Worse disc read performance over time - what am I missing???

[John Travoltage]

I am at the end of my rope with this problem: Over a short period of time, the disc drive in my console starts to have more and more trouble reading game discs until it gets to a point that it can no longer read data reliably and I have to leave the console off for a while for it to recover. Different games seemingly stop working at different times in relation to each other, and in particular my far from pristine copy of Speed Devils somehow keeps running long after all the other games in my collection stop working. Games burned to CD-R generally fare better than GD-ROMs, but some titles like Daytona USA still flame out; music CDs will play perfectly.

Here's a list of what I've tried to fix the problem:

• Replacing the capacitors on the drive controller board
• Replacing the PSU with a recapped OEM part
• Cleaning the power supply pins
• Adjusting the drive pot

Of these, only adjusting the pot has helped, and even then it just holds off the inevitable for a while longer. (Turning the console sideways also helps, but it again just delays the inevitable.) I'm all out of ideas, so... what am I missing?

[redjeff76]

sounds like the drive is at the end of it's life and it is time to look into buying a GDEMU (about $50 on AliExpress & just a screwdriver to install). If you are hell bent on keeping a GDROM drive, then perhaps look into buying a replacement on Ebay. But yeah, sounds like those are your only 2 options now.

[onlycodered]

If you want to keep playing discs, look specifically for a replacement GD-ROM drive that has been recapped (had it’s capacitors replaced).

[John Travoltage]

Quick update: I'm now playing my very last card - I bought a second disc drive on eBay (the very cheapest one, even!) with the express intent of taking its laser as a replacement part. If that - or even replacing that drive's control board with the one I have now - still won't do it, it's time for me to give up on discs, at least for now. (I also tried applying new grease to the rails the laser moves on, but all that accomplished was making the drive sound a lot crunchier when the console isn't on its side - how that works is truly beyond me.)

[John Travoltage]

The replacement drive arrived today, and it turns out there's more to this conundrum than meets the eye - as it happens, the new drive worked great as-is after blowing some compressed air into the leaf switch... for a few minutes, at which point the previous problem returned, which suggests to me that the drive was never the problem! So, I have to ask it again: what am I missing?

[edenist]

Bit of an out there one.... but what's the airflow like through the case? Is the PSU [or another component] heating up too much causing components to either change voltages/behavior etc?

[OlivusPrime]

Something I would suggest is to avoid switching between genuine GD-ROMs and CD-Rs for a while.

A few months ago, my Saturn started to have disc reading problems after I had used a couple of particularly bad leftover CD-Rs. I had assumed the discs had screwed up the laser particularly badly, so I was very much prepared to replace the laser as you have done.

Long story short - after much investigating, it turned out to be the modchip inside the console that was causing issues, not the laser. The console did have issues reading discs during all of this, which was exacerbated by trying to use (decent) CD-Rs, but it pretty much went away entirely once I disconnected the modchip and just stuck with genuine CDs for a while. Now it can read decent CD-Rs again no problem. It seems like the bad CD-Rs had maybe thrown something out of alignment, and the console just had to readjust again? Who knows.

It was a very odd scenario, and chances are it's not related in any way to your issue, but if you're at wit's end, I'd make the recommendation to try this nevertheless.

[John Travoltage]

I don't think that's it - I replaced the whole entire GD-ROM unit, control board and all, and the problem is still here. In any case, I've bought a set of replacement capacitors for the motherboard and I am currently waiting on them to arrive. (Frankly I'm just winging it at this point, as I seem to be the only person on the planet who has ever had this specific problem and not resolved it with anything I've tried already.)

[John Travoltage]

Update: The replacement caps have not shown up yet (the first set got eaten by the postal system and the guy had to send me another one... it's a whole thing), but in the meantime a new symptom has emerged - if I can manage to run one of the games I have for long enough past the point it starts having problems, the system resets itself altogether. I haven't seen this happen with games that are generally more resistant to this particular problem to begin with, and many completely break down before this point anyways, but I still think it bears mentioning before the caps finally arrive and I'm able to take my console out for maintenance again.

[deluxux]

Sounds like a PSU issue to me, try and get one of those Pico's or a DreamPSU