Dreamcast start up slow. even without disc in machine

[danny_galaga]

Turned it on today, and the startup was really slow (damn microsoft!) . i turned it on and off a few times and it came good. managed to get the backups playing. But when it came time for Crazi Taxi, it just wouldn't boot up. The only gosh darn game i need for this and its doing this! I tried the original and it boots up, although because it's scratched, it's not much help. After all, it's the reason i went the 'backup' route.

What's going on here do you think? I'm kinda relieved it's probably not laser related, but if the OS is playing up, maybe that's just as dire?

edit: Ha! I just cleaned the Crazi Taxi back up and all is good. They're finicky these gd roms, aren't they? Question still remains about the slow start up. It was like watching a poorly emulated mame game in a slow computer, you know going at a few frames a second. Is this something to be concerned about? The DC is for a friends birthday present, I'd hate for it to not work the first time he turns it on! We all know nothing lasts forever, but would be nice to get at least SOME trouble free action out of it (",)

[ark_ader]

Time to buy a new one? Or old one... 

[daywane]

I would open it up. clean it with contact cleaner. unplug all cables and re seat them back in

[northerngames]

if it goes to menu without lag while no game is in it then it is not the motherboard but a dying laser or the laser rail/snake motor that is going bad.

a bad laser would cuase it to load slow but also the snake motor becuase it takes it that much longer for the laser to move back and forth on the disk bottom becuase its old and tired.

if it is being picky with very light scratch's that is another sighn of the laser going bad as most drives can still read disk with light scratch's with no problem.

[danny_galaga]

I wasn't very clear in the original post. What i meant was that without a disk in the console, the start up was slow! I think also the laser is a little weak, which is another prob. Haven't seen the slow start up again. And by and large it reads the disks ok now. It was a present for a friend, i've told him not to despair if it plays up because i know heaps of people with 'teh mad skillz' on the net 

[Nipedley]

Would definitely take it apart, give it all a clean and make sure all the contacts are good. I've not heard/seen of the slow start up problem but fixed a few dreamcast's with power/reset issues that way, and it couldn't hurt.

[danny_galaga]

Well, we played it the other night and it started doing weird stuff again. Sounds like pulling apart and cleaning things is in order. Just to clarify, is this what you guys mean?

http://www94.pair.com/jsoper/dc_fix.html

[daywane]

more or less yes that's it.
I never knew that was out on the web anyplace.
I disagree with #8

" 8 ) Look at the pins and clean any dirt off them. DON'T USE ANY LIQUID to clean them with "

I use contact cleaner. expensive stuff. Like $30.00 a can but it will last a very long time.

I have even washed motherboard in the bath tub and even used a dish washer at my mothes house once.
I do not ever remember washing a dream cast MOBO but plenty of PC's MOBO.

[danny_galaga]

Cool. I figured it would be safe to use liquid so long as it's cleaned off again...

[danny_galaga]

Lighter fluid is very cheap and evaporates quickly.  I use it clean everything.

Unleaded gasoline is even better but I don't like keeping it around.

Petrol for cars has aromatics and dye added to it. I'll use methylated spirits if i need to use anything at all...

[northerngames]

Well, we played it the other night and it started doing weird stuff again. Sounds like pulling apart and cleaning things is in order. Just to clarify, is this what you guys mean?

http://www94.pair.com/jsoper/dc_fix.html

to be completely honost I think that tutorial is a total waste of time.

if it swells like they claim you would get a better connection if anything and it would actually seal any dirt out even better becuase it is tighter?

loose terminal on a battery or a tight one for instance.

it is your laser or the spindle motor is worn or the snake motor that move's the laser back and forth.

clean the laser rails and try it if no go tweak the laser pot with a multimeter and if no go still more then likely it will need a new laser.

just google dreamcast laser pot for the tweak method.

if you dont have a multimeter then just buying a new laser and being done with it may be better I think you can get the whole laser assembly with the spindle mount etc. everything that could go bad drive wise in one shot/sale for cheap off ebay and you just unplug the ribbon from the mobo pull it out set the new one in plug in the ribbon and it's done.

I am pretty sure the drive assembly's are also universal meaning any version laser assembly should work on any model DC.

edit: I had to read that tutorial over again and it is definatly a waste of time and based on myth.

if anything you put a hairline crack on the solder joint of one of them pins by pushing to hard and before you know it there is a whole burned through the motherboard on the pin that had the hairline crack.

what there talking about would be a good thing to swell and get tighter for a better connection not be looser becuase loose could also act as a hairline crack and short becuase it is only making partuia contact.

I have rebuilt fixed and repaired and customized many many console's and I just don't buy that one  

[danny_galaga]

I didn't make my initial post really clear i guess. It is definitely NOT the laser, since the problem occurs whether there is a disk in there or not. That tutorial (bearing in mind i haven't opened the dreamcast yet to see what they are describing) is talking about the fact that when things are cycled through variations like temperature or pressure, faults start to show up. I'm thinking it will be a variation of what happens with my pc's. Sometimes things start to play up, but all that is needed is to reseat all the connections (memory seems to be the one to play up the most with me).

I'll have a tentative look tomorrow

[HaRuMaN]

Just buy a new one, lol, it's like $20 

[HaRuMaN]

Just buy a new one, lol, it's like $20 

 

What?

[danny_galaga]

I'm in Australia. I got it off a friend for 50 bucks, which is really cheap here.

[Nipedley]

It's no myth, I've used that method with the pins to fix two resetting Dreamcasts. I don't care about *why* it works, but it sure does

Both would reset after 5 - 10 minutes of playtime.

[danny_galaga]

A tute with pics (",)

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/dc-reset.htm

Definitely doing it tonight...

edit: Ok, done that. Still no go. I got 16 minutes of Silent Scope in before the screen started to scramble again. Definitely seems to be a heat issue on the graphics side of the hardware. Right now i am listening to a really scratched up old New Order CD on the dreamcast- even though the menu was graphically all scrambled, i was able to navigate (left and down) to the music player. Damn, looks a lot trickier getting to the motherboard etc...