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Thread: Trouble playing Dreamcast games - what's the fault?

  1. #16
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    sometimes the power board inside the console can be loose, could be worth cracking the console open and see if there are any obvious issues inside

    cleaning contacts (water would not work this time you will need something like rubbing alcohol or equivalent, the power board does pull out though, but check a youtube video first to be sure how you do that and make sure it is not plugged in when doing so, that thing can give you a nice high shock [Yes I done that myself before])
    cleaning any dust and or flush out (soft brush + blowing inside) [that would help with any heat issues that can also cause a Reset due to over heating]
    Make sure the side fan is working while you are at it

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    Hi guys. By some miracle I've made it to the end of Shenmue 2 disc 1, thanks to the fact you can save anywhere. The Dreamcast crashes about every 30 minutes.

    So I put disc 2 and it's the same, crashes around the same time.

    I just want to get the pros verdict on this. 2 Shenmue discs keep crashing and so does Skies of Arcadia, with all the dics looking in great condition. Is it most likely the console that's at fault? In which case I need to return it and get another one.

    Many thanks,

  3. #18
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    It is a safe assumption that it is the console, but you can try it just running the bios and or playing a music CD, I would do that before contacting the seller, it will remove any uncertainty as to the discs being the cause

    If you can then yes return and replace (Only issue is it may cost a fair bit to do that, so get in contact with the seller and explain the issue)

    If not you can try a service it yourself as best you can
    clean the inside (remove dust and clean the contacts)
    make sure everything is firmly connected ect (especially the PSU board)
    the 4 pins connecting the PSU PCB may need to be bent slightly to give a more firm connection (do that at your own risk though but it should be fine to do so ever so slightly just make sure the PCB is not bending while you do that))
    Check the fan on the side is working, as well as dust free

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    Hi Zorlon, I have music CDs but none of them are Japanese. Would they still work?

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    all compact disk for audio players have no regional footprint or identifier.
    just an id3 tag at best, for compatible players. (not counting cd+g)
    the disk should still work regardless of it's region.
    still, it doesn't serve to identify the issue, or eliminate it.
    it won't hurt to play off a few music cd's though..

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    That's cool, I'm putting in a CD right now. Would be interesting to see if it crashes around the same time.

    EDIT - Okay I've just played a 40 min CD through twice and it didn't crash. Any ideas? Thanks
    Last edited by Leaf; 30th-October-2016 at 16:25.

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    I've played it through a third time. What do you guys think? Does it just not play games properly?

    I'll hopefully get Blue Stinger in a couple of days.

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    the ideas are plastered all over the subject.
    plus, i'm not at the console in person, so i can't diagnose the situation in full.
    contact the seller for any advice, or maintain the console, it's the only real option at this point.
    better still, contact a professional electronic repair men.
    good luck.

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leaf View Post
    I've played it through a third time. What do you guys think? Does it just not play games properly?

    I'll hopefully get Blue Stinger in a couple of days.
    The issue will happen with every game you play, there is an issue with that console, even if you say that this has happend with a few games, you get 30mins play then the console resets itself, should be enough for the seller to go on and know the machine has a fault

    Don't mention the CD music test at all as that was not reading data from a GD-Rom disc (Dreamcast games come on GD-Rom not CD-Rom, flip a GD-Rom over and you can see the difference yourself from a standard CD)

    P.S. do yourself a favor get yourself a CD burner (Presuming you have a PC, USB CD burner for a laptop with no CD drive) and some quality CD-R's, I have every single English released game in a CD-R burnable format and a few games that never got released even have a bunch of games released after the Dreamcast lost any official software support as well as your usual unofficial Ports and Emulators, the Dreamcast was one of the consoles that had the biggest homebrew support, biggest in it's day anyway

    Majority of GD-Rom to CD-Rom converts are perfect copy's but some games will not fit a standard CD due to GD-Rom discs being able to store over 1GB of data and CD-R's normally storing only 700MB and 99min CD-R's storing apx 850MB if I remember correctly, though 99min CD-R's are very hard to find now anyway, games that do not fit usually use downsampled video and audio some though do rip contents out totally, I have done a game split over several CD's though and a few 99Min versions without removing any content and without any downsampling and I'm not the only one to do rips like that
    Last edited by Zorlon; 30th-October-2016 at 17:51.

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    Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated. I've contacted the seller about a refund.

    Blue Stinger arrived today so I'll give it one more chance, not expecting much though.

    Been playing Blue Stinger for about an hour. It hasn't crashed. WTF?

    I might just try leaving it on for a while and see if it crashes.

    The seller seems a decent guy and is offering me a swap with a new console.

    Blue Stinger not crashing has got me thinking though. What should I do?
    Last edited by Zorlon; 1st-November-2016 at 14:58.

  11. #26
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    Swap it

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    Something really weird has happened. I was able to play Skies of Arcadia for 2 hours straight without it crashing.

    Don't know what's happened. I'll try Shenmue next

  13. #28
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    Shenmue would be the maker or breaker

    I would still give the machine a good clean out anyway, for it to reset to bios could be power shorting or lid sensor thinking it has been opened, both would take you to the bios screen mid game.

    data reading issues I'm not so sure they would take you to the bios, normally you just get stuck on a in-game screen, but I guess that can happen.

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    I tried Shenmue 2 again and it crashed almost instantly. I was just playing Skeis of Arcadia for about an hour then that crashed again.

    I guess I'll need to swap after all.

  15. #30
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    Looks that way

    Anyway I wish you luck with that and hope everything goes smoothly

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