Do CD-Rs damage a Sega CD? [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

Ze_ro

04-20-2008, 06:01 PM

Go check out the PCEngineFX board and search " cd-r laser" and read some of the posts it brings up. The poorer quality of the cd-r causes the laser to work harder and sometimes to get mis aligned. It happens. Trust me.
How exactly does a laser "work harder"? It's a beam of light.

It's possible that it might have a hard time reading poor quality discs and have to re-read a particular track, but this would cause fatigue to the motors that move the laser, not the lens itself or any nonsense like that. If you're worried about that, I would think the best thing would be to periodically (maybe once a year) open the system and clean/lubricate the appropriate gears to keep things in good, working order.

Personally, I think the whole "CD-R's damage systems" is just BS that companies want you to believe so you don't pirate stuff.

And PCEngineFX is a bad source for stuff like this. NEC's systems seem to have poor quality laser assemblies to begin with. Many Duo's die a premature death even without reading a CD-R in their life.

--Zero

DefaultGen

04-20-2008, 06:02 PM

.....

RCM

04-20-2008, 06:18 PM

You might want to try running a Genesis emulator off of your PC, at least there won't be any question of risk in terms of ruining your drive.

shadowkn55

04-20-2008, 07:17 PM

How exactly does a laser "work harder"? It's a beam of light.

It's possible that it might have a hard time reading poor quality discs and have to re-read a particular track, but this would cause fatigue to the motors that move the laser, not the lens itself or any nonsense like that. If you're worried about that, I would think the best thing would be to periodically (maybe once a year) open the system and clean/lubricate the appropriate gears to keep things in good, working order.

Personally, I think the whole "CD-R's damage systems" is just BS that companies want you to believe so you don't pirate stuff.

The beam of light needs to be reflected off the disc so the data can be read back. CD-R's of poorer quality have lower levels of reflectivity and thus cause the laser to increase the intensity of light so that the reflected light comes back at an acceptable level. This is where the "damage" is caused from using cheap blanks. It is sending more current through the diode than it is normally spec'ed to do. The quality of the burner is just as important as the media. (ie. my laptop burner doesn't hold a candle to my desktop Pioneer drive)

Jorpho

04-20-2008, 08:35 PM

CD-R's of poorer quality have lower levels of reflectivity and thus cause the laser to increase the intensity of light so that the reflected light comes back at an acceptable level. This is where the "damage" is caused from using cheap blanks. It is sending more current through the diode than it is normally spec'ed to do.

I have never heard of a drive increasing its laser power in response to its inability to read a disc. Pardon me if I say poppycock.

COUNT SMRIFNACK

04-20-2008, 08:52 PM

He's right, it has to do with the cd-r's having lower reflectivity. There are certain cd-r's that are made differently and supposedly don't cause these problems.
It doesn't matter if you don't believe this to be an issue. It is up to the person making the decision to use cd-r's or not. If you want to risk it, go ahead.
Just know that it is accepted in the TG/PCEngine community that copied cds can cause damage to cd systems.
I used a cd-r for the first time last week, on a perfectly great working TG CD unit. The cd-r was burned to fast I think and it took a long time to load. When it did run, it had odd load noises at times. Then the background audio dropped out. In less than 30 minutes of playing it I quit. Then next day I went to play a normal cd game and the unit still experiences the audio drop. The laser was "stressed" and is mis aligned to an extent, but not ruined. But I still have to pay someone to fix it.

Richter Belmount

04-20-2008, 09:08 PM

no no its all how your burn the cdr!

neuropolitique

04-20-2008, 09:16 PM

digitalpress

04-20-2008, 09:18 PM

Is it still April 1st?

C'mon... I KNOW we're smarter than this.

Lasers don't RESPOND. They READ. The only stress on a laser is from its movement up and down the rail. Does it see something it doesn't understand and suddenly blow up? No. On a good system it backs up and tries again. Still doesn't understand? What does the brain say... try again or give up?

If you're willing to sit there as your laser and its brain tell each other "try again" one hundred times then YEAH, you're subjecting your laser to a permanent issue. What's happening is you are making your laser read the same spot on a CD over and over and over. That's a quick way to age a laser.

Imagine if you were asked to walk to the corner shop to pick up a loaf of bread. You head over there only to find that the corner shop no longer exists. Never mind that, try again. Seriously, who sits at their drive longer than 3 minutes waiting for this to happen? On a normal day, looking for something that exists, your laser will succeed. But suddenly faced with your crappy scratched or badly burned CD-R's... could be a very "aging" day.

And in these cases it will try and try and try anyway... still, it will probably outlive most normal humans. And by "normal" I mean the kind who don't continually stress-test their laser with crappy scratched or badly burned CD-R's.

Daria

04-20-2008, 09:33 PM

Even if extended use could damage a laser... it's Snatcher. How much of the game are you planning on playing? Playing through one 10 to 15 hour game (just guessing on the average length of an adventure title) is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of hours your system will work through out it's lifetime. Quit antagonizing and play your burn already. :P

Poofta!

04-20-2008, 10:01 PM

laser diodes are only spec for a certain voltage/frequency. they WILL NOT and CAN NOT work outside of their means. a laser's life is always quoted as if it were to work at max voltage/frequency. NEC is known to use cheaply made lasers in all their cd products in the early 90s. including pc drives. do not buy into this BS. this is why the internet sucks -- anyone with a keyboard has the potential to be believed.

shadowkn55

04-20-2008, 10:14 PM

laser diodes are only spec for a certain voltage/frequency. they WILL NOT and CAN NOT work outside of their means.

That assumes the device has the necessary circuitry to prevent over voltage (which most do). Late model fat ps2's (v9, v10) used an inferior protection circuit and early model slim ps2's (v12) lacked one altogether due to Sony trying to cut costs. These caused the premature deaths of modded systems and even a few unmodded systems. The romeo mod and comsoft laser fix were created out necessity to address these problems.

TheDomesticInstitution

04-20-2008, 10:36 PM

All this is true. But there is even worse that can happen when using a CD-R. A poor quality CD-R not only causes the Drive to increase the power of the laser, but it also has to re-read the same data sometimes because it didn't get it all the first time. Couple that with the increase in laser power and you can actually burn right through the disc and damage the drive on the other side.

Play it safe. Use only high quality, super reflective CD-R media. Even though only a few companies actually produce CD-Rs, the quality can be affected by rebranding!

You speak the truth. In fact, one time, not only did my PSX burn through and damage the other side of the drive- it burned a hole through the top of the CD door and left a small dot in the faux-wood grain of my entertainment center.

The only sure fire way to test the quality of the reflective layer of a CD-R is to compare it next to a bathroom mirror. Follow these simple steps to insure optimum luminosity.

1. Make LOL! sure you have a 75 watt incandescent light bulb (in a lamp of course LOL!)
2. Plug it in next to your bathroom mirror and turn it on. LOL!
3.Take the CD-R and place it next to the mirror (with the lamp bulb between the mirror and disc)
4. Take a light meter, and measure the light reflected off both the mirror and disc.
5. If the mirror and CD-R are LOL! within 1 F-stop (or the CD is within 75% of relative infrared reflected light spectrum) then the CD is of a superior quality.
6. Or if you don't have a light meter but have access to a digital ultraviolet spectrograph, then just measure the color temperature of the reflected light (provided it's with a neutral light source of 5000K) and determine if LOL! it's within 500K tolerance of a 6500k benchmark.

It's really LOL! that simple.

SkiDragon

04-20-2008, 10:50 PM

So, what brands of CD-Rs are considered the best?

Flack

04-20-2008, 10:52 PM

I've been playing CD-Rs on my PSX for 10 years now and my Dreamcast for 8. I've yet to have a laser magically intensify itself so hard and burn through any discs. I've never owned a TurboDuo so I can't make any claims about it, but as for lasers and CD-Rs in general, I have to call bullshit. Either that or, by luck of the draw, I somehow got the world's most awesomeist consoles ever. I've always burned at the slowest speed possible and used decent media (Verbatim for years; Sony and Memorex these days).

Poofta!

04-20-2008, 11:05 PM

just gonna say that i only use Sony/TDK and memorex/varbitm when they are on sale or cheaper than sony/tdk.

COUNT SMRIFNACK

04-20-2008, 11:07 PM

Buy a Turbo Grafx CD unit, or a Duo. Get some questionable cd-rs, ones that YOU didn't burn from the original, and have at it.
I'm not talking about PS1's, I'm talking about cd drives made around 90-92ish. Hell, my computer can play the shitty cd-r and the others I got with it all day long, and load them fast as can be. But the 16 year old NEC cd drive can't.
When you guys say you use quality cds and burn at slow speeds, thats great. But are you copying the original, or another cd-r? Cause if I had the original, I wouldn't be playing a cd-r.
Also, you say burning at the slower speeds work. Which is like admitting that burned cd-rs don't work well. If the drives didn't have a problem reading them, it wouldn't matter what speed they were burned at. I can burn DVDs at full speed, and they read fine..... in newer hardware.
I am not trying to argue, I didn't buy into it much eigther. But I found out the hard way. The question is, do you have the $$$ to cover your ass if we are right?

COUNT SMRIFNACK

04-20-2008, 11:09 PM

So, what brands of CD-Rs are considered the best?

Here...
http://www.caloptic.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?product=DCDR80&detail=yes

Ed Oscuro

04-20-2008, 11:37 PM

Any mechanical component is going to wear out eventually. Some lasers have burned out (remember the PS2 slim at launch?), but the ultimate issue is having the mechanical stuff wear out.

The amount of laser light being emitted should always remain constant in a read-only CD drive system. The light is only intensified on CD writers.

People do manufacture lasers and pickups, and you can probably replace your failing components (I know you can in the case of a TG-16 Duo).

I will point out that nobody knows (as far as I can tell) how many extra reads are needed per CD-R; another point is that various CD-Rs behave differently - some will have a higher read success rate than others on any given hardware.

I bet that if you double the number of reads needed to read a CD-R that you're shortening the lifespan of the system by slightly more than half the normal rate, as I assume the motor will be engaged more than usual.

However, how can you tell how many reads are needed? You can't. I think it's safe to assume that the number is far less than double in most cases - that'd probably be experienced as extreme loading slowness, and depending on the game stutters in gameplay and content loading.

COUNT SMRIFNACK

04-21-2008, 12:20 AM

I got a batch of cd-rs from a guy I totally trust. He tested them in his Duo and they worked. I got them and they wouldn't read on my TG CD. So I copied one at the slowest speed my burner would allow, and then tried that disc. That is when all hell broke loose in Turbo Laser Land.

The point is, if you wanna try it, then try it. I'm not saying it WILL hurt your cd's laser unit, just that it CAN.

williewonka2k1

04-21-2008, 12:28 AM

stop being bothered by such TRIVIAL BULLSHIT. Life is short. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it breaks, by a new one!!!! IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!! Play the game and have fun.

Ed Oscuro

04-21-2008, 12:33 AM

The point is, if you wanna try it, then try it. I'm not saying it WILL hurt your cd's laser unit, just that it CAN.
Discs usually don't harm the laser (I have a slight problem because I don't know if your LASER died, or the motor part of the laser assembly). The laser harms itself!

Why is this point important?

The most a CD-R will do is cause the system to attempt another read. If there is something horribly wrong with it, I suppose it could somehow theoretically impact the laser, but that's incredibly unlikely.

It's more likely that the surface isn't reflective enough so the laser's reflection isn't read correctly.

It's also possible that the CD-R is written incorrectly in a format that the drive simply isn't meant for - but I'm not knowledgeable at all on this subject. All I know is that the PC-Engine used a "read by sector" technology, but I don't know if you could fail to write a CD image that fits this format. If you were writing a Turbo game in the BIN + WAV (or MP3) format, it might cause this problem...maybe.

The weight of the disc also could affect the drive; I've read an anecdote of a very heavy glass master being used by a Lucasarts team in a cheap Fujitsu drive needing hundreds attempted drive reads (they were testing a FM Towns game).

So I suppose disc weight will be a factor, but I don't think this varies widely from disc to disk. Perhaps some soul can weigh a whole bunch of discs to compare?

In any case, I think your system just picked that moment to die. Did that particular CD-R hurt it significantly more than a real Turbo game would have? I doubt it; I don't even see how it's possible when using modern media.

If it breaks, by a new one!!!! IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!!
It ain't like that with old systems that haven't been produced in over ten years.

Richter Belmount

04-21-2008, 12:35 AM

stop being bothered by such TRIVIAL BULLSHIT. Life is short. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it breaks, by a new one!!!! IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!! Play the game and have fun.

this man has no idea what hes talking about do not be decieved! listen to me instead ,

thetoxicone

04-21-2008, 01:04 AM

Also, you say burning at the slower speeds work. Which is like admitting that burned cd-rs don't work well. If the drives didn't have a problem reading them, it wouldn't matter what speed they were burned at. I can burn DVDs at full speed, and they read fine..... in newer hardware.

All I'm going to say is try writing your whole post again at 40 times the speed you wrote the original and just like a cd drive having additional troubles reading a quickly burned disc I bet I would have trouble reading your quickly written post. Quality is definately sacrificed when additional speed is desired.

Ed Oscuro

04-21-2008, 01:27 AM

All I'm going to say is try writing your whole post again at 40 times the speed you wrote the original and just like a cd drive having additional troubles reading a quickly burned disc I bet I would have trouble reading your quickly written post. Quality is definately sacrificed when additional speed is desired.
Haphazard analogies can be confusing.

When you burn a disc more quickly, the contrast between pits and reflective highlights is probably less than ideal because the laser hasn't had time to burn in as much as it would otherwise. Less contrast = more likely that the cd drive won't read the pattern correctly on a given try and will need to attempt another read. That's how I guess it works.

Incidentally, if one read fails it will simply have to try again; the probability that it will fail to read that section again should stay the same (I dunno if repeated reads heat up the disc enough to change its reflectivity, doubtful though)...which isn't good.

InsaneDavid

04-21-2008, 01:47 AM

I've broken down and downloaded a ROM of Snatcher, since it's unlikely I'll ever buy it soon (plus, I want to see if it's worth spending the money on). So now I have a question: I read last night (here, in fact) that playing CD-Rs on a TurboDuo/TG-CD will damage the lens--does the same hold true for the Sega CD?

The answer to your question: no. In fact most of the time a burned fresh CD-R will read smoother than a scratched up original that you just made the copy from. The one thing you need to watch out for with Sega CD images on the 'net is that some games such as Lunar: The Silver Star require the audio tracks to be exactly specific lengths that the program code is looking for. In other words reconverting a MP3/ISO into a BIN/WAV package will slightly change the audio makeup and affect the timing. Incorrect audio tracks in Lunar will cause the game to hang at the "Working Designs Presents" screen. In Snatcher incorrect audio will cause music and voices (that are audio files) to be out of sync with on screen motion. If you're downloading and want things to be in line, download the big smash with everything uncompressed.

But no, it won't cause any trouble. In fact the only problems I've had along those lines were with some of the Dreamcast CD-R bootlegs of retail games and it had nothing to do with the actual laser. The laser drive assembly would have to work harder since data would be in different locations on the burned CD-R than it would on the retail GD-ROM, that was all.

So, what brands of CD-Rs are considered the best?

As I said in this recent thread (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114983) on the topic...

Seriously though, I don't care how fast or great someone's computer is - just let it burn without other crap running in the background. Get up, go take a piss, come back and it'll be done. This goes double for compiling selfbooting Dreamcast images with DiscJuggler - don't even touch the mouse when doing that.

CD-R's made in Japan usually give better quality than their Taiwanese counterparts. TDK is alright but is usually a mixed bag. Memorex is generally crap. Maxell CD-R Pro are usually solid quality as is Verbatim. Imation media is decent but tends to be inconsistent, however it can be damn cheap (50 discs for $5.00 every now and then) for weekly backups of projects and things like that.

thetoxicone

04-21-2008, 01:49 AM

Haphazard analogies can be confusing.

I like my analogies that have no technical backing and can sometimes make no sense.

Cinder6

04-21-2008, 02:21 AM

Okay, I didn't expect such a heated discussion. I'll go ahead and burn the game, at low speed. Makes sense to me.

williewonka2k1

04-21-2008, 02:30 AM

In any case, these games deserve to be played and I would be obliged to help anyone out with the following as I have actual copies of these games...

I have Snatcher, Lunar 1 and 2, Vay Popful Mail and Monkey Island (all sega cd titles)

DefaultGen

04-21-2008, 02:53 AM

.....

Cryomancer

04-21-2008, 02:58 AM

Just don't download an iso/mp3 copy or something. /me fans the argument

But yeh, I'm with Flack on this. I've been burning stuff on my DC since DCs were getting cheap, and it still works perfectly fine. PERHAPS NEC somehow made inferior hardware, but I don't think it's gonna be a huge deal. I've played sega cd burns in my LaserActive, who wants to come tackle me out of the way before I insert the disc?

edit: seconded on the justifier comment.

SnowKitty

04-21-2008, 03:48 AM

williewonka2k1

04-21-2008, 12:18 PM

Yea me too for the whole 30 seconds of the game where you need a justifier.

G-Boobie

04-21-2008, 02:06 PM

[...]
The point is, if you wanna try it, then try it. I'm not saying it WILL hurt your cd's laser unit, just that it CAN.

No, the point is, it CAN'T.

Bah. Tell you what. Get an engineering degree and figure it out yourself. Better yet and more likely, take the hour that you would have wasted trying to badly argue your point in this thread, and do some goddamn research on how your optical media actually works.

Just saying.

Richter Belmount

04-21-2008, 02:27 PM

No, the point is, it CAN'T.

Bah. Tell you what. Get an engineering degree and figure it out yourself. Better yet and more likely, take the hour that you would have wasted trying to badly argue your point in this thread, and do some goddamn research on how your optical media actually works.

Just saying.

Everything you learn at school is from Liars!

Necrosaro420

04-23-2008, 12:30 PM

The only thing that is going to damage a lens is if the disk itself touches it. The lens just simply will not read the game, its not going to damage the lens.

MrSparkle

04-23-2008, 01:36 PM

well if you just look at the prices and assume the danger is real this is an easy question to answer. snatcher goes for around $150 or so, sega cd units can be had for 20-30 a pop. Its cheaper to burn this game and ruin your drive trying it out and buy a replacement than it would be to buy snatcher and find out you hate it. i personally played a bit of snatcher on a burned cd and found that it didnt really real me in, and hey guess what it didnt even break my sega-cd.

Chuplayer

04-23-2008, 06:53 PM

I have never heard of a drive increasing its laser power in response to its inability to read a disc. Pardon me if I say poppycock.

There was a version of the PS2 Slim where, in Sony's infinite wisdom of cutting costs, they removed the voltage limiter to the laser. Insert any used game from Gamestop into the system, and watch your system go up in smoke.

Cryomancer

04-23-2008, 07:11 PM

...

not the newer version i hope?

Leo_A

04-23-2008, 07:14 PM

There was a version of the PS2 Slim where, in Sony's infinite wisdom of cutting costs, they removed the voltage limiter to the laser. Insert any used game from Gamestop into the system, and watch your system go up in smoke.

I've played many used PSOne and PS2 titles on my launch PS2 slim with zero issues. I don't believe it.

Richter Belmount

04-23-2008, 07:15 PM

I've played many used PSOne and PS2 titles on my launch PS2 slim with zero issues. I don't believe it.

So my ps2 is going to smoke and blow up if I start playing games on it?

Chuplayer

04-23-2008, 07:39 PM

I've played many used PSOne and PS2 titles on my launch PS2 slim with zero issues. I don't believe it.

I don't think it was the launch PS2 slim. I think it came later.

Jorpho

04-23-2008, 08:14 PM

While I can't say I am much of an authority on the matter, I rather doubt that you can just keep putting more and more electricity through a laser diode and have the resulting laser get stronger and stronger - certainly not for any length of time, and certainly not without putting the diode out of comission.

alexkidd2000

04-23-2008, 09:29 PM

Wow I am amazed at the ignorance of some of you. I never would have guessed it on this forum. Blank media most definitely stress cd/dvd lasers. The explanation above about the laser intensity and diode information was correct. Some systems seem to have better lasers that do not wear out easily using blanks (Dreamcast). Some systems have terrible lasers or circuitry and will wear out wayyyyy faster using blanks (PS2 especially the V12!!!!)

Chuplayer

04-23-2008, 09:59 PM

Leo_A

04-23-2008, 10:58 PM

I've even played burned DVD-R's with zero issues on my PS2 for tv series that aren't available on commercial DVD's, since my standalone player is going up. PS2 slims, at least the launch model, seem to be very durable and handles playing various disc well.

Iron Draggon

04-24-2008, 06:43 AM

You speak the truth. In fact, one time, not only did my PSX burn through and damage the other side of the drive- it burned a hole through the top of the CD door and left a small dot in the faux-wood grain of my entertainment center.

sure it did... and the same thing happened to everyone who ever did the swap trick... and to everyone who ever forgot to put a disc in the drive before turning it on... so when the laser tried to read the missing disc, it burned a hole through all kinds of shit, instead of simply saying that the drive didn't detect a disc, and therefore there was nothing for the laser to read... I sincerely hope that your post was just an attempt to BS the easily BS'ed... I can't believe how retarded some of these posts are... if any of all the BS in this thread was true, then tons of us would've had the exact same problems with our CD players many years ago... think about it... burned music discs are recorded on CDR's too... and those burned discs are played in CDROM drives... but have you ever heard of a burned disc damaging a CD player? NO! because it doesn't fucking happen! a drive may fail to read a disc, but that's it... and it's not gonna damage the disc or the drive if it does fail... it's just not gonna read the disc... and if the laser gets stuck on trying to read the same part of a disc over and over again, the only thing that's gonna happen is the game is just gonna hang in an endless loop on that part... it's not gonna damage shit... and if you don't believe me, then obviously you've never had a music disc get stuck in one place, and heard the result... or you've never had a movie disc get stuck in one place, and seen the result... nor are you aware that sometimes what causes the result in both of those cases is the reflective part of the data layer is entirely missing in that spot, which means that the laser is reaching a point where it is actually shining all the way through the disc, and onto the other side of the drive, and it's doing that over and over again as it goes back to re-read the part just before that spot, in an attempt to continue on beyond that spot... so if any statements about the lasers in ROM drives burning holes through discs and then continuing on to burn holes through other stuff were true, we would've heard of a ton of people who got burned by the laser in a ROM drive by now... but we haven't heard of any stories like that, cause the lasers found in ROM drives are extremely low powered lasers, like those found in laser pointers... they are strong enough to burn holes in your eyes, if you look directly into them long enough, but they're not strong enough to burn holes in anything else... if they were, they never would've been approved for home use... cause we all know we'd all be burning holes in all kinds of stuff, if we ever had a laser that was powerful enough to burn a hole in anything!

TheDomesticInstitution

04-24-2008, 09:08 AM

I sincerely hope that your post was just an attempt to BS the easily BS'ed...

Finally. It took me like 15 minutes to make all that shit up. I thought it was pretty obvious it was bullshit. It was expanding on the intentional silliness of this post (which I thought was a pretty clever post):

All this is true. But there is even worse that can happen when using a CD-R. A poor quality CD-R not only causes the Drive to increase the power of the laser, but it also has to re-read the same data sometimes because it didn't get it all the first time. Couple that with the increase in laser power and you can actually burn right through the disc and damage the drive on the other side.

Play it safe. Use only high quality, super reflective CD-R media. Even though only a few companies actually produce CD-Rs, the quality can be affected by rebranding!

It's been a while since I've seen so much horseshit all dressed up and prancin' 'round like it was the truth- in this here thread.

FABombjoy

04-24-2008, 12:14 PM

I remember when we adjusted laser strength by hand.

When did all these old consoles evolve & start adjusting their own lasers?

Icarus Moonsight

04-25-2008, 02:07 AM

sure it did... and the same thing happened to everyone who ever did the swap trick... and to everyone who ever forgot to put a disc in the drive before turning it on... so when the laser tried to read the missing disc, it burned a hole through all kinds of shit, instead of simply saying that the drive didn't detect a disc, and therefore there was nothing for the laser to read... I sincerely hope that your post was just an attempt to BS the easily BS'ed... I can't believe how retarded some of these posts are... if any of all the BS in this thread was true, then tons of us would've had the exact same problems with our CD players many years ago... think about it... burned music discs are recorded on CDR's too... and those burned discs are played in CDROM drives... but have you ever heard of a burned disc damaging a CD player? NO! because it doesn't fucking happen! a drive may fail to read a disc, but that's it... and it's not gonna damage the disc or the drive if it does fail... it's just not gonna read the disc... and if the laser gets stuck on trying to read the same part of a disc over and over again, the only thing that's gonna happen is the game is just gonna hang in an endless loop on that part... it's not gonna damage shit... and if you don't believe me, then obviously you've never had a music disc get stuck in one place, and heard the result... or you've never had a movie disc get stuck in one place, and seen the result... nor are you aware that sometimes what causes the result in both of those cases is the reflective part of the data layer is entirely missing in that spot, which means that the laser is reaching a point where it is actually shining all the way through the disc, and onto the other side of the drive, and it's doing that over and over again as it goes back to re-read the part just before that spot, in an attempt to continue on beyond that spot... so if any statements about the lasers in ROM drives burning holes through discs and then continuing on to burn holes through other stuff were true, we would've heard of a ton of people who got burned by the laser in a ROM drive by now... but we haven't heard of any stories like that, cause the lasers found in ROM drives are extremely low powered lasers, like those found in laser pointers... they are strong enough to burn holes in your eyes, if you look directly into them long enough, but they're not strong enough to burn holes in anything else... if they were, they never would've been approved for home use... cause we all know we'd all be burning holes in all kinds of stuff, if we ever had a laser that was powerful enough to burn a hole in anything!

OMG! When I get home I'm gonna open my Saturn lid and turn that puppy on and try to open a wormhole. If y'all don't hear from me for awhile, fear not, for I've found a planet of green women untainted by Captain Kirk. ;)

I remember when we adjusted laser strength by hand.

When did all these old consoles evolve & start adjusting their own lasers?

Auto-pot adjustment is a handy evolved trait. But first, your console has to exercise it's free will to make said adjustments. LOL