Dreamcast-Talk.com

hazmorgan wrote:thanks for the help guys thought I'd give quick update:
- Tried a new sandisk ultra 32gb card
- PSU is a replacement dreampsu, checked the pins and they looked clean
- not sure overheating is an issue, directed a fan at the open dreamcast and crazy taxi, giga wing 2 and DOA 2 all start having audio issues before black screening around the same time as usual.
- Had already reseated the GDEMU but did it again for sanitys sake and no luck there either

Just Seems weird that I can run some games fine for hours and others will always have the same issues despite trying ROMs from different locations and regions (I always use GDROMS)

Have you tried putting the original psu back in? I’ve heard of people having issues like this with a dream psu

I suspect the problem is the Sega video chip on the motherboard. Do you know if the capacitors were replaced on the motherboard? Sometimes reflowing the solder of ic's with a heat gun can fix the issue.

I had similar problems with my IDE mod.
What helped for me, was contact spray on the socket where the GD-Rom drive/GDEmu plugs into. (The white one on the mainboard.
Now there is a good connection and its stable as a rock.

Thanks guys will probably try these in order of ease.

MastaG wrote:I had similar problems with my IDE mod.
What helped for me, was contact spray on the socket where the GD-Rom drive/GDEmu plugs into. (The white one on the mainboard.
Now there is a good connection and its stable as a rock.

It doesn't seem dirty but worth trying this I think
Anything I should know before using the spray? how much to use etc

hazmorgan wrote:Thanks guys will probably try these in order of ease.

MastaG wrote:I had similar problems with my IDE mod.
What helped for me, was contact spray on the socket where the GD-Rom drive/GDEmu plugs into. (The white one on the mainboard.
Now there is a good connection and its stable as a rock.

It doesn't seem dirty but worth trying this I think
Anything I should know before using the spray? how much to use etc

I used a can of WD40 Contact spray, just a very tiny spray into the connector on the mainboard.
You can also spray the pins where the power supply plugs onto.
For me it helped out a lot.

This is what my GDEMU.INI looks like:

open_time = 2000
detect_time = 2000
reset_goto = 1
image_tests = 0

djhazardous wrote:This is what my GDEMU.INI looks like:

open_time = 2000
detect_time = 2000
reset_goto = 1
image_tests = 0

mine is:

open_time = 150
detect_time = 150
reset_goto = 1
image_tests = 0

Will having longer open and detect times help here? I'm not sure what these actually do haha

I think I have the open_time and detect_time set to 2000 to get around D2 freezing at disc swap events and the image_test = 0 is because some modified games (like japanese_cake's Headhunter mod) don't work with it set to 1.

Can you reinstall the GD-ROM and try the same games that were freezing? I'd try that to rule out anything else in the DC being the issue.

Power supplies are often the culprit for freezing and resetting the Dreamcast. This guide helped me with my Dreamcast resetting mid-game, specifically bending/pushing the pins but as you have a DreamPSU I would try reinstalling the original PSU first and test it, if it's still freezing/resetting I would then try reinstalling the GD-ROM and test again.

hazmorgan wrote:Will having longer open and detect times help here? I'm not sure what these actually do haha

Default open/detect time is 250ms per GDEMU operation page (https://gdemu.wordpress.com/operation/gdemu-operation/).

Setting to 150ms is preferred by some so that disc art appears quicker in GDmenu. However, smaller intervals can cause in-game disc-swap issues. That said, I use 250ms and have for years with no issues.

galaxygod wrote:

hazmorgan wrote:thanks for the help guys thought I'd give quick update:
- Tried a new sandisk ultra 32gb card
- PSU is a replacement dreampsu, checked the pins and they looked clean
- not sure overheating is an issue, directed a fan at the open dreamcast and crazy taxi, giga wing 2 and DOA 2 all start having audio issues before black screening around the same time as usual.
- Had already reseated the GDEMU but did it again for sanitys sake and no luck there either

Just Seems weird that I can run some games fine for hours and others will always have the same issues despite trying ROMs from different locations and regions (I always use GDROMS)

Have you tried putting the original psu back in? I’ve heard of people having issues like this with a dream psu

Finally got round to switching out for a new PSU! Roms I was having trouble with appear to be be working fine now!

Thanks for the help