Saturn reads games as AudioCD - Laser problem (?)

[alf]

Hello!

I've got a HST-3220 NTSC-J model 2 Sega Saturn, and i've got a problem.
For the moment i do not own any game from that region, i only have a PAL game (I live in Europe).
So when i put a PAL game in, Saturn says "Unsuitable disc for this system" - OK, that's cool, I understand it.
I bought a modchip and AR, to make it play import games and backups.
Before i will buy any import game, i wanted to check if everything's fine with my hardware, so i simply burned Albert Odyssey with NTSC-J region (patched by SegaRegionPatcher 3.0 Gold). And here is a problem. Saturn gives me a cd player menu and showing me 22 track on the cd. Opening the lid, closing, same thing - audio cd. Saturn checks format of the disc quick, without strange noises etc. Once per 20 tries, it says "Start Application", yupi! But when i start it, it keeps saying "Loading"and nothing happens. I can click "Start Application" again and again and nothing happens. The cd spins, so the drive motor is ok, but it stops when Saturn can't read it or it just spins all the time.
I asked a guy who sold me modchip about it, and he says that modchip must be just fine, because he checked it before shipping. I trust him, because i bought stuff from him last time and it was ok, i've succesfully modchiped my PAL Saturn with his modchip last month.
One last thing, i succesfully started a backup of a game once, it was - Resident Evil [NTSC-U] (i used AR). Another tries of starting this game was unsuccesful (AR keeps saying "Loading" and the cd drive spins like it's trying to boot but it couldn't). When i played this Resident Evil, i noticed that the drive works quite noisy when loading new areas such rooms etc, but the whole game worked fine, didn't stuck, fmv were playing OK etc.
I thought to myself - maybe it's laser issue ? Maybe i should tweak a pot, giving a lens a bit more power to read backups ?
Pls guys, anyone, help.

PS: I burn games with ImgBurn, on Verbatim cd, with 4x or 8x speed. I tried Supratec cd and EMTEC cd, same problem.
Cd audio with music plays OK.
Any tutorials of tweaking a pot of a laser lens ?
I've got a multimeter and a medium electronic skills, i can do it!

[zyrobs]

Burn with something else. Imgburn is known to cause defective copies.

[alf]

Burned with nero, same problem.
Cleaned the lens, nothing.
I am seriously thinking about tweaking a laser a bit, but need tutorial or something. Need to know where is the pot which i could adjust and what resistance value should it have.

[zyrobs]

You need to tweak the orange pot on the back of the laser. The resistance value will not help you since the lasers are adjusted on a case-by-case basis (if they didn't need to be, they could've just applied a factory default measurement to all units). It needs to be adjusted to whatever value that gives the best results, neither any lower nor higher.

[buckoa51]

Try a different burner too, I had an older one that used to do this, regardless of burning software. My new one works fine (yes even with Imgburn).

[alf]

OK, i will try a different burner. But the problem is that games and cd audio that i burn with this burner works on my hi-fi and my other saturn.
I have a PAL Saturn also, modchiped, and these games works on it.
I don't know which path should i follow:
1) tweaking a pot of a laser lens
2) maybe something's wrong with modchip ? But i am not really sure, it seems to work, because when i disconnect 5V supply from it (but keeping it still connected between a drive and motherboard) saturn do not see a drive, which is obvious for me, because when it has no supply it doesn't work. When i connect 5V again to the modchip, drive is again visible. So the modchip must work somehow. Is it possible that it's got a problem with booting a game ?
I can take out the modchip from my PAL Saturn and try to place it instead of this one in NTSC saturn, but is it really worth doing ?

[zyrobs]

I'd just tweak the pot. If the "quality" of a burned copy affects whether it works or not, then that machine needs the laser calibrated. Calibrated units can read discs cracked in half.

[alf]

Made some progress.
I tweaked a pot in almost the whole range, but it seems that this problem is independent from a pot position. Once per 20 times game runs, in some positions doesn't run at all. So i simply set a pot to it's original position (precisely with multimeter).
The interesting fact is that:
Saturn started to read my original PAL game as cd audio only ! Everytime i put original PAL game - cd audio with 40 tracks, no other information.
I disconnected the modchip and TADADADA! Saturn displays "Unsuitable disc for this system" everytime i put a PAL game.
This must be something with modchip, please take a loot at photos i shot. I identified a modchip as a V3 universal (but it hasn't got a 20 pin connectors, weird). Modchip has a soldered jumper on 0014 pad. Is it possible that i connected a ribbon cable to the modchip not "strong" enough and something doesn't have a contact ?
More info about v3 universal: HERE

UPDATE 22:59 08-02-2015
I've searched a bit on our forum and found this thread HERE
Someone had the same problem as me, his modchip made Saturn reading everything as cd-audio.
In the end of this thread they solved the problem by soldering the power supply of the modchip not to the Saturn PSU directly (just as i do) but somewhere else on the cd- rive!. Any ideas where should i solder to ? Maybe it's the solution ?

UPDATE 23:20 09-02-2015
THAT'S THE SOLUTION !!! IT WORKED!!! TAKING A 5V SUPPLY FROM A CD DRIVE CONNECTOR IS A SOLUTION FOR THIS PROBLEM!!!

UPDATE 20:13 10-02-2015
For everyone who will encounter same problem as me in the future when installing the modchip v3 universal, please take a look at this site: HERE
You will find out info and photo of connecting 5V supply to the modchip. There are 2 methods: taking 5V supply from Power Supply Unit (which is most common) or taking 5V supply from the cd-drive, from the 5pin green connector. When modchip seems to doesn't work properly somehow, take the 5V from the second (counting from the right side) pin of the 5pin green connector on the cd drive. I simply soldered a wire to this pin on the bottom side of the cd drive board. This pin is the same 5V as this one on the PSU (you can check it out with multimeter, using continuity test), but it seems that it is filtered somehow, it's like more cleaner 5V in my opinion, with less noise or something.

[barryburton]

I had the same original problem as Alf.

I have (had) a modchipped machine. It was reading game discs, including original legit discs, as music only.
I adjusted and tested all possible settings on the laser pot dial, and also bought and installed a new laser unit.

This didn't work so i just removed the mod chip which solved the problem.

Can't play burned games on it anymore unfortunately, unless I get a new chip fitted or use Pseudo. Not sure I'll bother for the time being.

At least it has a nice new laser unit now.