Sega Dreamcast boots CD-ROM dics but not Retail Discs

Just got a Dreamcast this morning (arrived from ebay)

everything seems to work, but for some reason it wont boot Retail Dreamcast discs, but it will boot and play CD-Roms.

if i go to music with a dreamcast retail disc in (HOTD2) it shows the HOTD disc graphic and plays "this is a dreamcast disc for use on dreamcast consoles only... blah blah blah" so it is reading the disc just not booting it, have tried with VirtuaFighter 3TB and HOTD2 both the same and both work on another dreamcast console i have so its not the discs.

has anyone else run into this issue? or know what the problem might be?

 

I think I heard of this before, Im sure I seen tutorials for calibrating the laser.

Also im sure you know this but is the Dreamcast the same region as the games? seems unlikely that would be the issue but you can simply replace the internal PSU in an import DC and it will run without the need of a step down convertor, but the DC logo would be a different colour if that was the case.

 

thanks for reply, yeah its same region pal uk, tried with the utpoia disc just on the off chance it might boot the games but it just booted utopia and not the game, after some googling seems lazer calibration is the way forward. i'll give that a go seen a few tutorials on youtube and other places. looks simple enough.


for anyone else having this problem, 1st try cleaning the lazer (why not).

 

I had this issue with a dreamcast I use to own since I got it during Christmas after launch. I was playing cd-r games quite a bit at one point my dc wouldn't read retail, which was odd cause it didn't occur until I tried burning games at 4x speed. So I opened it up and tried cleaning laser and other stuff didn't work. Then pulled out the ribbon cable that goes to the controller port and rechargeable battery that backs up settings and clock, don't remember if I turned it on or not, waited a couple of minutes plugged it backed in re did the settings and right away started working normal again.

 

The GD-ROM format has a standard CD-ROM partition of about 45MB, this is why most GD-ROMS have that audio warning, so stupid people don't use them on stupid players that will try to render the data portion of that partition as audio thus blowing a speaker or 2. This is also why some GD-ROMs have extras such as desktop wallpapers or even the PC version Sega Swirl. Your system probably has a misaligned laser, dying laser, or spindle motor.