Rather old thread, but I am having a similar problem with a Dreamcast I bought at a thrift store. When the GD-Rom is in the system, the red power light flickers on really quick and then off. When I take out the GR-Rom drive, the system powers on with the Dreamcast start up screen and then freezes, so I know the system at least has power. When I swapped the GD-Rom drive into a working Dreamcast, I experienced the same thing, so I know it's something faulty with the GD-Rom drive itself. Any ideas of how to bring it back to life?