Dreamcast-Talk.com

Hello everyone! I´m from Argentina and I have a problem:
I bought 2 Dreamcast (one from Usa and the other from Europe I supposed, it has the blue logo intead of orange) with 4 controllers + 80 games around 1000 pesos (120 U$D) They have the controller port problem but was quicky fix. The thing is the main problem is that the laser on both of them are apparently dead, so I tried changing the USA DC first with a PC CD-ROM (LG CRD-8521B, I had to take out some plastic to make it fit in the DC drive) The laser works, I see the red laser poping out, but when I put a disc it just spins for 3 seconds and then stopped. Tried cleaning the lens, but didn´t work. Tried to change the laser ribbon just to be safe, and for one time the spindle start spinning for minutes but the laser just move with no red laser to be seen, tried do it with another flex ribbon but didnt work, not even with the one I just replaced! I then changed the GD drive spindle with a DVD one, and the same problem persist, just spins 3 seconds and then stops . Would you guys please help me out? I dont know what else to do

swap the PAL ribbon cable to USA dreamcast and see what happens

Now that you mention it, the Pal DC didnt come with the ribbon, the owner said it was broken. So I cant test it. Although, when I put a disc and try to read it, only in the Usa DC show the message "reading disc", while the Pal one just shows nothing. Is there a difference between the Pal and NTSC ribbon for the laser?

i would think the only differances would be the power suppy and bios boot chip, so no the ribbon cable should be the same

Last night I mess arround with the pot of another cdrom laser, and for a change, the spindlee works! Definitely it tries to read de cd, but to no avail. So I guess its the laser I used is the problem, but then again I dont know what to do, if I increased the pot, the spindle works but it doesnt read the game, if I decreased it, just spins for 3 seconds. I would have to find another cdrom to find out.