I wonder if anyone else has had this problem… I’ve got a couple of discs now (2 out of about 10) that the Dreamcast doesn’t want to recognise. Specifically they’re Resident Evil disc 2 and Gauntlet Legends. When I put them in the DC it claims to have seen a disc, whirs a bit, loads the DC title screen and then takes me back to the standard DC settings view.
Visually, both discs seem to be in very good condition, with no scratches that look serious enough to completely stuff up the disc, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Could it be a problem with the DC itself? (but in that case, why is it only a problem with two discs, and why always the same two?)
I’m also slightly suspicious of the RE2 disc, since I don’t seem to be the first to have had this problem. So maybe something about the games was made badly? But then, assuming I didn’t get ripped off twice on eBay (and both sellers had had several transactions and a good rep), why would the discs have worked on their DCs when I tested them?
Oh, just to confuse me further, the RE2 disc *did *work the second time I used it, after I gave it a cursory clean (ie wiping the disc with my jumper), but I haven’t had a chance to try it a third time and see if it’s still working ok. And the same cleaning technique failed to produce any effect on Gauntlet, which is still adamantly denying its own existence.
I’m now very confused…
Has anyone heard of this problem before and, better yet, a way to fix it?
Jinx, it sounds as if your DC has that rather annoying resetting problem.
It’s claimed to be a result of excess heat build-up and poor contact between the metal pins inside the DC.
One solution is to try cleaning the pins and also bending them slightly to improve contact.
Try googling for some guides.
My DC kept resetting itself when I played Shenmue II. I tried cleaning and bending the pins which worked for a while but the problem always returned.
I then tried a rather risky alternative suggested by someone over at the SegaXtreme forums. I inserted the snapped off ends of toothpicks between the pins, which guaranteed better contact. Since then I’ve never had any resetting problems. I was worried the wooden toothpicks would catch fire, but they’ve managed to hold up well over the past few years. It’s risky business, but it’s been proved to work.
You could also try the suggestion I made in Scott’s Rez topic (a few topics below this one), which can help DC’s that struggle to load data off discs.
Jinx if you’re not comfortable with any of this then there’s always the coward’s way out: Shadow’s suggestion
It’s not really a matter of how fast they run, rather how compatible with all the software emulators are. Granted I haven’t attempted much recently but I remember trying Headhunter with Chancast (I think it’s discontinued by now, but there’s probably others) and while it run @ fullspeed (even with my then crappily performing GPU) there were a lot of visual glitches. But things are probably better now and there are other emulators to try. Or at least it should be better than Saturn emulation and people have been content with that here.
[quote=“RYB”]Jinx, it sounds as if your DC has that rather annoying resetting problem.
[/quote]
I’m not sure… I haven’t had any problem with the DC resetting once it’s recognised a disc, it’s just that for these two (or that one if it behaves itself with RE2 from now on) it never gets beyond the DC title screen…
Aye, mine never reset itself once the disc loaded either. Really weird.
I’ve tried “DCEmu” on my machine but I couldn’t get anything to run. I couldn’t find a free program to create the necessary rips from my CDs, nor could I find any games available to download (only looked for games I own though).
Booted into the BIOS alright though, if it was a little oddly coloured.
[quote=“Jinx”]
I’m not sure… I haven’t had any problem with the DC resetting once it’s recognised a disc, it’s just that for these two (or that one if it behaves itself with RE2 from now on) it never gets beyond the DC title screen…[/quote]
Try the suggestion I made in Scott’s Rez topic. The laser inside the DC could be struggling to boot the game properly, which might explain why it hangs at the logo screen and takes you back to the settings menu.
I have three Dreamcasts, each of which has developed the booting problem. It becomes progressively worse over time, to the point where it refuses to boot a particular game no matter how many times you try.
The older the DC, the less likely a particular game will boot. My DCs would successfuly boot troublesome games at random before the problem became absolute, which might explain why your RE2 disc worked the second time you tried it.
This problem can be game-specific; my DC would refuse to boot Rez, Power Stone 2 and Ferrari F355 Challenge most of the time, but worked fine with other games.
As Shadow mentioned, the DC had some major design flaws which only became apparent towards the end of its life span. Had it lasted longer, Sega could have addressed these issues.
It can’t be done m8, regular disc drives can’t read GD ROMs. Downloading rips is the only option.
Well, they can read parts of the discs wtih extra wallpapers and stuff Sega used to stick in, so at least on a hardware level they’re able to. Not to mention all those pirates must have had some way of ripping them and then burning onto CDs since GD rom drives or burners were not available anywhere…
That’s what I’m thinking, Alex. There must be a way. I’ve seen software that claims to do it, but the trial version didn’t work and I’ll be damned if I’m paying for something that didn’t work in trial
I AM using Vista 64-bit though, so I don’t know if that’s a problem at all. Anyone here willing to try it out on XP 32 if I can find the link again?
Your suspicions were right Shadow, the article describes a couple of potential work-arounds to enable a CD-ROM drive to read GD-ROMs. One involves modified firmware, the other a swap trick - not something I’d like to risk personally tbh! If you find that link to the trial software I’ll give it a try.
Considering how you’re the God of all links, I don’t suppose you have one that details the process of ripping a disc using the broadband adapter to connect the DC to a PC? My CD drive cost ?130 (BluRay / HDDVD) so I’m not messing around with it
On a side note, anyone out there have a PAL DC compatible broadband adapter they don’t want?
I don’t know about being a God, I’m an amateur googler at best :anjou_embarassed:
Yes, it would be wise not to mess with your drive, especially one as pricey as that!
There’s a couple of BB adaptors on the US eBay at the moment. The cheapest is $150 which is about 75 quid and it’s not region specific. Not worth it tbh.
No other solution…?
