Unscratched Gamecube disks not working

[muhanad]

*Wasn't sure where to post this, so if it's in the wrong category please move it*

Hey guys, I bought 2 gamecube games from a thrift store (Viewtiful Joe and Yu-Gi-Oh) and when I tested them out neither worked.

Neither game has any significant scratches, but they have security stickers on them.



Do the stickers have anything to do with the game not working?

Thanks!

[flojocabron]

the obvious thing I see is that they're rentals.

Maybe they dont work because of this.

If its a rental store, then most likely they had resurfacing products. Or that big machine that takes away scratches.

Check the center of the disc to see any stains or off colors. Its the most obvious sign of
resurfacing.

You do know that sometimes people send crap stuff to thrift stores. They dont want to pay the fee to take it to the dump, so they do the next best thing.

donate

[muhanad]

I don't see any off colors or stains, but there isn't a single scratch on either game now that I look more closely, which probably does mean they were resurfaced.

Does resurfacing cause them not to work after a while?

[Fragems]

The stickers themselves shouldn't cause any problems. However if they have been resurfaced excessively or someone has tried to remove those stickers as appears to be the case with the "void" sticker on Viewtiful Joe then they could have easily fudged the games up.

Also if it is scratched up that could always be the problems there is no telling whether a game will play or not when it's scratched it all depends on the location of the scratch and the severity. The vast majority of the games that I have had which fail to read outright usually have a bad scratch towards the outer edge of the disc.

If they were resurfaced on a machine it will probably have a circular smear around the inner ring where the nut held it in place while it was being resurfaced. Another trick is putting the disc in UV Light(or just go outside on a sunny day) you will see a lot of scratches that you usually wouldn't in indirect or fluorescent light and even a resurfaced disc will usually have some extremely light scratches show up when you do this. If it's a lower end machine the light scratches will usually have a pattern to them.

[Hobie-wan]

The stickers themselves shouldn't cause any problems.

Actually that's incorrect. When a sticker is just off to one side of the disc, as opposed to the 'skin' type ones that covered the whole top, it unbalances the disc as it spins. The further out the imbalance is, the more the disc wobbles at speed. This means that GC discs will be less affected than larger discs, but if the laser assembly is a little tired it will have a harder time reading the data as it shakes.

Think of it like an unbalanced load in the washer when it is doing the spin dry. Late 90s and early 00s PC CD drives with the crazy 40X speeds were really noticeable if you put a badly balanced audio disc in as they spun up and buzzed or sounded like a jet engine firing up.

For the disc that's already had the sticker partially removed, dampen a soft junk cloth with some alcohol and carefully try to get most of the glue off without scrubbing and adding scratches. Even if you just get most of it off, it will help with the balance. Then hold it up to the light and make sure there are no pinholes or scratches shining light through the disc. If it looks ok, give it another try.

[muhanad]

Thanks for the help guys, I will see if I can figure something out using these tips.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Yeah resurfacing of gamecube discs, I'm told, are a bit more risky than a normal disc. Not totally sure on the accuracy of said statement, but I know for a fact that many rental places do resurface their discs regularly, even though they are still functional.

[CRTGAMER]

When a sticker is just off to one side of the disc, as opposed to the 'skin' type ones that covered the whole top, it unbalances the disc as it spins. The further out the imbalance is, the more the disc wobbles at speed. This means that GC discs will be less affected than larger discs, but if the laser assembly is a little tired it will have a harder time reading the data as it shakes.

For the disc that's already had the sticker partially removed, dampen a soft junk cloth with some alcohol and carefully try to get most of the glue off without scrubbing and adding scratches. Even if you just get most of it off, it will help with the balance. Then hold it up to the light and make sure there are no pinholes or scratches shining light through the disc. If it looks ok, give it another try.

For both of those discs try to remove the labels, but at a risk of pulling up the disc art and reflective layer of the data underneath. Unlike an entire "disc shield" protector these might be easier to remove, though still tricky due to that nasty foil sticker. As Hobie mentioned the discs are not balanced, worse since they only cover a sction og the disc. Try LIFTOFF 2 which is stronger then alcohol, I have had pretty good luck after letting it soak in for a while. While still wet scrape the label away with your fingernail.

Where is the picture of the Data side of the discs? Maybe first a good polish off of the scratches?

[muhanad]

I feel kind of stupid now, because I looked more closely at the discs in a couple different lights and I do see a few scratches, not many but there are a few. I couldn't really get a good picture showing them.

I'm gonna try to do what I can to clean them up, if that doesnt work I'll remove the stickers and let you know what happens.

Thanks

[BRIK]

I had a scratched up disk re-buffered once for a none-working disk. Even though it was completely clean afterwards, it still wouldn't work properly. I guess sometimes if the damage has been done, it's been done.