freezing dreamcast

aced411 · Post by **aced411** » Wed May 05, 2004 4:40 am

Well, my DC finally crapped out (drive makes high pitched sound and never loads a game)so I bought a "newer" (2000) black sports one on ebay. Here is my problem. The system starts up games great, but at certain points in every game it freezes. Space Channel 5 freezes on the second level. Sega Marine Fishing freezes right before you start playing on the first level. So on and so forth. At first I thought it was overheating so I opened it up and the system appears dust free inside and the fan is happily spinning. slightly adjusted the calibration screw clockwise hoping it would help, but no difference.

For the record the games I've been trying to play were previously unopened and had never been played (and are real discs, not copies).

Also, word to the wise.....that rumor about cd-r's ruining dreamcasts:
It's true, at least for me. My old DC worked great, but the more I played cd-r's the louder it got, until it finally wouldn't play any type of disc.

aced411 · Post by **aced411** » Wed May 05, 2004 6:53 am

I opened up my new copy of World Series 2k2 just to see if maaaaaybe I had 2 bad games.....but of course no such luck. It booted into the game and everything was fine for a couple minutes. After a few times at bat the game froze and the audio commentary was stuck in a loop. It sucks I just got this black DC and it's freezing like this. I tried reversing the fan just in case of overheating. No luck. I might bite the bullet and buy an

"unopened" dreamcast from ebay and toss my 2 DC's in the trash.

Prophet][ · Post by **Prophet][** » Wed May 05, 2004 7:03 am

don't throw them away, their always someone that will take them.

The thing bout cd-r's, you need to use them a lot for the dreamcast to wear out. as the only reason it wears them out is that the motor is used more.

It sounds like a strange problem, but It doesn't really sound like the gd-rom unless it can't read from certain spots on the disc, but you say they are brand new so this can't be the problem, to double check, run them on a mates DC, if they freeze, its the disc. But it could be associated with the DC's main board, if you find its not the discs, try swapping the main board from your old dc to your new sports one to see if that works

aced411 · Post by **aced411** » Wed May 05, 2004 7:07 am

Swapping out the mainboard? Not a bad idea. I haven't taken the DC that far apart before but I'd be willing to try it in hopes of being able to play my favorite system again.

Prophet][ · Post by **Prophet][** » Wed May 05, 2004 7:14 am

I would probably make sure its not the games first so that your not wasting your time

Alexvrb · Post by **Alexvrb** » Wed May 05, 2004 3:49 pm

Have you tried adjusting the calibration on your old DC? It sounds like the laser can't focus.

Vchat20 · Post by **Vchat20** » Wed May 05, 2004 4:42 pm

id check for cooling issues. at home my DC runs fine, no problems. but when we went on our recent vacation, i had the DC in the car. and it was snug tight between the one side of the bench seat and right up against the wall. what i seemed to have forgotten was the fan was right up against the wall. DC froze about every hour or so. i pulled it out and the part of the wall where the fan was was nice and hot. so obviouslly a cooling issue there.

aced411 · Post by **aced411** » Wed May 05, 2004 5:15 pm

I don't think it's overheating. The system has plenty of breathing room and the vent is wide open.

Regarding the old system, I tried adjusting the screw about 1/8th clockwise. Is the calibration screw the same as the voltage adjuster?

PS I'm certain it's not the games. I took them to Gamecrazy and they let me play them on their dreamcast. No freezing.

aced411 · Post by **aced411** » Wed May 05, 2004 6:44 pm

Thanks for the advice guys! I completely disassembled both dreamcasts. In the old dreamcast I noticed there was heat dissapation pads on the mainboard that were missing or deteriorated on the new board. I swapped the mainboard into my sports system, put it all back together and it no longer freezes!! Now I have an extra DC with two bad parts so I was thinking I could do something cool with it like cram a micro PC inside the case or something.

Alexvrb · Post by **Alexvrb** » Wed May 05, 2004 11:06 pm

Sell or give away verified working parts, too.

Mikey1109 · Post by **Mikey1109** » Thu May 06, 2004 1:26 pm

Alexvrb wrote:Sell or give away verified working parts, too.

yeah, do that man. i might be interested in something from it.

aced411 · Post by **aced411** » Thu May 06, 2004 3:07 pm

Yeah but all that works is the power supply, fan, and cosmetic parts. GD-ROM is toast and the mainboard is toast.

Alexvrb · Post by **Alexvrb** » Thu May 06, 2004 10:03 pm

You're forgetting the controller board. You know, the thing that the controller ports are connected to, on which people like to burn out the fusible resistor all the time. Plus modem, too. Oh, and parts of the GD-ROM assembly might be ok too, we don't know what crapped out. Was it the laser, and if so does the motor work? Like that. But there are a few parts which you know work for sure.

freezing dreamcast

freezing dreamcast

Arghhh

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