Dreamcast Is my Dreamcast laser dying?

[KenaiPhoenix]

Hello! Im once again with some issues.

I was playing Half-Life on the dreamcast and realized that I was running into some errors that stopped the game from running. After that, if I restarted the console, it would just never boot. I tried another burned game, Unreal Tournament, it booted perfectly like always but after a while it would just start to get more "stuck" when loading zones, and even breeze the game.

I thought my DC was done for, but if I put my "legit" games one, it loads and works perfect. I let them run for a while and no problem, so I dont really know what to think. At the time of writting this I played Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and Dead or Alive 2 after HL failed, for more time than the later, and they always booted and worked like always, no error or slow downs.

I was planning on just burning a test game on another CD brand, but my burner decided to die today (not my day regarding optical stuff), so until I find a new one I can just use what I have at hand.

I have seen videos of people opening the DC and gently pressing some part of the reader, but I dont know if it worth the risk. On one side I have the suspicion it can be something with the calibration of the laser, If I put a legit game after it fails to read, and then try to boot the burned one, it help it to boot, tho it fails later.

what do you guys think? should I start searching for a place to let my DC rest forever?

 

[NotReallyHere]

If your Dreamcast still reads your legit, retail games properly, then it is certainly not dying! Please don't feel the need to "repair" it - unless it starts having problems with your legitimate games.

My best advice? Don't tinker with it too much. Yes, you can buy a replacement laser mechanism or watch repair videos online, but... well, as they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

There are other factors at play here, too. Certain Dreamcast models (particularly those made in late 2000) have a harder time reading burned games. Burned discs can also fail over time - they do not have the lifespan of legitimate factory-produced game discs. And there's always burner issues to consider, too. If your burner has recently died, it's possible it was starting to fail when it was burning your problematic discs, giving you write-errors along the way.

What software do you use to burn? The old stand-by for Dreamcast games was DiscJuggler, though I prefer - and have success with - IMGburn.

The quality of the disc matters, as well. I use specific discs for certain consoles, and my Dreamcast prefers a thicker, heavier disc made by Maxell, called "MaxData." They have an opaque silver layer, which you can not "see through" like most "budget" discs made by other companies, such as Verbatim. Sony used to put out a quality, thicker disc made for music, but I'm not sure if they're still in production.

TL;DR - Start with a new burner, and the best-quality discs you can afford. Best of luck to you

 

[Boog111]

Have you cleaned the lens. Mine wasn't working and found out the lens was incredibly dirty. Cleaned it and problem solved.
Also, I've noticed with my DC games I've burned that the burning hardware you use can affect how well it plays. I have an old Windows XP laptop that I use and get the best results with. Same .cdi files and same burning software but it does better than any other computer I have. It's the only reason I still have it.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Personally i would have bought a MODE and forget the disc drive, its a ticking timebomb at this point.

 

[JellyjamLu]

hm, for a while before i was on PC i would burn DC games also, I found in most cases the burn was successful but yes rarely every now and then I would get a dud fail to boot disc despite a successful imgburn.

There's talk of using burned discs on real hardware degrading the laser but there is no real proof of this, more of a myth or scare tactic to pirates.

if your legit dreamcast discs are starting to not boot, its probably the laser through natural expiration but if they are 100% booting every time, yeah its the CDI's.

If your not using them already I recommend Verbatim brand.

 

[Mr. SyS]

ODE. You can play GDI rips with these and I heard they're "pure" dumps of much higher quality than the CDIs which are cut and compressed to fit on CDs.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

I dont want to ditch the reader, I mean at that point I can just emulate the whole thing and call it a day.

What software do you use to burn? The old stand-by for Dreamcast games was DiscJuggler, though I prefer - and have success with - IMGburn.

I was using ImgBurn

The weird thing is that until like a couple of days ago it was running perfectly, I really dont know what happened.

Have you cleaned the lens. Mine wasn't working and found out the lens was incredibly dirty. Cleaned it and problem solved.

I clean it an it is still having issues. Is like it lost force or something... \

But on retail games it works like new, no issues at all. So I really dont understand this DC, it has give me just a lot of problems lately.