My Dragon Force freezes cause of scratches---ahhh help!

[agbulls]

My copy of Dragon Force was buffed out today by a music/video store who has a professional buffing service. The girl who did it claimed that they never can get the scratches near the center of the disc. Indeed, upon inspection I noticed the disc looked great besides near the center.

Low and behold it now loads (it didn't load before) but freezes to the Saturn's boot up screen all the time. I just can't play it. So, is this true? Do professional scratch removal buffers not actually remove scratches near the middle?

I will obviously have to get this done somewhere --by someone else-- a second time. However, I know that doing this multiple times could potentially destroy the disc--and this is a game I really want to play. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? What are the odds of destroying the disc on a second buff?:?

[staxx]

It depends if they sanded the CD down or just buffed it with some buffing solution. If it is a very deep scratch then that is going be very hard to get out. You should try Game Crazy if there is one close by and ask them to look at the CD and decide. They can do a 15 sec sanding and 1 min buffing if the disc is really bad. The worst scratch is on the label itself, i.e. the top. Hold the CD upto a strong light and see if you can see holes. If you can then buffing will most likely won't fix a thing. I hope this helps.

[agbulls]

It depends if they sanded the CD down or just buffed it with some buffing solution. If it is a very deep scratch then that is going be very hard to get out. You should try Game Crazy if there is one close by and ask them to look at the CD and decide. They can do a 15 sec sanding and 1 min buffing if the disc is really bad. The worst scratch is on the label itself, i.e. the top. Hold the CD upto a strong light and see if you can see holes. If you can then buffing will most likely won't fix a thing. I hope this helps.

Do all Gamecrazy stores do this service? The scratches near the middle are definetly not deep. The girl put a solution on the disc and then put it in a machine, then wipped it off.

[staxx]

Well as far as I know in the West Coast they do, no harm in calling them up and checking it out.

[agbulls]

All buffed! Thanks for the advice. The game still has issues loading up--but its not freezing now once I get it going. Now I have to determine if my save will be lost when i turn the system off!!!

[udisi]

A little off topic but I've found saturns are the most non-picky systems about scatches. I've put some UGLY discs in my system and they'd boot up to my surprise. I was wondering how bad your DF had to look to not work :)

[agbulls]

Whats really weird is that it looks REALLY REALLY good. In fact, it just fucking froze on me. AHHHHHHHH. Does a saturn read games from the inside or outside first? It is really random when it freezes.

[staxx]

The Saturn will read games like any other CD. Now when you buffed it at Game Crazy, did they sand it? Look at the CD at a bright light and see if there are any holes. Hold the CD at an angle to a light source and see if there are any visible scratches and are there any visible scratches looking directly (not at an angle) at the back of the CD.

[mailman187666]

if worse comes to worse and your dragon force won't work, I'd try selling it as disk only on e-bay but state that it freezes but look like it can be buffed out, then use that money towards another disk only auction, I picked up a disk only for $32 shipped.

[agbulls]

The Saturn will read games like any other CD. Now when you buffed it at Game Crazy, did they sand it? Look at the CD at a bright light and see if there are any holes. Hold the CD at an angle to a light source and see if there are any visible scratches and are there any visible scratches looking directly (not at an angle) at the back of the CD.

I'm almost positive he did sand it. He put liquid on it, and then put it in their machine for a good minute or more. I've looked at a bright light and just don't see any scratches that are really noticeable besides the bunch near the middle that are better now, but still there.

I have had the disc buffed twice now. Considering I'm still having issues, is there any reason not to try a third time? The worse that would happen is that I totally kill the disc, right? Have you guys ever had a game actually finally work after multiple sands?

I suppose I could ebay just the disc. But, in this situation, what is really the best way to do this? The little time I spent with the game I really enjoyed it
:( All I want to do is have a chance to play it. Maybe someone wants to trade their Dragon Force disc for a complete copy of Guardian Heroes?

[cyberfluxor]

Try picking up some of that goo stuff that smooths out surfaces. I've seen store owners use it around here and rids all the fine-line scratches and helps reduce the larger ones. Not sure how it works but sometimes it'll turn a non-working game into a decent one.

[agbulls]

Try picking up some of that goo stuff that smooths out surfaces. I've seen store owners use it around here and rids all the fine-line scratches and helps reduce the larger ones. Not sure how it works but sometimes it'll turn a non-working game into a decent one.

Hmm. I guess this is worth a try. Do they sell this at EB/GS?

[staxx]

If they did Sand the CD, then they would have used a pad that has a very fine sand paper on it. The CD is then buffed out using a liquid. It sounds like they only buffed the CD and did not sanded the layer. You will know if they sanded the CD by them replacing the sanding pad with the buffing pad.

[agbulls]

If they did Sand the CD, then they would have used a pad that has a very fine sand paper on it. The CD is then buffed out using a liquid. It sounds like they only buffed the CD and did not sanded the layer. You will know if they sanded the CD by them replacing the sanding pad with the buffing pad.

So what do you recommend? Should I go back to GameCrazy and have them buff it again and make sure they sand it? Like I said, the bad part of the disc is near the center ring.

[mailman187666]

PM sent

[agbulls]

PM replied to :)

[staxx]

Yeah I would go back

[agbulls]

What about using the goo stuff? I just got some from a friend at GS today for nothing. Is this worth trying or will it potentially make things worse?