Really Need Help

[Smoothie101902]

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.

[Christuserloeser]

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.

[Smoothie101902]

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.

[Rifter01]

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..

[Smoothie101902]

i've done discjuggler too

[fackue]

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

[Guaripolo]

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.

[Smoothie101902]

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.

[Guaripolo]

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.

[fackue]

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