dreamcast won't read discs

[drewbrim]

My dreamcast powers up and the disc spins and then the menu screen with the settings, vmu, play, etc... comes up and asks me to insert a game. If I open the lid and close it again the message "please wait while reading the disc comes up" and then it goes back to the menu. Any Ideas? I would appreciate it.

[jonjandran]

Bad disc, or bad laser....

[sirgeoph]

take a q-tip, put some lgihter fluid on it, and LIGHTLY swab the lense... the lighter fluid should evaporate quickly. when the laser's dry, give it another shot.

but in all reality, it's probably a bad laser.

[cessnaace]

:/ I had this same problem when I picked my first one up on the day of launch (I preordered). I took it back to EB, and they replaced it. Some of the first batch of units had this problem with all discs.

Since then the problem has reoccured a couple of times. Cleaning the disc, somethimes repeatly, fixes the problem for me. Most discs work fine.

My quess, if it happens frequently, with many different discs, all of which you have cleaned, well: weak laser (I have several LaserDisc players. When the laser has become weak enough the player will have trouple with some discs).

[soniko_karuto]

my dreamcast has done this to me several times, it suddenly stops reading everything.

The solution is always opening it, looking at it, kinda lift the whole cd reading unit/move the laser a little, close it again, and it works!

[cessnaace]

My Dreamcast hasn't been hooked up since I bought my GameCube, but it was working ok when last used. As I said, it would sometimes give me problems, but cleaning the disc in question usually worked. When it didn't I would play another disc, then go back to the one causing problems. This usually worked, although I can't begin to tell you why.

One more comment on this. When the system launched this was a common complaint. Many mags, like EGM, reported this problem. EB, as I said, replaced mine, no questions asked. This is not a singular problem when a system launches. The early PlayStation had problems overheating. Sony's response. "Turn it off and give it a rest." The Xbox had problems with it's harddrive, so Microsoft changed harddrive suppliers. The Xbox also has power supply issues. My brothers' unit blew up (well, the power supply did). At least Sega replaced all reported defective units, unlike Sony! "Give it rest" indeed!!!

[drewbrim]

Thanks for everybody's help/suggestions, I pretty much tried everyone's suggestions. But the winner was....

my dreamcast has done this to me several times, it suddenly stops reading everything.

The solution is always opening it, looking at it, kinda lift the whole cd reading unit/move the laser a little, close it again, and it works!

Amazingly after I opened the case, picked up the laser and set it back down it worked like a charm. Been going strong since last Friday.

Thanks again

[soniko_karuto]

Thanks for everybody's help/suggestions, I pretty much tried everyone's suggestions. But the winner was....

my dreamcast has done this to me several times, it suddenly stops reading everything.

The solution is always opening it, looking at it, kinda lift the whole cd reading unit/move the laser a little, close it again, and it works!

Amazingly after I opened the case, picked up the laser and set it back down it worked like a charm. Been going strong since last Friday.

Thanks again

omg, lol, i thought that only my dc was weird. Anyway, glad i could help you