Really Need Help

Hello all!

I purchased a DC off of eBay a few months back and have been endlessly trying to get it to self boot, use a boot disc, something! I would love to be ablle to play emulators and roms on the DC but I can not get anything to work.

The questions I have are...

1. I think that the internal battery is dead. I have had it on for about 5 hours now in the hopes of recharging, but nothing. Could this impact the playing of cd-rs? The regular Dreamcast games I have play fine?

2. I have seen many YouTube videos on how to speed the laser up and down, is this something that I should try ?

I am at a roadblock.

The information on the bottom of my Dreamcast is:

Mfg: September 1999
Bottom left corner of tag: SD
Model# 670-14081G
Right bottom~ish: (1)[in circle] NTSC U

I thought I read either on this site or another that it had been ruled all models can play CD-R.

Again any help would be appreciated.

It should play CD-Rs, yes. All Dreamcast's can, except those manufactured in December 2000 with a (2) in circle next to the NTSC U.

Here's what I would like to recommend for a start:

1. Download and install Alcohol120%:
http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/index.php

2. Download and unRAR this small .cdi:
http://dcevolution.netfirms.com/down...onic-Demo1.rar

3. Start Alcohol120% and locate the .cdi and burn it in RAW DAO mode at 8x to a CD-R (not CD-RW!).


See if it works and let us know.

No luck! Followed the instructions and it powers on, asks me to set the date, screen goes white then right back to set date. When I hit ok again it just goes to the menu screen with Play, Settings, ets. I did notice that when it recognizes an actual Dreamcast disc it makes a beep, no VMU inserted.

It sounds like _maybe_ the iso you are trying to burn maybe corrupt or something...

I have yet to have success with Alkohol, but, discjuggler works perfectly for me when I give it a .cdi to start with...

go to http://www.padus.com/ and do the demo download for discjuggler it is the same I am using and it works perfectly almost every time.. :thumbup: The only exception was on Dragonriders of Pern, which I bought twice in person and took back once, and no matter what it has never worked..

i've done discjuggler too :(

BootDreams will burn CDI images... it's free too. :P

in my experience:

1) use GOOD CD´S!!! not all cd´s works fine in DC.
2) In my case bootdreams discs won´t work, so i use selfboot inducer.
3) Try to make a DATA/DATA disc. In some cases the DC only read this kind of CD.
4) If all this doesn´t work, maybe it´s a laser calibration stuff.

Try to put an audio cd-r, if the DC reads it, you are in the right way, there´s no exact formula to make cd-r works, for example some discs that works in my DC (jap) won´t work in the DC of my friend (usa), but both can read cd-r.

I believe that it is reading the CD-R, because if I go to music from the menu, it shows the 2 tracks listed. Any suggestions on what you would consider "good" cd's? I have used memorex and maxell? If I can not get it to work, I just have to search eBay for actual dreamcast games.

BTW, thanks for all of the input.

good cds...good cds...ahhhhh i have a good eye for good cd´s...I don´t know about that two brands (maybe memorex, but i think it sucks). Here in Argentina we have two types of brands:imported and nationals. The nationals are low-middle quality and the imported ones are middle-high. I prefer:

1) VERBATIM
2) IMATION

then maybe others like tdk, storax, sony...

If you are sure that your machine reads cd-r, then try a DATA/DATA disc. I don´t know how much knowledge have you about burning cd´s, it´s a little tricky to get a right method, i spent about 10 cd´s to get the first disc readable. As christuserloeaser (or whatever he is called awEHAWUheU) you can download a image of a cd (there is a lot out there) and burn it. Take a look with a software like alcohol or nero about what kind of disc is (search something like "disc info") and look if it´s a DATA/DATA (first track it´s data) or AUDIO/DATA (first track is audio).



PD: in my dc if it´s out of calibration then it takes the cd-r like an audio cd.

I don't like Memorex. I always buy TDK at Costco, you can usually find them cheap B1G1F.