Tryint to place new replacement lens on the Gamecu

Started by Weeping_Shadow, May 29, 2004, 01:05:47 AM

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Weeping_Shadow

My cube had the awful DRE problems that got very bad lately. Last week it stopped playing games altogether, except for True Crime which (for some unknown reason  :blink: ) was the only one out of my 32 games to boot and play perfectly.

Well, I took the decision to change my lens. I already had some experience with modding NES, SNES, Saturn, N64 and Dreamcast consoles. So it SEEMED an easy task. And practically, it IS.

I bought some replacement lens. Opened my cube and took out the DVD mechanism. Saw how the lens are connected on the mechanism and took the old lens out. Placed the new lens according to what I saw before, placed everything back into position, booted the console with Mario Sunshine (which would not load at all with my old lens) and VOILA!  :D  The game loaded perfectly!

But...  :huh:  few seconds later, I heared a really terrifying CLANG! noise and that's it.  :o  A DRE.  <_<  Then the cube would not boot ANY game at all.  :angry:  All DREs from the system menus.

I tried to take the new lens out, and place them back again. New operation, same results. And same results.  :(  And same results.

I thought that I was doing something terribly wrong, when I decided to place back my old lens. Surprise.... my cube was as I remembered it: DREs on all games BUT True Crime.  <_<

I am confused.  :huh:  It seems that I do everything correctly. The new lens seem perfect to me. Every time I booted a different game from the endless list of games that would not boot with my old lens. They all loaded PERFECTLY. Then, few seconds later, the CLANG! sound and it's game over.

I now have my old lens back. The cube works as it did. That means, it's still problematic, but no CLANG! sounds or anything scary.

Does anybody know what should I do? I need to place the new lens! Here are some specific questions:

1) Do you think that the new lens are actually... faulty?  B)

2) Do you know if the WHOLE DVD mechanism is the same across regions (PAL, NTSC)? Because my other choice will be to replace the whole DVD drive from a used PAL console that I can easily find here for less than 30$. I don't want a pal console (and let's not start about Freeloader), I want my beloved NTSC modded gamecube that I bought for 500$ on release day!!! :angry:

Thanks!  

PS. Yes I love using emoticons as you can see  :P  

atom

Hey man, id buy that PAL console seeing as there is no reason why the drive should be any different. As far as your lens replacement quest, im surprised you got as far as you did! Im sure your aware of how strange the drive is, I wouldnt even call it a dvd drive. The data on the disc is "spinned" the opposite direction. Instead of replacing the whole drive unit maybe you could just swap the lens between the two consoles?

With the broken PAL unit, perhaps you could slap GCN Linux in there.
forgive my broked english, for I am an AMERICAN

Grey Rain Cloud

I am Weeping_Shadow  :rolleyes:  here, that's my registered account.

Well guess what... After further research, I can now officially claim that I have the knowledge to fix Nintendo Gamecube consoles with DREs. And it's not cheap alcohol methods and such  :P

Basically, after my failed attempts (See my first post), I was willing to do ANYTHING to fix my Gamecube. So I started studying a bit, the Gamecube motherboard, the front panel PCB and the DVD mechanism PCB. Well guess what, not only I managed to find a way to place the lens inside  :) , but ALSO, ...how to fix my OLD lens! Yup!  :D

First of all, (i am not an electrician, thus some of the "words" I will use might not sound scientific enough-they are not), I strongy believe that the DREs occur because the DVD lens get miscalibrated through time. That's it. That's the reason why many Gamecube consoles fail to work after about 2 years of use.

In order to fix this problem, you can either:

1) Calibrate the old lens (which will work, I suppose, for a while - like 6-12 months) or

2) Install new lens AND calibrate them (yup that's why they wouldn't work. They were not calibrated!)

The first method will save you money and time, but, I believe, that DREs will start occuring again, in about 6 to 12 months. After that, I don't currently have the knowledge whether the lens become improper for further recalibration or not. I wil know in about a year!

The second method gives you, I presume, another 4-6 years of gamecube life. Since the lens are brand new, they are perfect. I was making a mistake, thinking that the lens are bought were faulty because they also had DREs, as you can see in my initial post. But, simply, they were not calibrated. Once I calibrated them, they worked perfectly. :)

Only problem.... In my hurry, I purchased the used PAL console for 40$... DAMMIT! :angry:  

atom

Not ever doing anything like that... what do you mean by calibrating the lens? Does it not read the correct area of the disk at the proper times?
forgive my broked english, for I am an AMERICAN

Grey Rain Cloud

I am not a technician and don't know the true "proffessional" stuff. I can't really explain what I mean by "calibrating". Let's just say that I change, probably, the wave of the laser and it's strength, by adjusting it from the motherboard. It truly works.

phreak97

it would be nice if you included brief instructions on how to calibrate. dont just say "to fix dre all you have to do is calibrate it".. what use is that if you dont know how to calibrate it? i dont need this myself, but it just seemed a little strange that you left out the most vital piece of info.

i assume its just adjusting a pot or two.

atom

Yeah, I think your getting a little intimidated. Not everyone here is gonna shoot you if you say something wrong, just a couple of us. So what did you do to calibrate it? When you say calibrate, im thinking... well nothing because i just dont understand!
forgive my broked english, for I am an AMERICAN

Joelius

Actually, what you are controlling would be the NGC laser. By adjusting the small pot on the opposite side of the laser system, you are adjusting the resistance of power to the laser wether it be gain or fade. Most DRE are due to this reason and usually a small adjustment counter-clockwise will be all it needs. Just be careful when playing with the laser's gain, if you go too far one way, you'll ruin the who disk reader itself, and need to buy a new one, or get a new cube.

I've also noticed that when you just adjust them to what they need to be at, they seem to work for years afterwards, not just 6-12 months, but that's just a personal note.  Have any questions, just drop them in, and i'll be happy to answer them.

Joelius

Also, if anyone is looking for great detail on the adjustment of the lasers, you can give me a jingle at dewpoints4me@hotmail.com and i will be more than happy to give detailed guided instructions. :D  

Grey Rain Cloud

Joelius, it is pretty much obvious that we are talking about the same exact thing.

But because I am not exactly sure whether I know exactly everything about this modification, or whether there is something more I might know, I would be interested to discuss on this subject a little bit more. Can you?