New dreamcast laser

Ok so I bought a replacement laser for one of my dreamcasts on ebay, seemed legit in the description
(http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230647185979&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT) if you wanna take a look
Thing is I installed it and the like but for the life of me I can't get it to read retail games, after fiddling with the pots i can make it read CD-R games perfectly but not retail ones. The game disc spins like it should be reading it but then just goes to the home screen.
What dya recon is the problem, is the laser thing just a useless piece of junk or is there something I've forgotten?

 

As the listing says ''compatible with SEGA Dreamcast'' and not specifically for Dreamcast maybe the problem lies there? Any laser will pick up a CDI game, but is there something in a GD that only a DC specific laser can read or boot?

 

What are you talking about?! It says it's a replacement for a Dreamcast lens. It also says it's a GD-ROM lens. (of course, it also says DVD lol)

Don't tweak pots willy-nilly. They're factory set - some of them shouldn't be touched, and those that are adjustable should only be done with the correct alignment CD and an oscilloscope.

I would have talked to the seller first, to see if you can work it out with them. Personally, I'd only buy laser assemblies with the same original code, rather than one that says it's a replacement, but still.

 

Like I said, it says ''compatible with''. Just because it can be made to fit doesn't necessarily mean that that was what it was originally designed for, does it? I don't know, I'm no expert, I was just offering up a possible theory.

 

It obviously is electrically compatible with DC as it works to read CD-R. However it may be optically incompatible with GD-ROMs. In the latter case I'd call the description misleading.

FG

 

Agreed, though having it be able to read CD-Rs is a bonus over a Dreamcast that can read nothing.

 

Now look at the rest of it. It says, RIGHT ABOVE THE PART YOU UNDERLINED, "A replacement lens for the Sega Dreamcast."

Now, what do you interpret that as? A replacement part is a replacement part. You don't buy a replacement engine for a Ford Fiesta, only to be told "but it won't go in reverse". That's not a REPLACEMENT! It's an ALTERNATIVE.

In my mind, compatible with Sega Dreamcast means compatible with Sega Dreamcast AND SEGA DREAMCAST ONLY - as opposed to, say, a laptop part that's compatible with Compaq G100, G200, G300.....

The other thing you're missing is that it says GD-ROM in the title. How many CD-i consoles have you seen with a GD-ROM?! Or Blu ray players. Or DVD players. Or Gamecubes. Or PlayStations.... I think you get my point. The GD-ROM is a SEGA product, found only in SEGA products.

Admittedly, the use of the word DVD is strange - but I think that's the forgivable error, rather than "compatible with Dreamcast" meaning it's only a CD-ROM lens (which it clearly isn't if it says GD-ROM). You're reading too much into it.

 

Calm down guys, it's only a misleading description. The lens seems to be compatible with the "GD-ROM reading apparatus" (gdrom daughterboard) of the sega dreamcast, not with "optical GD-Roms" themselves. It might simply be the same type (electrically speaking) of lens, so it's "socket-compatible" with a DC laser assembly.

Also, just as most toasts are "toaster-compatible" doesn't mean they won't fit in a oven. This lens is said to work in a DC, and does so. Except the HUGE difference, compared to an original Dreamcast lens, that it seems not to be compatible with GD-Rom optical discs.

About replacement parts, this is open to interpretation, a lot I mean, a whole lot.
It might very well be a lens that also is compatible with dvd drives.

It this is the case, the seller should make it obvious in the description as it's clearly misleading.

Cheers,

FG

 

did you remove the solder from the bottom of the laser unit?
I know on some new laser you need to do it before they work properly.

 

I've had to on replacement lasers for a XBox Philips DVD-ROM and a MS28 for a 360. Nothing to it but typically the laser won't fire if the points are shorted. Don't think they are used to selectively disable media types.

 

solder point is for esd protection - so static wouldnt get to the laser. so, if its reading CDR it shouldnt be anything to do with that.

 

Thank you. I thought that that was the point that I'd made myself quite clearly in my first post but retro being retro decides he has to go on a full scale assault because like a dog with a bone he just can't let go.

 

i seem to remember seeing a whole boxed sega made replacement laser assembly for the Dreamcast

they are likely rare as hell in this day in age and likely expensive as hell

 

Wow a lot of comments while I was in bed. So what you've been saying has all pretty much crossed my mind except I'm relatively sure there's not much difference between a normal CD-rom laser and an original dreamcast laser since I've seen tutorials for transplanting a regular CD-rom laser into a dreamcast. I adjusted the pots because it wasn't reading anything at all, and I certainly wasn't doing it willy nilly, I'm not an amateur you know, had my multimeter out and everything If i hadn't adjusted it, it wouldn't have read CD-R games either. I did indeed remove the blob of solder which protects it against ESD.
I have seen dreamcast lasers which after a lot of use can no longer read GD-roms but will still read CD-Rs, something to do with the laser requiring more effort to read the data which is more tightly packed on or something to that effect *shrug*
So could it just be a faulty unit?
If it's faulty that'd be just my luck, last time I bought a PS2 laser the first one I recieved was faulty (after waiting 3 weeks for it to arrive from Hong Kong) but luckily they sent a replacement for free which worked (after another 3 weeks of waiting).
And to clarify, the seller has told me that it should work with retail discs as implied by the listing

 

Thank's to you anyway for the "link", I will still order 2 as a just in case. We never know how hard it will in some years to find a "replacement" lens for the dreamcast.

I'll just dump my games now and store them on a external HDD for future use.

 

Tho this topic is 2 years old, thought I'll still share my experience in the matter.

I just ran into one of these replacement lasers in a Dreamcast I bought a few days ago. I pretty much got the same result with it as Hedgeyourbets did, as in I managed to make it read CD written games (although it was still pretty picky which ones it would read/play, despite that I used the same brand/type of CD for my games, the same software with same settings, although I did change my DVD drive I used for writing after a few games) but with the retail discs it only seemed to start up, returning to the home screen a few seconds later.

Tho the interesting part is that there were a few occasions when it managed to load in a retail game disc (Chu Chu Rocket), albeit very slowly, as in the load times were much longer than normal; it seemed to be "strugling" to read data from it.

Another interesting thing is that while it returned to the home screen with pretty much all of my retail discs (which is not many, but still), it makes an exception with one of them: there are occasions when my PAL copy of Phantasy Star Online Version 1 boots up as it should and plays the game.

So it seems that these replacement lasers are compatible with GD discs, to some degree at least.

Eventually I just chose a pot setting that worked with the most CDR games of course.

 

I also want to share my experience with this type of lens.


Here in Brazil the lens SPU 3200 is very common, being in at least 80% of Dreamcasts I've done maintenance.
The spu3200 is the best cost/benefit option to replace the original Dreamcast lens, being also found in CD Rom Drives.


The only problem I faced with the SPU 3200 was to read backups, because it requires a specific options and software for recording, showing that this lens doesn't come close to the quality of the original (Samsung SOH R48), but it's the best option we have.


I was ALWAYS able to make this lens read GD, would have sufficed a multimeter, a key to rotate the laser pot and a lot of patience and persistence, because it could take hours to attempt to reach the perfect spot, but in the end always could, until revived partially condemned lenses.


Recently a friend purchased a 3200 SPU, and I lost a few days adjusting the laser pot to finally figure out that the recent discs recorded with Alcohol 120% had problems, already pressed CD-Rs, older backups and GDs liam normally. Then test recording with Padus Discjuggler using various settings and only in one of them we have achieved success.
We also see that GDs with many scratches not read so well, some of them even not work.


Well, who has the original Dreamcast lens avoids all these problems.


So I just want to leave my experience here, in some lenses I even changed the screws that move the lens position (do not recommend moving them), and I can say that 100% of the SPUs 3200 read GDs perfectly.

 

If you having problems with replacement laser head, just lower the spindle hub for about 1mm and everything should be fine. Technically speaking, ALL of R48, R48G, SPU3200, PXR-550X, PXR-560X and HOP-A1 laser heads are able to read GD's and CD's. However, Dreamcast requires special (sort of) laser heads (R48G, and not R48 for example) because of slightly longer distance between CD/GD and laser head compared to PC CD-ROMs.