saturn seems to be on the way out :(

Supergrom

Ban Hammered
So my saturn had been sitting dormant for a while, but i wanted to get it out and play some Shining Force 3 again today, but it seems it may be dying. For starters, it only sporatically recognizes my Action Replay. Then, when I try to boot games (originals), it takes me to the CD player menu and gives me either "Disc not suitable for this system," "Drive Empty," or recognizes it as an audio CD. I did manage to get Nights to boot up once, but have not been able to get it to do so again.

This is a model one saturn that the swap trick was used on for some time, but as far as I can remember, it worked pretty well the last time I used it. A couple older burned games didn't work, but I assumed that was my cheap media. Any ideas, or am I better off getting a new saturn? Iif so, is there anyone who will sell me a 32 pin model 2 so I can be fairly sure I will be able to mod it? Thanks.

Edit: after messing around with it some more, most of my originals are working on a consistent basis, but still not all, and I have yet to try any copied games... is it possible it just needed to "warm up" or something?
 
Step one in fixing erratic CD readers is to clean the lens, especially if anyone in the storage / operating environments does anything to send icky stuff into the air on a regular basis (smoking is the traditional example, but I think some cooking methods can cause problems too). Cleaning discs can sometimes work but really aren't that great, a better way is this:

- Get a cotton swab and some isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol) - the stronger the better, and don't bother with anything lower than 90%, "rubbing alcohol", or anything else that contains anything other than alcohol and water.

- Carefully blow on the lens a bit to remove any loose dust.

- Wet the swab with alcohol, enough that it's wet but not near-dripping.

- Gently wipe the lens with the swab. Do not press down, just wipe across and sort of let the curve of the swab meet the curve of the lens.

- Give it a bit to dry (10 minutes or so ought to do it).
 
That's pretty weird. Maybe something to do with the focus actuator was messed up, and the random vibration was making it work/not work... kind of at a loss at this point. :(
 
It may have left some kind of residue. I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope, but I suppose it's worth a shot...
 
Could possibly have been some sort of moisture build up on the lense from using a less than pure cleaning solution. I know some DVD players can have this problem just from sitting around for awhile in less than favorable conditions.
 
Originally posted by Supergrom@Fri, 2005-03-11 @ 09:53 PM

For starters, it only sporatically recognizes my Action Replay.
This is actually a super-common problem. The cart port is pathetically constructed ont he saturn. Just keep pulling it up and down and nudging it then rebooting. Eventually you'll find the magic spot where it works.
 
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