Dreamcast won't play discs or boot with disc in

[risshuu]

Bought a for parts Dreamcast from eBay that was listed as not being able to play discs. Bought a clone GDemu to put in it.

During the little bit of testing I did before installing the GDemu (cleaned the laser, etc...), it seemed that it would not boot at all (stuck on Dreamcast logo screen) with a disc in when turning on the power. It also would not recognize discs after having booted up. I am currently seeing the same issue with the GDemu I put in. It will just sit at the Dreamcast logo screen. I have not done any of the power mods for the system, yet, but I believe they are not required to make it work, just to keep it cooler.

Anybody familiar with this issue?

[deluxux]

How did you setup the SD card?
Could be a failing PSU, lots of "dead" GD-ROM drives are revived with a new PSU.

[Lew3030]

Hello , I bought a for parts Dreamcast too and it had a problem with the mother board or something because the display was almost blue. So I just took out the parts I needed and put it into my older Dreamcast. My older Dreamcast also seems to work a lot better after swapping out the PSU. I have the old PSU in there right now though, it just started working again.

[risshuu]

How did you setup the SD card?
Could be a failing PSU, lots of "dead" GD-ROM drives are revived with a new PSU.

I used GDMENUCardManager. I would think that it would still boot past the Dreamcast logo if there was an issue with the card.

Would you all think that it would still be a power issue if the disc spins? It spins and the laser moves, but doesn't boot all the way if the disc is in when powering on and doesn't load the disc after powering on.

The only thing I can think of is maybe something on the mother board, but not sure where to start looking and not sure how to get another PSU besides just buying yet another Dreamcast.

[MondoGecko]

I would focus on the PSU for now, this sounds like a power issue. You can find Dreamcast PSUs on eBay. Have you tried cleaning the pins connecting to your PSU? I know that can solve power related and disc drive related problems. Also tinning the pins with fresh solder can help. Look at the capacitors on the PSU and see if any of them are bulging or leaking on the board. Failing capacitors can potentially cause issues like this.

[risshuu]

I didn't see any obvious capacitor issues, but I will check the pins/capacitors/solder and update once done.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.