Need some help with November 2000 Dreamcast, sometimes won't read any disc at all

This DC is a really peculiar one. I know that some models after October 2000 can or can't run MIL-CDs, but then the selfbooting method had been released to work around that issue. Half of my games or so are selfboot and the others are MIL-CDs. Since this DC is new, I got the Generator demo disc so I have only ONE GD Rom to test with, so, here goes. Sometimes when I use a selfboot backup with the DC and stop using the disc, the Dreamcast won't spin up ANY disc. But if I leave it unplugged for a a week or 2 then the issue resolves itself. I think I remember reading somewhere about backups killing the life of the laser or messing up the calibration and was wondering if that actually does happen. Another issue I had with it the very first time I turned it on and used it was the laser got stuck in the outer zone and I had to move it to get it loose again.

I haven't used it in a while due to this and I think last time it happened it stayed like that. If it's a calibration issue, can someone point me to some good guides? Otherwise, I'd REALLY like to know what the problem is. My other DC is dead because the Region Chip is corrupt, so this is the only one I can use.

 

Old Dreamcasts are picky when it come to reading cdr, I don't know if it's the cdr killing the lens though. You hear that a lot, but you also hear that legend came from sony to stop piracy on the psone so... Another "internet fact"...

I calibrated mine recently (laser potentiometer, be careful if you atemp that, read about it) and it now boots everything, before it was randomly working. Also, selfboots are cdr with a mil-cd layout, it's not two separate things. AFAIK, and I think atreyu can confirm, a real non-mil-cd dreamcast won't boot any kind of backup, either audio/data or data/data.

 

Rand Linden (of bleemcast fame) did confirm to me years back that in the research they did, they determined that the Dreamcasts that don't boot MIL-CDs will not boot them regardless of audio/data or data/data layouts. That rumor likely got started because data/data discs were easier to create since bin2boot-based tools were much easier to use compared to the audio/data layouts. In addition, data/data layouts, the binary is usually in the first track and the second track simply points to the first, therefore the LBA can always be counted on to be 0, whereas in audio/data layouts you don't know for sure what the LBA is going to be since different burners differ, which can make things tricky for LBA checks.


Anyway, here is a guide to adjusting the lens: http://shibathedog.1emu.net/gd_rom_align.htm

If that doesn't work, you might want to swap GD-ROMs with the one in the other broken Dreamcast with region corruption

 

There isn't any sort of special trick to changing out GD-Rom drives? Just plug n' play? I would have thought it'd been a bit more complicated than that.

 

It's really easy (plug and play).

 

Sorry for replying so late, but I decided to open up both of my DCs and do the switch, only to find that the Aug 1999 DC and the Nov 2001 DC have 2 different GD-ROM assemblies. The older one is all together on its own seperate independent board that just plugs in and docks into place, while the Nov 2001 DC just plugs into the Logic Board directly. So, seeing as it was impossible to switch the drives out, I plugged everything back in and, wouldn't you know it, the disc drive started reading things again. Every now and again it stops, so I have to reseat the ribbons and cables, but it's the best I can do so far. Any ideas as to what's going on with the drive?

 

Not sure what would cause it to stop. I had an issue a few weeks ago where my drive made a horrible noise and stopped reading discs while playing a backup. I cracked it open and after lots of trial and error with the potentiometer got it running real nice again. I also put some machine oil on the drive's moving parts and now my Dreamcast is running smoother and quieter than it ever has. I decided from this point on I'd only use ReviveDC backups and Taiyo Yuden discs.