Chrono Cross locking up during battle animations

I've been playing Chrono Cross for the first time on my PS1. But twice now, the game has locked up, an enemy will perform an attack, and the attack animation loops over and over while the music plays as normal. The only action I can take is to pause and un-pause the game. I am playing it on a modchipped PS1, but I figure since it boots FF8 no problem, I've got the right kind of modchip. Plus, random lock-ups is kinda a weird form of anti-piracy. The disk shouldn't be the cause, while it was originally scratched pretty badly (the cut-scenes would stutter like mad) I had the disk repaired and now there's only light scratches and the cut-scenes no longer stutter. I've heard there's a random freeze issue during the Mama Komodo battle when playing on the PSP, but I'm using a PS1 and I had no issues during that battle.

Any clues guys? Is Chrono Cross just buggy or something?

 

Chrono Cross is not buggy, it simply uses thread intensive code and a lot of cd async processing. If you get the game to lock up, it's not because of bugs; the problem is likely to be CD-rom quality or laser power fading away.

 

No antimod protection, no bug, no wodoo magic, no aliens, simlpy your disc or your psx optical drive XD

 

Your psx is in trouble when he tries to access the CD, put it aside and try to play the game again.

I had a psx years ago and this was the solution.

 

Hmmm, I've tried a few times to replay it, but it locks up every time using the "solt and pepper" battle, whenever the enemy uses "pepperbox"

I think I'll try getting the disk repaired again, it looks pretty clean to me, but there are still some light scratches on it. The laser was taken from a PSONE, I would think it would be fine...

*EDIT* Tried a different laser, same issue. I also got a black screen when FF7's opening cutscene should have played. The disk looks really clean and scratch-free, so I'd hope it's not the disk. A burned copy of LSD also gave me a black sceen when I tried to load a level. Any ideas what this might indicate? A bad/weak laser maybe?

 

Bad laser

 

Two bad lasers? Is that normal? Is there a way to redeem them? Like, a laser version of rehab?

 

Try the game gran turismo 2, if not hang nowhere is because the laser does not have any problem.

I found some good tips to adjust the laser http://miked50.tripod.com/repair.htm .

 

Is the console a first model SCPH 1002 or similar, with the manual laser adjustment potentiometers?

 

You probably need a fresh ISO of the game. Don't bother trying to fix the disk if there are too many errors due to scratches.

 

I had the disk resurfaced on a $26000 disk repair machine today. The disk now looks basically perfect and scratch-free, but it's STILL locking-up whenever the enemy uses the "pepporbox" move!

Might give that a shot if it comes down to that! But so far, Chrono Cross is the only game I'm having issues with and only this one issue, I'm kinda worried about messing with the laser if it's not the laser that's the issue.

It is, but the laser is from a PSONE, so would this model be missing the potentiometers?

I was actually thinking the same thing! I'll see if I get get past this battle with a burned copy of the disk, see if this gets me out of the woods. Can I just copy my original disk or would downloading a .ISO be a better idea?

*EDIT* I tried watching the opening cutscene in FF8, this time it skipped three times instead of just once, as it did before I had it resurfaced. Which is kinda weird, since the disk is less scratched than it was before. Methinks a temperamental laser maybe, I'll see if I can track down another PSONE and see if it's laser improves things.

 

I believe the potentiometers are on the mother board.

 

The trimmer it's on the laser orange flat cable.
But if you don't ever know how is it a trimmer it's way better you don't touch anything.
For your info, the only motherboards that have the FOCUS\BIAS trimmer on it are the PU7-PU8 (scph100X and 300x)

 

Well, if the console is an early model and has the pots on it, then they're configured for the old AAM laser and not the replacement BAM one.
If you have basic electronics knowledge, a multimeter and a small preferably plastic screwdriver, you can attempt to fix the problem:
http://dogbreath.de/PS1/LaserAlignment/Laser.html
Read the guide first and then decide if you want to do it. I've spent some hours on this for 3 models and they all work "a bit" better than before

 

Interesting, I didn't know that. So, what might be going on here is since the laser isn't properly configured, it has trouble reading discs that are slightly scratched? FF7 plays perfectly on this console for example. Though, I would have figured that since I had Chrono Cross repaired on a fancy, expensive machine it would be just as perfect as FF7.

 

Resurfacing a disc with scratches in it's reflexive surface (on CDs it' right under the paint of the sticker and is quite fragile) won't make it work.

If the reflexive surface is damaged, it doesn't matter how clean the disc looks on the reading side surface since the reflexive layer is needed for the laser to return to the pickup (with the retrieved data from the pits)...

DVDs don't have that problem because the reflexive layer is actually in the middle of the plastic of the disc (A DVD is a sandwich of two thin discs instead of being just a single plastic disc).

 

*stares at the label*
Hmmm, I can see two scratches on the label, with what looks like the shiny layer underneath. Is this disc ruined? I've shined a light through it and I can see a little bit of light shining though a few marks

 

Ah, good idea, I'll try ripping it!
...
Read error

 

Unfortunately, that's exactly what I meant. And that means the disc is done for. If you have any luck reading the disc, what is the point ? You can download a error free copy from the internet, no ?

The real loss is you having to replace the disc with another original... >_<