SOLVED Repairing NR reader GameCube

If the only difference is the drive firmware, I wonder how hard it would be to extract the drive firmware and make new chips to allow the modifying of a stock GameCube so it can read NR disks (or even modify it somehow so it can read both NR disks and regular GC disks)

 

That is a great question... imagine what kind of stuff we could discover if everyone had easy(er) access to an nr reader. I wonder how practical that would be?

 

It's not. The chips are custom.

Possiblly make a modchip to do it. But there's never been a need or interest.

But if people had nr readers... Then what?

It's easier to just dump the disc on a pc then use the iso

 

Think the Wii Rvt-r will play any region nr disc.

 

Good news. Finally, after over 2 weeks, the guy has shipped it So I’ll have it soon enough.

 

You could make the chip? Theoretically?

 

So the nr reader has arrived! The green looks really good in person.

Sure enough, it isn’t reading the disc. I’m about to open it up right now, however I noticed something strange on boot up. The GameCube logo doesn’t do its usual little animation. What does that mean?

Here’s a video I took

Sorry it’s sideways

 

Thats odd

 

I feel like when I was a kid, I’ve seen that happen when the disc didn’t read, but I don’t remember.

Edit: sorry I’m not familiar with the technical terminology.

I am going to have to look for my gamebit to open up the nr reader. However after playing with it a bit, I have noticed that the laser does not move. So there’s the problem.

My plan is to just get a working gamecube (not mine that I use) and just transplant parts, as suggested earlier.

 

Seems like the lid sensor switch is broken or not making contact with the lid,which would make sense that no disc will spin.

 

Ooh! Yeah that makes sense! I think I remember now, that is what will happen if you boot up a GameCube with the lid open. If that’s the case, I could probably fix this thing tonight.

Quick fix would be bridge it so it’s “always closed.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.re.../broken_lid_switch_sensor_heres_a_simple_fix/

 

@Pikkon good catch, that was the problem... well one problem anyway. I bypassed the lid sensor and now we have laser movement.

Now there’s a new rather concerning problem...

So it will not spin the nr disc(pal) at all, but it did spin Doshin the Giant(ntsc jpn)every once and awhile. What the video doesn’t show is that it does spin legend of Zelda collector edition (ntsc North America) every time.

For the sake of comparison, my normal Japan ntsc gamecube spins all 3 discs, however provides an error message for the nr disc and for Zelda, while the nr reader simply goes to the gamecube menu.

So... to me, it seems like the laser needs to be calibrated. The motor is working, at least to some extent. It must be having trouble reading it, right?

Any opinion?

 

Way out of my area of expertise but if it is a laser problem wouldn't you have to spin up the disc first and try to do a read before determining something was wrong and stop spinning the disc?

Anyways, you might have seen this but perhaps you get some tips here?

 

Your NR reader is a pal console right,has no region switch?

As for the laser did you try and clean it and if your going to adjust the laser make sure you use a multimeter and I wonder if you could swap the laser from a retail.

 

@VerticalE yeah, that’s the same video I’ve watched. So when I throw a regular game in, it does the same thing that happened in that video. What I noticed is 1. the NR disc has a different colored bottom and 2. I can’t see the laser through the nr disc like I can the regular disc. So perhaps a weak laser... I think. It’s a bit out of my expertise as well.

@Pikkon Yes, no region switch. it is pal. i did try to clean the laser. Same result. My next step will be adjusting the pot, I need a multimeter, so for tonight I’m done. If that fails, then i’ll resort to the transplant.

Here's as good a place as any to leave off Will continue working on it as soon as i get a chance. I'm happy that we got at least one problem fixed, thank you all for the help

I'm really just surprised at what terrible condition this thing was in... if you look next to the Av cable, you can see a piece of plastic that just fell off of it. The box is in terrible condition, and then a lid sensor and optical issue. What happened to this poor cube...

 

I once got a PS3 Tool that was so smashed up that the faceplate had come loose during transport. Console was dead (red light). It had unreleased stuff on it too

 

That’s a shame I guess it’s possible that some of this damage happened during transport. Although I’m not sure if you saw on the eBay listing or not, but the box and crack were there before. Judging by what’s wrong with it and the location of the shell damage, I’m guessing this thing has been dropped... at least once, before it even got shipped

 

Ah ok, I wasn't sure which of the listings you ended up getting. Sounds like it was dropped like you said. Do the lens motor still work?

 

You have to remember that to the people that actually use them these things are just tools. They won't deliberately smash them up, but in most cases they don't treat them with any particular care either. And once you reach the point where you don't do any development on that system any more then the tools for it are basically just junk.

 

did you take the hard drives out of tool and stick them in another