Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

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kinect360
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by kinect360 » Sun Dec 04, 2016 3:56 pm

Thanks for the reply guys.

Yes I got a fresh laser from ebay, it plays original gamecube discs just fine.

This new laser will not read my backup gamecube games (12cm verbatim). I dont have any 8cm verbatims, only full size.

The backup games/discs are not the problem. Before getting the new laser (my other one was dying), the old laser would be able to read my 12cm verbatim backup discs for a few minutes before crashing.

It is not the media - why would a brand new laser not work? I've been trying since april to get this cube to read backups :(
novenary
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by novenary » Mon Dec 05, 2016 1:16 pm

Have you considered using a better burner for it ? The laser and the discs are not the only problematic parts.
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kinect360
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by kinect360 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 1:24 pm

I had bought a specific burner off of Ebay to burn the discs, it was the LITE-ON SOHW 1693S.

I don't think it was the burner either. The amount of work try to get this cube to read backups has been ridiculous!
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by novenary » Mon Dec 05, 2016 1:39 pm

Booting backups from DVD is a real pain in the ass indeed. I haven't tried too hard either, but I've never been able to play backups on mine either, I get disc read errors after logo splash screens in paper mario. Pretty sure it's my burner, I have two old pioneer burners in a pentium 4 rig but they are IDE only so I'd have to set that machine up just for burning discs. Not worth it.
I just use swiss to load backups from an SD gecko, and I'd suggest you do the same. Now that swiss supports audio streaming there's almost no reason not to.
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by noobcube » Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:01 pm

Streetwalker wrote:... Pretty sure it's my burner, I have two old pioneer burners in a pentium 4 rig but they are IDE only so I'd have to set that machine up just for burning discs. Not worth it.
FWIW, in my experience older IDE Pioneer DVD/CD burners are high quality and work very well for burning Gamecube discs.

I just found out yesterday that the son of a friend of mine is still playing a couple of games I burned for him about five years ago (I installed a XenoGC). For whatever reason, this particular cube has an excellent laser; unlike many others which I found had a narrow "sweet spot", this one reads reliably over a broad range of potentiometer values.
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kinect360
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by kinect360 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:09 pm

Ive invested a lot into this cube and would hate to just give up and switch to an SD gecko at this point..

(Case is moded for full size dvd, xeno gc, burner, discs)..

Anyone having any suggestions on how I can get this thing to work? Could someone mail me a working full size backup :lol: :roll:
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Andross89
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by Andross89 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 8:36 pm

Listen to someone who has burned over 100 dvds without any problems. ImgBurn(4x, incremental) + DVD-R 4.7 CMC Magnetics (philips/hp). Even a generic notebook burner worked. Try before you give up my friend.
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by kinect360 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:10 pm

Haven't tried the incremental setting on imgburn yet - its worth a shot I guess.
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kinect360
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by kinect360 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:27 pm

Also just ordered some DVD-R 4.7 x16 Philips! Hopefully these work lol
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by kinect360 » Fri Dec 16, 2016 10:05 pm

Okay so I ordered other DVDs as recommended by Andross and tried his burning method - still no go.

The new laser wouldn't read either of the two different burns I made, at 10ohms and at 60ohms.

I installed the old laser to see if it would read these new DVDs. - nothing at 60ohms but at 10ohms it would read a full size philips 4.7gb copy of super smash bros

It would only read that game for 10 minutes or so before crashing, as it did with my verbatim DVDs.

I think its time to give up on this cube.. Any suggestions?
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Andross89
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by Andross89 » Sun Dec 18, 2016 12:12 pm

You can check the bolts that hold the spinner are tightened and if it is clean with a brush. Very carefully obviously. I am using a translator. I hope you understood.
noobcube
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by noobcube » Mon Dec 19, 2016 10:48 am

When testing, what I do is try fairly high and low resistance values on the laser, note the results, then narrow down incrementally in an effort to home in on the best solution. Some lasers have a wider "sweet spot", while others read reliably over a relatively broad range. Some lasers read burned discs more reliably at higher values; in this case, an extremely low setting will actually be worse. In short, lower is not always better - if it doesn't work at a low setting, try going higher.

Further, with some media and burners, a higher burn speed may work better than a lower one. In my particular case, I have found that 8x burns produce the most reliable results with full-size Verbatims. Additionally, I have found that lower burn speeds work better with higher pot values and higher burn speeds require somewhat lower pot values.
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by schooluser » Fri Jan 27, 2017 11:16 pm

theclaw wrote:Personally at this point I'd consider upgrading to a higher end modchip. (one able to use swiss and sdgecko isos without burning a disc)
Xeno GC's greatest strength of being cheap and simple, is also its weakness in other respects.
I'm new to gamecube modding and was reading through the forums to prepare for what I'm about to do and came across this... I just bought two QoobSX's and am going to install one, do you know off the top of your head if it is capable of playing SDgecko isos without burning a disk?
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Re: Unable to play backups

Post by theclaw » Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:18 am

schooluser wrote:I'm new to gamecube modding and was reading through the forums to prepare for what I'm about to do and came across this... I just bought two QoobSX's and am going to install one, do you know off the top of your head if it is capable of playing SDgecko isos without burning a disk?
At the moment I don't know. It lacks extra internal storage for homebrew.
You should be able to flash a custom bios for reading SDgecko, if that's been done.
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Re: Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

Post by kinect360 » Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:39 pm

OK update everyone. I have been trying to get this cube to read backups for over a damn year.

Recently I tried my friends laser from his cube. The laser showed the same symptoms I have been experiencing from my original laser and a brand new laser.

What will happen is the gamecube will boot the backup but then crash after 2 minutes (super smash bros). With super mario sunshine backup the gamecube will boot, but with only black and white and with lines everywhere through the screen and glitched audio.

I have tried various types of DVD-R's and strongly don't believe that is the issue. I have a dedicated burner for the backups which is also not the problem. Every laser I have tried (3) have all shown the same symptoms, so I do not believe it is the laser(s). The iso for the backups have came from a piratebay torrent with a lot of seeds, so I don't believe its the backup files.

My only other avenue would be the chip itself. What do you think or suggest? The xeno chip will boot up into the settings menu and displays the correct light when reading backups. I think my last hope here is to either get a new chip, or to resolder the current one.

Please let me know what you think, I started modding this cube in april of last year and it still doesnt read backups!!!
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Re: Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

Post by emu_kidid » Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:55 pm

kinect360 wrote:OK update everyone. I have been trying to get this cube to read backups for over a damn year.

Recently I tried my friends laser from his cube. The laser showed the same symptoms I have been experiencing from my original laser and a brand new laser.

What will happen is the gamecube will boot the backup but then crash after 2 minutes (super smash bros). With super mario sunshine backup the gamecube will boot, but with only black and white and with lines everywhere through the screen and glitched audio.

I have tried various types of DVD-R's and strongly don't believe that is the issue. I have a dedicated burner for the backups which is also not the problem. Every laser I have tried (3) have all shown the same symptoms, so I do not believe it is the laser(s). The iso for the backups have came from a piratebay torrent with a lot of seeds, so I don't believe its the backup files.

My only other avenue would be the chip itself. What do you think or suggest? The xeno chip will boot up into the settings menu and displays the correct light when reading backups. I think my last hope here is to either get a new chip, or to resolder the current one.

Please let me know what you think, I started modding this cube in april of last year and it still doesnt read backups!!!
If a XenoGC were to lose connection or completely fall off AFTER a game has booted I'm 99% sure it will be fine since the drive is already patched and reading the backup media. Does it crash to a DRE screen or an Error has occurred screen? Boot the game holding R to disable any read retry and see if it fails earlier, I still think it's a combination of media/drive failures.
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kinect360
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Re: Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

Post by kinect360 » Sun Mar 12, 2017 12:28 am

Hey thanks for the reply.

So I booted holding R and was able to play a backup of super smash Bros for 15 minutes with no errors or anything. Next I tried booting a backup of super Mario sunshine with R and it crashed around the same time it usually does (the intro video) and it still had weird colors on Mario sunshine. The wind wake backup wouldn't boot whatsoever. I'm starting to think my backups are the problem. What do you think?
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kinect360
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Re: Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

Post by kinect360 » Sun Mar 12, 2017 4:46 pm

Another note to add, when the game crashes it doesn't usually go to DRE error screen, it just freezes.
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Andross89
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Re: Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

Post by Andross89 » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:00 pm

This week I had my first problem with DVDs. I solved by turning off the "OPC" option in ImgBurn. The burner appears to be unstable after the process. Maybe this will help somebody.
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Re: Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

Post by kinect360 » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:18 am

I'll give it a try, thanks. Does anyone have a working backup DVD they could mail out to me? I want to rule out the DVD/ISO for sure.
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Andross89
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Re: Unable to play backups - 1 YEAR ISSUE

Post by Andross89 » Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:14 pm

kinect360 wrote:I'll give it a try, thanks. Does anyone have a working backup DVD they could mail out to me? I want to rule out the DVD/ISO for sure.
Not worth trying. I took the burner for a person to check and the problem was a component that was not working properly. Disabling the OPC should make the process of writing 1s or 2s faster only.
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