Dreamcast Disk Reading Issues

[NoctemDead]

Anybody successfully dealt with this before? I have a Dreamcast that used to work, but over some time in storage it's developed the dreaded issue where it has trouble reading games now. I was able to get it to work for a while with the trick of resting the VMU on the lid cover, but it seems no more.

Wondering how intensive the repair is to try, I'm a little handy mechanically but not experienced with electronics.

I would like to keep it capable of reading actual disks because I have a "small" collection of original Dreamcast games and I know I can collect them just to have, but I feel like I can justify it more if I can play the games I collect physically.

If I can't fix it, I wonder if I'm at the point of getting a new disk reader and trying to replace it. Or try to find a Dreamcast that works and use this one as an ODE host.

Just curious what you've done to fix this in the past and how complicated.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to tag this Dreamcast and not sure if I can after the fact.

 

[Carlnshake Carlnshake]

Bumping this thread, I have a dreamcast and its only a matter of time until this happens to me!

 

[Don Patch]

Now, someone can come and correct me if I'm out of date on this, but as I recall, "repairing" isn't something that can be done with DC drives.
Not reasonably/realistically.
You can replace with a working one (if you can find one), but the doggone things just wear out and kick the bucket.

There's Drive-emulators (Fenrir ,Terra Onion, etc.). IMO, that's the way to go. But $$$....

 

[NoctemDead]

Now, someone can come and correct me if I'm out of date on this, but as I recall, "repairing" isn't something that can be done with DC drives.
Not reasonably/realistically.
You can replace with a working one (if you can find one), but the doggone things just wear out and kick the bucket.

There's Drive-emulators (Fenrir ,Terra Onion, etc.). IMO, that's the way to go. But $$$....

My understanding is that sometimes it's the switch that detects lid closure that's faulty, and that can be minorly adjusted. But I don't know what that adjustment is exactly.

Some people also adjust the laser and I guess there's mixed success with that.

I bought a soldering kit to learn how to solder and one of the things I wanted to do after learning was to replace the CMOS battery. My thought is I try any simple adjustments as well as a basic cleaning while I'm in there, and if that doesn't work, replace the drive with either a tested working one or just make the jump to an ODE and hold on to my physical games for... something.

Of course, I guess there's also the consideration that selling my Dreamcast game collection would probably buy me an already modded Dreamcast with ODE, battery replaced and maybe even the PSU mod.

Much to think about.

 

[Blamhammer]

Cheapest solution is to give the disc a good clean. Heck, mildly warm water and dish washing liquid if you want to give it a good wash. Maybe check for scratches too and get the disc repaired.

If it's the laser then the next cheapest option would be to clean it with isopropyl alcohol using a cotton tip.
Maybe a very very small amount of glass cleaner first if there is stubborn dirt on it.

Modern laser units tend to adjust power automatically if it can't read the disc so I don't think you need to tweak anything on the drive board.

And if that fails then there are second hand lasers out there. For a bit more cash you could just replace it with a ODE.

 

[NoctemDead]

Cheapest solution is to give the disc a good clean. Heck, mildly warm water and dish washing liquid if you want to give it a good wash. Maybe check for scratches too and get the disc repaired.

If it's the laser then the next cheapest option would be to clean it with isopropyl alcohol using a cotton tip.
Maybe a very very small amount of glass cleaner first if there is stubborn dirt on it.

Modern laser units tend to adjust power automatically if it can't read the disc so I don't think you need to tweak anything on the drive board.

And if that fails then there are second hand lasers out there. For a bit more cash you could just replace it with a ODE.

Unfortunately, it's not one disk but EVERY disc - even the ones which previously were good.

I'm on board with cleaning the laser with isopropyl, some even recommend a little bit of headlight cleaner. From my research, the laser can be manually adjusted so giving it a very small tweak is the next thing recommended which I will probably try if cleaning the laser aperture doesn't work.

You can replace the whole drive, which I've sincerely thought about, but they're getting more expensive and the general consensus is they're all on a timer to fail. Which certainly makes the ODE more tempting.

I'm seeing that some people have swapped out the laser with one from a PC CD-R unit, if anybody has experience with this I'd be curious to know about it.

Thanks for your reply!