Dreamcast begins to fail, Suggestions? HELP!

[inheritancedpa]

First of all, greetings to everyone! A few days ago I registered on this forum. And unfortunately here I bring you my first topic that I would have preferred to be for another reasons. But let's get to it.
There was a few years since I played Shenmue for the last time, so a few days ago I started to re-play it, but I've been having trouble with freezings. 
Sometimes in moments of loading the game, the video and game freezes (while the audio is still playing). And the only thing you can do is turn off or reset the console. So maybe I have an old lens with problems.... Any suggestion... I've read and watched some videos about calibrating the lens... but maybe there are better options before opening the Dreamcast.
Any tips to clean the lens?

More info:
The Shenmue discs are in mint condition...
It always happens in transitions to battles or in-game videos. Never happened in another situation.
I didn't tried to play or reproduce the error with another games.
Sometimes after a freezing and after reseting the console, the dreamcast is not able to reproduce the game at all... After a few minutes it plays it again normally...weird stuff :-S

Thank you!!!

[kingrat101]

I'd recommend re-calibrating the lens, it's not too difficult, just a little intimidating at first, if you want to clean it use rubbing alcohol, preferably 90%, and a q-tip and just clean it very gently, like you're barely even touching it. I've had to do that a couple times with my dreamcast and Saturn, until I just re-calibrated it. Just be careful

[htimreimer]

I'd recommend re-calibrating the lens, it's not too difficult, just a little intimidating at first, if you want to clean it use rubbing alcohol, preferably 90%, and a q-tip and just clean it very gently, like you're barely even touching it. I've had to do that a couple times with my dreamcast and Saturn, until I just re-calibrated it. Just be careful

and if this doesn't work, you might need to replace the laser which is not all that difficult and it is pretty cheap, if the dreamcast is anything like the PS1, it will be very easy get to/replace  the laser

[sin2beta]

I'd recommend re-calibrating the lens, it's not too difficult, just a little intimidating at first, if you want to clean it use rubbing alcohol, preferably 90%, and a q-tip and just clean it very gently, like you're barely even touching it. I've had to do that a couple times with my dreamcast and Saturn, until I just re-calibrated it. Just be careful

and if this doesn't work, you might need to replace the laser which is not all that difficult and it is pretty cheap, if the dreamcast is anything like the PS1, it will be very easy get to/replace  the laser

Unfortunately, the dreamcast is not like the PS1 from my understanding. Very few lasers are compatible. You need one that is compatible with GD-Roms optically. Also, you need a very specific laserhead due to the distance being different from the DC and a typical laser from a CD-ROM drive for example.

It's very common for laser replacements to read CD backups but not official GD-ROMS because of this.

The dreamcast is a strange beast.

Tweak that laser if you need to. Keep in mind this will shorten the lifespan, but if it is not reading games anymore, tweak it. If that does not work, replacement consoles tend to be about $30. Start stocking up.

[htimreimer]

I'd recommend re-calibrating the lens, it's not too difficult, just a little intimidating at first, if you want to clean it use rubbing alcohol, preferably 90%, and a q-tip and just clean it very gently, like you're barely even touching it. I've had to do that a couple times with my dreamcast and Saturn, until I just re-calibrated it. Just be careful

and if this doesn't work, you might need to replace the laser which is not all that difficult and it is pretty cheap, if the dreamcast is anything like the PS1, it will be very easy get to/replace  the laser

Unfortunately, the dreamcast is not like the PS1 from my understanding. Very few lasers are compatible. You need one that is compatible with GD-Roms optically. Also, you need a very specific laserhead due to the distance being different from the DC and a typical laser from a CD-ROM drive for example.

It's very common for laser replacements to read CD backups but not official GD-ROMS because of this.

The dreamcast is a strange beast.

Tweak that laser if you need to. Keep in mind this will shorten the lifespan, but if it is not reading games anymore, tweak it. If that does not work, replacement consoles tend to be about $30. Start stocking up.

i completely forgot that the DC used GD-ROM, for those who don't know GD was sega failed competitor to DVD that they got out before DVD and it was pretty much only used by sega also as soon as the PS2 with its DVD drive came out, GD-ROM was killed by DVD

i hope cleaning it works because good luck finding GD laser replacement

[inheritancedpa]

I'd recommend re-calibrating the lens, it's not too difficult, just a little intimidating at first, if you want to clean it use rubbing alcohol, preferably 90%, and a q-tip and just clean it very gently, like you're barely even touching it. I've had to do that a couple times with my dreamcast and Saturn, until I just re-calibrated it. Just be careful

Thank you all guys! I will try to clean it at first, if that doesn't help, recalibrating the lens will be the next step!

I can use 96º Alcohol? 

[DreamsDied13101]

I agree with the other comments so far. You can try cleaning the laser, but I don't think that is the issue.

Normally from the issues you are having it means the lens needs to be re-calibrated or one of the two motors is dying out on the machine.

The strange thing is that this issue shows up on certain games more so than others. Might mean those games are  more intensive (using the motors more to search for data or using the lens more).

This issue seems to first show up on Skies or Arcadia or Shenmue (any game can make it happen, but in my experience those games are reported the most - for me personally my consoles start to show issues on Skies of Arcadia before they go bad). Game freezes - music keeps playing. The music is already cued up in the ram and the console is trying to find and load what is to appear next on the screen.

[sin2beta]

Launch window games are notorious for being early warnings. Blue Stinger or the Midway games (Hydro Thunder, Mortal Kombat, Ready 2 Rumble, Gauntlet) are some other games that refuse to load early on.

[inheritancedpa]

I agree with the other comments so far. You can try cleaning the laser, but I don't think that is the issue.

Normally from the issues you are having it means the lens needs to be re-calibrated or one of the two motors is dying out on the machine.

The strange thing is that this issue shows up on certain games more so than others. Might mean those games are  more intensive (using the motors more to search for data or using the lens more).

This issue seems to first show up on Skies or Arcadia or Shenmue (any game can make it happen, but in my experience those games are reported the most - for me personally my consoles start to show issues on Skies of Arcadia before they go bad). Game freezes - music keeps playing. The music is already cued up in the ram and the console is trying to find and load what is to appear next on the screen.

As you said, cleaning it had no effect at all... so next step will be re-calibrate the lens. Wish me luck 

[sin2beta]

I agree with the other comments so far. You can try cleaning the laser, but I don't think that is the issue.

Normally from the issues you are having it means the lens needs to be re-calibrated or one of the two motors is dying out on the machine.

The strange thing is that this issue shows up on certain games more so than others. Might mean those games are  more intensive (using the motors more to search for data or using the lens more).

This issue seems to first show up on Skies or Arcadia or Shenmue (any game can make it happen, but in my experience those games are reported the most - for me personally my consoles start to show issues on Skies of Arcadia before they go bad). Game freezes - music keeps playing. The music is already cued up in the ram and the console is trying to find and load what is to appear next on the screen.

As you said, cleaning it had no effect at all... so next step will be re-calibrate the lens. Wish me luck 

Good luck. When tweaking the laser... TINY turns.

[soera]

Im curious at the title of this thread. It says Dreamcast "begins" to fail. That junk system failed the day it was released!

[sin2beta]

Im curious at the title of this thread. It says Dreamcast "begins" to fail. That junk system failed the day it was released!

It's not an unusual title at all. Almost anyone who plays said system can't believe that it failed. Some people, such as the original poster, go in denial... thinking that it is only beginning to fail. Some people angrily revolt, much like a teenager turning to drugs, and become RPG players. We all have our ways of coping with the loss of sega and its awesome arcade ports.

[90snostalga]

Im curious at the title of this thread. It says Dreamcast "begins" to fail. That junk system failed the day it was released!

Soera, please dont request a war with one of my beloved and most favorite consoles of all time...

[90snostalga]

Im curious at the title of this thread. It says Dreamcast "begins" to fail. That junk system failed the day it was released!

It's not an unusual title at all. Almost anyone who plays said system can't believe that it failed. Some people, such as the original poster, go in denial... thinking that it is only beginning to fail. Some people angrily revolt, much like a teenager turning to drugs, and become RPG players. We all have our ways of coping with the loss of sega and its awesome arcade ports.

Beta, dont feed into Soera's comment.  He's just mad because he never got to experience the true power of the Phoenix Mirror...He never got to skate wild on buildings and in the streets tagging everything in site very colorful...He unfortunately first met Shadow on some bogus system called the PS2...He never got to play Resident Evil on a console that showed the first RE games in the best detail...He will probably say that Shenmue was not the first open world game made on a console...He can't admit that even without the help of EA Sports, Sega was so brilliant that they came out with their own line of sports called 2K which made some of the best sports games of that era...He will never pick up taxi fairs the original way they were intended...He probably thinks that a playstation 2 memory card is a real memory card...He will never know that the Dreamcast controller is one of the best controllers ever to be held by man...He prob forget that the Dreamcast introduced online gaming (for those who like online gaming) so on and so forth...You get the point


 

[soera]

Heh the Dreamcast's uber suckfest is only surpassed in horribleness by the thing known as the N64.