koop
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Joined: August 2015
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Post by koop on Aug 20, 2015 2:21:55 GMT
So I recently got a used Saturn for a great price locally and have burned a few games I really want to play (as the only title I own is Nascar 98 which came with the console and Puyo Puyo Sun which I imported a long time ago for the eventual day I get a Saturn haha).
I was using the swap method to play these games with no issue until all of a sudden it just stopped working and wouldn't read my CD-Rs. Thought maybe my laser was dying but it was able to read Nascar and Puyo fine (Just got the 4-1 today so I can play imports).
Wasn't sure what was up so I started googling around to see what I could find out. All I really found was a lot of arguments about CD-Rs requiring more strain on the laser to play due to the way a pressed game vs a burned game is made. I thought perhaps my laser was losing power and just couldn't read CD-Rs anymore.
I really didn't want to mess with the laser power at all. I popped in the CD-R to see if it could read the disk at all from the CD player menu and what do you know, it can play all the audio tracks no problem... So I decided to just go ahead and try and do another swap, and low and behold all of a sudden everything was fine. Tested it several times back to back with no issues.
And later on now it won't read them again. Certainly feels like the laser is dying slowly? Thoughts?
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Post by caseh on Aug 20, 2015 19:24:43 GMT
I have a Saturn that's similar but i've only ever used it with regular discs. Runs fine then change a game out and I can hear the disc spin up and the lens moving but no joy. Randomly comes back to life now and again.
Probably on its way out.
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segaboy8888
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Post by segaboy8888 on Aug 31, 2015 4:51:33 GMT
I have an old Saturn with a modchip apparently installed, is there a tutorial to remove it?
put it on my new one, etc..
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Lilith
Saturn Player
Joined: December 2014
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Post by Lilith on Aug 31, 2015 6:38:14 GMT
I had a modded Saturn that I used to play some games (that I now own), such as Guardian Heroes, Legend of Oasis, Albert Odyssey, and Panzer Dragoon Saga. It would play them fine for a while, but then it would go back to the BIOs menu, crashing the game. It was very infuriating, I had to hope that I could reach a save point before then.
I have since switched back to my original (unmodded) Model 1, and have had zero trouble. I am pretty sure that it was crashing because of the laser having to do more work to read CD-Rs. Case, it would only take like 15-20 minutes usually, but on my Model 1, I played through Sonic 2/3&K in one sitting. So yeah, it's probably the laser. I believe that I remember testing my legit discs on the modded unit, and it acted the same way, the laser was most likely on its way out even on legit discs by that point, since I kept trying with CD-Rs so frequently..
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alf
Saturn Gamer
Joined: January 2015
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Post by alf on Aug 31, 2015 13:44:01 GMT
What CD-R do you use ? Please make sure that they are quality one and burned slowly, i.e. 4x speed.
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Post by zyrobs on Aug 31, 2015 20:57:20 GMT
What CD-R do you use ? Please make sure that they are quality one and burned slowly, i.e. 4x speed. The "burn at the slowest speed" advice is a hang-over from the early days of consumer CD burners, which used different technology and different chemicals on the CDRs. On modern burners (ie. anything after ~2002), burning too slow is detrimental. You want to burn at usually around the middle speed your drive can do, for the best results. And CDR quality makes very small difference, if your machine gives wildly different results on one brand of media, then it most likely has problems reading original discs too, and needs the laser recalibrated. I had a modded Saturn that I used to play some games (that I now own), such as Guardian Heroes, Legend of Oasis, Albert Odyssey, and Panzer Dragoon Saga. It would play them fine for a while, but then it would go back to the BIOs menu, crashing the game. It was very infuriating, I had to hope that I could reach a save point before then. I have since switched back to my original (unmodded) Model 1, and have had zero trouble. I am pretty sure that it was crashing because of the laser having to do more work to read CD-Rs. Case, it would only take like 15-20 minutes usually, but on my Model 1, I played through Sonic 2/3&K in one sitting. So yeah, it's probably the laser. I believe that I remember testing my legit discs on the modded unit, and it acted the same way, the laser was most likely on its way out even on legit discs by that point, since I kept trying with CD-Rs so frequently.. The only time reading errors drop you back into the BIOS is when it tries and fails to read something for a very long time, like almost a minute long, and you'd see/hear the effects of that much earlier (such as the audio tracks getting choppy or cut off for a long while). For random resets out of the blue, I'd blame the power supply. Those things are old, need to be recapped, the PWM chip on them is known to overheat, etc. I've seen many model 2s, and have at least one, which randomly resets/crashes a lot, and only becomes "stable" after running for an hour or so. |
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Post by Sonnington on Sept 13, 2015 17:38:52 GMT
I had this happen with my Saturn. I used the disc swap trick for a while with a good solid medium and burned slow. I found that the game would freeze from time to time due to the apparent heat from the system. I was playing it during the Summer. So I put a fan on the console and it stopped freezing. I don't know why it worked, but it did.
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Post by linkt101 on Sept 13, 2015 22:03:34 GMT
If you frequently use the disc swap trick to play burned games, then it's bound to damage your system after a while.
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Post by zyrobs on Sept 14, 2015 2:10:21 GMT
If you frequently use the disc swap trick to play burned games, then it's bound to damage your system after a while. Only if you are very rough on the system, and even then it is most likely just the tray getting too low and/or the laser giving out (which happens normally over time anyway). |
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Post by caseh on Sept 14, 2015 15:16:32 GMT
If you frequently use the disc swap trick to play burned games, then it's bound to damage your system after a while. , and even then it is most likely just the tray getting too low and/or the laser giving out (which happens normally over time anyway). This ^
I have a Saturn where the spindle was sitting 1mm-2mm lower than it should so on occasion you would get a "tch tch tch" scraping sound as the disc made contact with the CD drive unit floor. When I opened it up there was a loose piece of tape over the drive door mechanism so concluded it had been used for backups and subsequently battered during disc swaps.
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