Shenmue 2 issues.

[Smeedom]

I stumbled across a cheap Shenmue 2 on eBay and figured there was no harm in buying it.

So... I play disk 1 without any problems - and then it comes to disk 2. After the first "cut scene" I get this "data read error" which complains about some 0008_015.Snd file. The eBay listing did say that disk 2 had light scratches, but he neglected to mention that those light scratches would lead the game to not work.

I left things until the morning and figured I'd try again. Behold... it worked. No data read error - at least not for a few minutes. I went to the fortune tellers and when I left, I got the same error about the same file. The file can't be completely screwed 'cause it loaded before.

I then wondered if the issue was my DC. If it was, why would it play disk 1 without any problems - and why would it play other games without problems? Either way... I did some research on how to calibrate the GDROM drive to slow down the reading which is supposedly more accurate. No joy.

Through leaving the DC completely powerless for a few hours, loading, playing shortly & saving, I've gotten so far into the game, but the problem is the same each time - just with different .Snd file names.

To summarize: After being on for so long, the DC has problems reading (sound?) files from disk 2 only. If I put disk 1 in after, disk 1 works fine.

What could the problem be? My DC or the CD? Would it be worth buying a CD cleaning kit? If all else fails, the guy who sold it has said he'll refund me if I send it back to him so I'm not worried. I'd just prefer to get the game working.

Thanks in advance.

[JKKDARK]

Probably it's the second GD. It has many scratches?

[Smeedom]

Aye. The disk is pretty much covered in them, but they're only light. I would've put it down to the 2nd disk from the start, but the fact that it sometimes loads confused me.

[Elven6]

Hmm, try to run the disc under some water and wipe it with a soft cloth. If that dosen't work try a CD cleaner.

[Smeedom]

I've tried next to everything - including putting it in the freezer. No dice. My thoughts are that a cleaner may help polish off the disk to get rid of the scratches, but... I dunno if it's beyond repair.

[OneThirty8]

I would try a CD cleaning kit. I've had luck with that in the past, so it's worth a try.

[Xiaopang]

i agree. i also had success with repair kits. i also had issues with disc 2. seems that it is created in a way that is already a burden for the dc to read, so a few scratches can disrupt the loading process easily, even if they only seem to be light. the reason why it sometimes loads is simply because the gd-rom has no absolutely constant performance. the speed of the drive, the intensity of the laser and the accuracy of how the laser is reflected by the pits and lands always varies slightly (that affects all drives by the way, not just GD-drives). in this case this variation is enough to make the disc sometimes readable and sometimes not.

why did you put the disc in the freezer? what's that supposed to do? never heard of people doing that

[quzar]

Be wary of CD cleaning products. There are two different philosophies to their working.

The first requires that you use a special liquid they come with, and work by filling in scratches with a liquid that bonds to the disc.

The second works by shaving away thin layers of the disc to level the surface with the scratches. The problem with this is that it effects the way the laser reflects and can cause the entire disc to become unreadable or just extremely fragile after multiple uses.

Most cleaning machines such as "Dr. Disc" or whatnot are of the second type, most cleaning kits are of the first.

[Xiaopang]

quzar is right. i had good experiences with cleaning fluids, but quite some bad ones with the ones that shave off parts of the layer

[Smeedom]

Thanks for the replies, yo.

Aye... I was curious about the workings of the cleaners. To a degree, the theories make sense.

The one I bought is...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN:IT&ih=008

Any advice for how I should go about using it?

I was really curious about why the disk would sometimes load & sometimes not. As I mentioned before, it seems that when the DC has been running for 2+ mins, it has issues. Why would slowing down/speeding up the GDROM drive not make any difference?

As luck should have it, someone is selling spare Shenmue 2 disks on eBay. If the CD cleaning doesn't work, I can always just buy those & get the guy to refund me for that instead of the whole set.

[edit]

About the freezer: I read it in some files someone sent to me a few years ago. When my VC++ 6 disk got messed up, I shoved it in the freezer as suggested and the drive read the disk fine. I guess the idea is either temporarily filling the gaps with ice or... something to do with expanding/contracting. Dunno. ;D