Can a Dreamcast Laser be truely replaced?

[DewIT]

Ok I have bought numerous optical pickups that say they are compatible with the Sega Dreamcast. These were off of Ebay. The optical intensity of a Dreamcast laser must be greater than the one's sold on ebay. I put the ebay laser as close to the cd as I could. Tried loading House of the Dead 2, which is a GDROM game and not a CDR game. I tweaked the laser so much that it almost wanted to load the game, but it would crap out and I think it was when it was trying to read a certain area on the GDROM disc. I keep reading that other people have had success with using a replacement laser pickup they bought off of ebay. Has anyone had any success getting these "compatible" laser pickup to work in a dreamcast?

[Ben]

Ok I have bought numerous optical pickups that say they are compatible with the Sega Dreamcast. These were off of Ebay. The optical intensity of a Dreamcast laser must be greater than the one's sold on ebay. I put the ebay laser as close to the cd as I could. Tried loading House of the Dead 2, which is a GDROM game and not a CDR game. I tweaked the laser so much that it almost wanted to load the game, but it would crap out and I think it was when it was trying to read a certain area on the GDROM disc. I keep reading that other people have had success with using a replacement laser pickup they bought off of ebay. Has anyone had any success getting these "compatible" laser pickup to work in a dreamcast?

I don't know if this is the answer you want, but I had the same problem in the mid-2000's. I purchased a couple of replacements for a black Sega Sports model DC, and ran into the exact problem (I think I paid something like $50 for them). Anyway, the solution I came to was to just buy another DC to replace that one, since they sell so cheap used.

Also, on a side note, were you playing burned games on it? The reason I ask is that I have owned quite a few DC's, and my Japanese models (a red Biohazard edition and Sakura Taisen model) are working perfectly to this day despite very heavy usage. The thing is, both are only used to play legit DC gd-roms (I use them for my import games). I have owned several American DCs that I played burned/homebrew games on, and the laser has failed on all but one of them. I don't claim to know enough about the hardware to say if this is 100% true, but I have read that burning games on discs that aren't actual GD-R's` causes the data to be read differently by the laser (in a back and forth, jerking motion) and leads to excessive wear (and has also earned the laser a bad reputation for shoddy quality when it's really being caused by burned discs). There is a used game store near me that will sell white, faded out DCs for $30, so I just replace my US ones as they die off since it's more cost effective than fixing them.

Hopefully someone here who really knows the DC hardware can clear up if that is an urban legend or not, I can only say that my experience seems to back it up.

[DewIT]

Nope didn't answer my question. I have played backups on the dc. I put the dc away for years and came back to try it. Tweaked the laser and got it working for awhile and then it crapped out on me. I know dc's are cheap on ebay. But that doesn't address the problem of replacing a laser pickup, with another one purchased on ebay. My question is it possible to get a laser pickup that is compatible with the dc too work correctly on a dc? From my trial and error it hasn't worked for me.

[ded srs]

My sister had a Dreamcast that had a bad laser. It worked fine for the first day. I burned a CD with various sonic games on it and the system played that just fine in addition to "legit" games like Jet Grind Radio. Then the next day it stopped reading anything, burned or otherwise. We never did find a solution that would fix it. She bought a new one and I wasn't allowed to burn anymore games for it.

lol, maybe not a helpful post. What I'm saying is, I've seen a similar thing happen. Buying a new one in my research seems like the only certain solution. But I'm no expert either.

[s8n]

i dont know if its possible with Dreamcast lasers , but with Gamecube and PSX you can ' realign ' the laser eye.


simply you need to expose the laser eye usually done by removing some tiny screws and clips.

after that you get a small screwdriver and press around the laser eye ( make you you dont touch or scratch the eye )

when done reassemble and test



try it out and get back to us...........

[bacardipr05]

Theres some threads over at Assembler games regarding this. I didnt read all of them but some have the same issues as you have. You may want to read some to solve your solution. I only briefly scanned the threads. I know after a while my dreamcast launch model started having problems reading burnt games. I adjusted the laser and this helped some. I have 3 Dreamcast and one of them absolutely loves playing CD-R's and loads them 98% of the time with no problems. Funny thing is the model that some in past say arent MIL compatible. Buying a used 12 yo Dreamcast can be iffy at times so i certainly understand you wanting to try and replace it yourself. Good luck hopefully you can reach a resolution would like to know.