Just bought a Japanese DC - not loading games :(

[Ginza]

it switches on fine, but when trying to load a game, when you put a disc in, it makes a noise like the drive is going to start up then sort of dies down a few seconds later. it does the same thing once or twice more, then stops. A message comes up in Japanese, and then if I click the joypad icon after that, a message comes up (again in japanese) which presumably is telling me to insert a valid disc or words to that effect.

Any idea what the problem could be? I did try cleaning the lens but haven't tried laser calibration or anything like that.

[Darksaviour69]

r u try to boot a Japanese, NSTC or Pal game?

[Ginza]

Tried all three, as I wasn't sure if it had been modded or anything like that - none work, and I just tried a music CD - same thing happens.

Its a Regulation7, if that makes any difference. This is probably irrelevant, but I've seen some R7s come with a black disk with R7 on it. Do R7s need that disc to boot up before you can actually do anything with them or not, because I don't have the R7 disc with it. I know the disc was used to get the R7s onto Pachinko networks or whatever, but again, probably not important here.

I hope...

[Darksaviour69]

sounds like the motor for the drive is broken, since it not even reading music cds. try the laser calibration, but don't get your hope up. Also I think boot discs (and homebrew) won't work on R7 version of the DC.

[Ginza]

sounds like the motor for the drive is broken, since it not even reading music cds. try the laser calibration, but don't get your hope up. Also I think boot discs (and homebrew) won't work on R7 version of the DC.

is it true that if the motor has gone the discs don't spin? Because if i flip the lid up, the discs are spinning around...

[Darksaviour69]

if the disc is spinning that's a a good sign, try the laser calibration, but, for god sake be careful.

[WhizzBang]

Sounds like the laser calibration to me too. I also have a Japanese DC where this has happened.

On my DC, I managed to change all the screen stuff into English somehow, try guessing around some menus and you should find an option to change the language.

The message I get is 'Please insert a valid Dreamcase Disc' - or something like that. It used to work fine but must have received a knock or something as it stopped working after I moved house. It does occasionally load a game in about 1 in 30 attempts or something.

[Ginza]

The shop that sold it to me gave me permission to try it, to their eternal credit. Tried for two hours, but it was always *just* too fast or (presumably) a little under where it needed to be. Try as I might, I couldn't get it so I'll have to send it back. nuts.

[Ginza]

Weird - i'm about ready to pack it up and i thought i'd give it one more go. for some reason, when putting in game discs its now making the same "not reading your disc" noise, but then after a while the music icon is highlighted. click it, and in the music player it shows a picture of a disc (half white, half blue) with "dreamcast" written on it (but no music tracks listed).

why on earth is it suddenly picking up dreamcast game discs as music CDs?

[sixtyten]

Weird - i'm about ready to pack it up and i thought i'd give it one more go. for some reason, when putting in game discs its now making the same "not reading your disc" noise, but then after a while the music icon is highlighted. click it, and in the music player it shows a picture of a disc (half white, half blue) with "dreamcast" written on it (but no music tracks listed).

why on earth is it suddenly picking up dreamcast game discs as music CDs?

Perhaps it needs some more power? That would be my guess. Maybe it's just been WAY too low all along.

[s8n]

howdy Ginza , sounds exactly like it needs a Laser Calibration Fix........the symptoms your having are classic to the Laser needs calibrating.

for 15mins work its worth a shot , a good tip is it may not work the 1st turn of the potentiometer but on the 2nd 3rd or 4th try you will get a disc to boot.

for me it booted 1st turn but i needed to adjust it 3 more times to get it more accurate , music in NFL Blitz started and stopped repeatedly but after more turns its now ok.

s8n

[liann9]

I got a dreamcast from ebay that acts exactly the same.. i figured that it works just fine if i put something weighty on the lid.