Also a well know failure caused by the Timekeeper is when you start your CD-i player it's starting up in the storage screen saying that the NVRAM is full...."
Step 2. Disconnecting the old battery. He continues: "In the cap of the Timekeeper Ram is the xtal and the battery and they are connected with wires to the M48T08. We can not open the cap so we must drill a hole into the Timekeeper to get to the battery wires. I used a 4mm drill to make the wires visible. Do this very slowly till u see the 2 wires. You can measure the voltage from the old battery between the two wires. We have to disconnect the plus wire from the battery. I used a 0.5mm drill to do this. Just drill trough the right (+) wire and if it's disconnected right you measure no voltage between the two wires anymore."
Step 3. Connecting a new battery. Terratron: "As a new battery I used a 3 Volt Lithium cell used on pc-motherboards and I also use a holder to place the battery in. If the battery fails in the future you can replace it easily with a new one. Solder some wires to the battery holder and just connect the +3v to the right (cut) wire and connect the -0v to the left wire. You can put some (hot) glue into the drilled hole so the wires can't get loose easily. The battery and its holder can easily be placed on top of the Timekeeper with some glue."
Finally, put everything back together. If you did it right, the Timekeeper battery has been replaced succesfully! More detailed instructions here. Remember, Gametronik's Topxicemu promised working on a new CD-i Repair Guide with improved pictures. Whenever this material might reach us, we hope to find inside pictures of other CD-i player types as well. As the 210 is basically a stripped down version of the CD-i 220, the PCB board is basically the same and the Timekeepr is on the same location.
Thanks to: Terratron (for the instructions and pictures, I hope he will return for more support!) and James (more pictures)
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5 reacties:
I tried to repair two different Magnavox 200 Players with the usual Timekeeper problem. I failed both times. The machine uses am M48T08-B chip with adds a B at the end. The 450, 550, and 220/37 uses an M48T08 with no B. Both players now do not have a Display and when you turn them on. The laser turns for a couple of seconds and the tray door will only close. Any ideas as to how to fix this ?
excellent description worked for me !thx alot!
gfoxtrot.blogspot.com
The M48T08 chip replaces the chip with the B extention. Forget about repairing the player the way you see it here. The chip needs to be totally replaced. YOU MUST BE A MASTER TECh TO DO THIS !! I REPLACE THE CHIP AND USE A 28 PIN SOCKET FOR EASY FUTURE REPLACEMENT. I do it and I sell repaired players on ebay as dorwena777. I also repair players.
Great!
Maybe dorwena777 would like to share with the rest of us the technical reasons why replacing the battery won't fix it. I agree that unsoldering, socketing, and replacing the entire module would be a better fix. But you don't have to be a "MASTER TECh" (however you define that) to do either fix, you just need to be good with a soldering iron. I think dorwena777 just wants the business. Nothing wrong with that, but don't tell people they can't do it themselves unless you are willing to explain why it won't work. If you convince us there are good technical reasons, we will think more highly of your technical mastery and those of us who don't feel inclined or able will be more likely to hire you to do it for us. Why does the chip need to be totally replaced?
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