/vr/ I need your advice. I just bought a Japanese Dreamcast and

>>3583963

Considering it's both games doing this (fairly unusual), it could be the laser on the Dreamcast. Some models crap out easier than others.

>>3583963
Dreamcast lasers are know to be very shitty. You might have just gotten one that is old and has been used too much.

Can you do an audio recording of your Dreamcast doing the loading sequence of a game (Dreamcast logo -> Sega logo -> Start screen of game)? If so, do that and upload it to Vocaroo or some other site.

>>3584005
In case you can't, or don't want to do an audio recording, is your laser giving a high-pitched whining sound, or does it sound like it's grinding rocks? If the latter, your laser is fucked. If you have the technical skills to replace it, lasers cost 5$ on AliExpress or 10-15$ on eBay if you don't want to wait 1-2 months for delivery.

>>3584059
Thanks for the advice.

The weird thing is it usually crashes when I'm 20 minutes or so into gameplay.

The seller put 'Used but fully working and in excellent condition!' in the description.

One other thing of note was 'PLEASE note - you must use a step down converter with this - it will fry the machine if you don't! Let me know if you need help finding one (they're around £15). Thank you :) '

I bought the step down converter like he said but it still crashes.

>>3584076
I think that it has to be your laser that's the problem here. It could also just be that the 2 discs you have both happen to be damaged, but I'm not sure that's the case. If you want, you could try to burn a game from theisozone and play around with it and see if it crashes too, that might help identify if the games or the console is at fault.

Try to return the console or if you're willing to try, replace the laser or at least calibrate it.

>>3584197
I don't have the tools to burn discs unfortunately.

I don't have any alcohol either. Could I try wiping the lens with tissue? Or will that make it worse?

I've discovered something interesting.

On Shenmue 2 it crashes EVERYTIME I get to the bit where the child is leading me to my bag.

Would that imply it's a fault with the disc?

>>3584059

Wondering if you can help me as well. I'm a new DC owner with a Revision 1 US region Dreamcast.

I bought a stack of Maxell CD-Rs (which I'm told are a good brand) and found images for Skies of Arcadia and Ikaruga off Isozone.

The images are definitely good - I've tried both of them in DCEmul and they both load fine.

What I'm trying to determine is whether the system I have is bad (and thus should be returned) or if it's the CD-Rs I'm using. I tried burning Skies of Arcadia four times at 16x using two different burners, and the Dreamcast refuses to recognize them. I don't quite get the "grinding rocks" noise but it's not as high-pitched as I'd expect it to be.

I can't tell if it's the media I'm using, or if it's the system itself.

>>3584442
That could very well destroy the disc.

>>3584481
Sounds like that might be the case. If it constantly happens in the exact same area, the disc is probably damaged in that section.

>>3584698
x16 will give you bad results for most iso rips, and a good amount won't work outright. Try x4 (it's what the Dreamcast has as it's read speed) or x8 if you're really impatient.

If it doesn't give the 'grinding rocks' sound the laser is usually ok, but who knows. When the laser has problems the Dreamcast will have trouble finding the boot sector.

In case you burn a x4 disc and you make sure not to scratch it and then the 'checking disc' screen takes longer than 5-10 seconds, or if you're in the boot screen it takes 30 or more seconds to boot then ejects you to the menu, then the drive might have problems.

Also, if you don't mind, could you give me the links? I have 2 Dreamcasts, one with a good laser and one with a rock grinder, and I could test the rips to see if they're good. They might be bad rips, or they might not be self-boot (doubt it) in which case there's your problem.

>>3584717

Yeah. They're both chink re-packs but they work in DCEmul.

http://theisozone.com/downloads/dreamcast/dreamcast-isos/skies-of-arcadia-ntsc-u-80min-vga-compatible---yzb/

http://theisozone.com/downloads/dreamcast/dreamcast-isos/border-downikaruga/

>>3584717

Also, I'm trying to write the Skies of Arcadia Disc 1 image at 4x right now. I'll see how it goes.

>>3584738

It's the console. 4x burned disc refused to work, made a rock grinder noise. I'm returning this pile of shit.

>>3584785
That sucks. Unfortunately, that might be your only solution. The Dreamcast drive was made as cheaply as Sega could get away with, unlike the Saturn drive which rarely fails even today, though that cost them a lot.

I wonder why somebody hasn't started an eBay shop where they sell Dreamcasts with new replacement lasers to people who don't have the patience/skill to replace them. They would make a good amount of money and it would help those people out a lot.

>>3583963
I have three dreamcasts and the lasers are all dying on them. Try to get a GDEMU,next round is apparently in early January.

>>3584801
I don't think it's possible to get parts for Dreamcast drives any more, unless there is a hidden cache of NOS service parts hidden away somewhere. There are mixed reports of the Chinese parts from ebay working (I don't think they were specifically designed for Dreamcasts).

The advantage of the (S)NES/Genesis is that the entire console is basically just a circuit board in a case, less things to go wrong. The new consoles with HDDs and optical drives will not last near as long.

>>3584717
>Sounds like that might be the case. If it constantly happens in the exact same area, the disc is probably damaged in that section.

Thanks for the advice. I would rather the games are faulty than the cosnole.

OP here. Okay, I've just ordered BlueStinger. If that doesn't work it's the console.

Are there any easy methods to clean the disc? It looks in immaculate condition but I could always try.

I have Mr Muscle and Flash on hand.

Another thing that might be of note, when I switch my Dreamcast on it takes about a second for the light to come on. Is this normal?