SOLVED Repairing NR reader GameCube

What a predicament...

I purchased an nr reader on eBay that said it was 100% functional, however as the story is unraveling, it seems to be less than 100% functional. The seller has offered to get it repaired, but I’m not sure if him or his guy know how to repair it. So I’m preparing to take this thing as is.

He says the problem is the motor in the disk drive, it’s not spinning the discs. (However I suspect he may be putting an NTSC disc in the pal nr Reader.)

I am no stranger to the inside of a GameCube, however this isn’t exactly a GameCube. I know how to test a GameCube to see what is potentially wrong, but which parts am I able to switch with a regular GameCube if something is wrong? I know the laser is absolutely different from a standard GameCube. Is everything else interchangeable?

 

Has he mailed you the NR console yet? Or you bought it, then he said it’s broken and needs repair?

 

He has not mailed it yet. But after I payed, he said he wanted to test it and then said it is broken and needs repairs. He’s offered a refund, but these things are hard to come by and I got it fairly cheap. If it’s a simple fix, I don’t want to pass it up.

 

If you got it cheap, he might be thinking is a normal gamecube? Maybe try asking what disk he’s using to test it with.

As far as hardware for repairing an NR console, I don’t know much.

 

It wasn’t that cheap. Cheap for an nr reader though. I think he knows what it is just maybe confused about the regions cuz the nr discs don’t say what region on it as far as I know. Or maybe it is broken, who knows. I think the only way to know for sure is to get it in my hands

Well, this is gonna be a fun project

 

From what I remember the main difference from a retail to a nr reader is just the gc drive.

 

Update, the guy couldn’t fix it. I agreed to take it as is to try to fix it. I’m gonna do a lot of research and then probably make a video of how I fixed it (if I do) for reference.

Worst case, I have a $450 teal case for my GameCube

 

He wouldnt lower the price to like $200 since it’s broken??

 

Yeah,that's way to much.

It's the system boxed or just loose.

 

Boxed but the box is in very poor condition

 

Sounds a bit much for a broken one - especially since you are the one taking the risk. Then again if you manage to fix it the rest of us might get a informative how-to video out of it Would be cool if you shared pictures and kept us updated. Perhaps we can all help fix it. Have to admit though, anything related to the actual drive sounds like a tricky fix.

 

True. The only reason I accepted it is because I haven’t seen any videos or pics of someone opening/ fixing an nr reader. I’d definitely appreciate any help from the community on this. I just need it in my hands and need to rule out that’s maybe he’s using the wrong disc in it.

 

Nr reader is identical to normal cube. There's just different code running on the drive. Any repairs would be identical between the 2.

 

I was just thinking to contact you because I thought you’d know! Thanks for the info!

So what if I for example swapped parts from the nr drive with a normal cube? It should work?

 

Should work. The part that is different is the drive logic board

 

What about the optical stuff? I was under the impression that was different as well. I may need to replace parts around that area

 

It's identical.

The pcb is identical too, except for 1 of the chips is programmed differently.

 

That is promising news. Because I know for sure the motherboard is fine

 

The whole reason they exist is to test games in a near exact retail configuration to check load time optimization. It wouldn’t make sense to have any variation save for disc type. Unless the problem lies on the drive board take a working retail drive and transplant the logic board on to it.
From what I have been told the motherboard is stock retail.

 

Right. Good.. feeling confident about this