Dreamcast Help

[GameMasterGuy]

So I decided to boot up my Dreamcast today when something odd happened: It skipped the startup animation. It went straight to the last frame of it before the swirl and letters fade... but that was it. They never faded. It never booted up Sonic Adventure, the screen on the VMU never changed. It hadn't broken down (it was still sending the logo and letters to the TV just fine, the fan was in operation, and the power light was still on)... but it didn't load the disc. I tried again, no luck. I powered down and unplugged all the controllers (I heard that some sort of 3rd party jump pack can cause problems), but the same thing happened. I figured it was a faulty GD-ROM, removed it, and tried booting up the DC main menu... with no success.

The last time it was functioning was either A) When playing Sonic Adventure, until part of Tails' theme started playing and glitched up, playing the same note over and over again. I figured that a reboot would fix it and I'd try it again in the morning or B) With the screen turned off to test if the new VMU batteries worked (one of the two was from another device, and I wanted to see if it had enough of a charge). Speaking of which, the VMU *does* beep upon bootup to warn me about the batteries, if that makes a difference. Any suggestions as to what I can do, preferably without opening it up? The closest thing to a console mod I've done is sawing off the back off of an SNES Game Genie to play SFC games :/

[Reprise]

I could be wrong, but it sounds to me that your Dreamcast isn't detecting that the disc lid is closed. I only say this because if you boot the Dreamcast with the lid open, it does what you described ("skipped the startup animation. It went straight to the last frame of it before the swirl and letters fade... but that was it.")

[ExedExes]

So I decided to boot up my Dreamcast today when something odd happened: It skipped the startup animation. It went straight to the last frame of it before the swirl and letters fade... but that was it. They never faded. It never booted up Sonic Adventure, the screen on the VMU never changed. It hadn't broken down (it was still sending the logo and letters to the TV just fine, the fan was in operation, and the power light was still on)... but it didn't load the disc. I tried again, no luck. I powered down and unplugged all the controllers (I heard that some sort of 3rd party jump pack can cause problems), but the same thing happened. I figured it was a faulty GD-ROM, removed it, and tried booting up the DC main menu... with no success.

The last time it was functioning was either A) When playing Sonic Adventure, until part of Tails' theme started playing and glitched up, playing the same note over and over again. I figured that a reboot would fix it and I'd try it again in the morning or B) With the screen turned off to test if the new VMU batteries worked (one of the two was from another device, and I wanted to see if it had enough of a charge). Speaking of which, the VMU *does* beep upon bootup to warn me about the batteries, if that makes a difference. Any suggestions as to what I can do, preferably without opening it up? The closest thing to a console mod I've done is sawing off the back off of an SNES Game Genie to play SFC games :/

It didn't boot up to the BIOS screen/menu (as it does when the disc isn't detected)? I would get up close and LISTEN to the disc spinning and the drive to make sure that it is in fact still trying to make sense of the disc. If possible, if that screen comes up again, open the lid and at the menu close it again and make sure the message "Please wait while disc is being checked" appears.

[bacardipr05]

Ive searched around cant find anything on the problem the way you describe it. Do you happen to have a boot up disc around you can try? Im just curious if it will boot up with the disc or not. I hope someone come around and offers some insight.

[GameMasterGuy]

It's booted up the main menu when I've started it with the disc lid open before, it just stops once the logo and text appears now. I don't have a bootup disc, and like I said, it gets screwey before I get to the menu.

[GameMasterGuy]

So I decided to boot up my Dreamcast today when something odd happened: It skipped the startup animation. It went straight to the last frame of it before the swirl and letters fade... but that was it. They never faded. It never booted up Sonic Adventure, the screen on the VMU never changed. It hadn't broken down (it was still sending the logo and letters to the TV just fine, the fan was in operation, and the power light was still on)... but it didn't load the disc. I tried again, no luck. I powered down and unplugged all the controllers (I heard that some sort of 3rd party jump pack can cause problems), but the same thing happened. I figured it was a faulty GD-ROM, removed it, and tried booting up the DC main menu... with no success.

The last time it was functioning was either A) When playing Sonic Adventure, until part of Tails' theme started playing and glitched up, playing the same note over and over again. I figured that a reboot would fix it and I'd try it again in the morning or B) With the screen turned off to test if the new VMU batteries worked (one of the two was from another device, and I wanted to see if it had enough of a charge). Speaking of which, the VMU *does* beep upon bootup to warn me about the batteries, if that makes a difference. Any suggestions as to what I can do, preferably without opening it up? The closest thing to a console mod I've done is sawing off the back off of an SNES Game Genie to play SFC games :/

It didn't boot up to the BIOS screen/menu (as it does when the disc isn't detected)? I would get up close and LISTEN to the disc spinning and the drive to make sure that it is in fact still trying to make sense of the disc. If possible, if that screen comes up again, open the lid and at the menu close it again and make sure the message "Please wait while disc is being checked" appears.

I tried putting my ear up to it, all I hear is the fan. The disc reader doesn't seem to be going, but I'm assuming it wouldn't anyways unless it reached the main menu.

[ExedExes]

I tried putting my ear up to it, all I hear is the fan. The disc reader doesn't seem to be going, but I'm assuming it wouldn't anyways unless it reached the main menu.

If it cuts off to the DC logo with a disc in, it should be starting at least an attempt to read the disc. In fact, with a disc in, it should NOT be cutting off to the end of the logo unless the disc lid is open.

[GameMasterGuy]

But it should still go to the main menu of the console- that's what it did with the disc lid open before. Now it just does nothing once the logo appears.

[Jontendo]

Just curious if this is after it's been on for a while (heat related freeze-up maybe?)
On the plus side, they're very easy to open if you have to (even if just to blow some dust out).

Just a thought anyway...

[GameMasterGuy]

I had used it extensively the day before, but I made absolutely sure that the fan's opening wasn't blocked, and judging by how loud it is, I don't think it should have overheated.