Certain DVD-R Back-ups Will Not Read

[KarlG]

Hello everyone,

I have just got into modding the Gamecube to make full use of 480P. I have a PAL gamecube, so I require the NTSC versions to play these in 480P. I verify the ISO files with redump.org using the Md5 checksum and then burn to DVD-R Mini Maxcell (Ritek04) at 4x using an LG BH10LS30 drive and imgburn. I then re-verify with the ISO file to make sure they match 100%. Now here is the strange part that I am having problems with. Most discs work fine without adjusting the POT, but Mario Kart Double Dash, Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes Disc 2 and Skies of Arcadia refuse to work. They show the Nintendo / Konami logo and then crash and tell me to turn off the console.(The laser reads the disc and then just sits at the edge attempting to read) I have tried adjusting the POT but this does nothing at all to help play these games.

I have tried these on three consoles (all PAL DOL-001) using SD Media Launcher with swiss and I have just installed an Xeno chip, but the problem still persists. I have also tried burning to full size DVD-R Taiyo Yuden media with the same issues. The games all work fine in the PC with the dolphin emulator.

These are the games that work flawlessly

Paper Mario : The Thousand Year Door
Super Mario Sunshine
Eternal Darkness : Sanity's Requiem
Metal Gear Solid : Twin Snakes (Disc 1)
Luigi's Mansion


These are the games which refuse to work in the GameCube

Mario Kart : Double Dash
Metal Gear Solid : Twin Snakes (Disc 2)
Skies of Arcadia

I did get Mario Kart to read once after about 40 tries. I did one race and then it crashed in the menus with DRE, I then rebooted the unit to get greeted with DRE again

I know these games contain alot of dummy data to fill the disc to the full capacity, is there a tool or anything I need to run before I burn the ISO's?

I have probably spent about 7 hours taking units apart and adjusting the POT and It's starting to annoy me now, are these games just not possible to run on burned DVD-R's?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Karl

[theclaw]

A few games are that picky. I can't say I've heard any solution thus far runs Skies of Arcadia perfectly perfectly. Swiss or even Dolphin will have slight hiccups.

How does Starfox Assault work for you? When I used an old Ridata mini DVD-R (US version with Qoob Pro), the FMVs lagged. Since I own the game at the moment, I haven't been too inclined to try much else.

[KarlG]

Just burned Starfox Assault at 2x to a MINI DVD-R Maxell. It loads fine and plays the intro movie, but gives me DRE when it gets to the loading screen. I haven't bothered adjusting the POT. The laser appears to scan the entire disc and then stays around the centre until the main load screen, at which point it falls to the outside edge and makes a clicking noise until the power off message appears.

Edit: Okay so I decided to do a bit of an experiment. I took the ISO file and ran them though GCMUtility0.5 to remove the excess garbage files which are used to fill the disc to 1,459,978,240 bytes. This took about 500MB off Mario Kart and about 30MB off Skies of Arcadia. I then made sure they still work in dolphin to make sure I have not lost any crucial game data.

I then ran it through Wiped GCM Fixer to bump the game size back up to the 1,459,978,240 bytes required for it to burn to a Mini DVD-R. I tried it on dolphin and it still worked fine. Out of curiosity I also ran a Md5 checksum which returned a different reading compared to the original ISO, So it has obviously changed something.

I burned it to the same Maxell Mini DVD-R (Ritek04) using the same LG Blu-Ray drive at 2x speed.

I have tried this with Mario Kart Double Dash & Skies of Arcadia, both ran first time without any POT adjustment from the factory setting. I played both for about 20 mins without any stuttering, audio drop outs or long load times. They play just like the originals. I going to assume that these games have something contained within the filler data which is screwing up the GameCube drive and throwing out a DRE. Skies of Arcadia surprised me because I was getting absolutely nothing out of it before, not even the Sega logo.

I am going to do this with the others tomorrow. I'll let you guys know if I run in to any problems. I was disapointed last week when everything was going wrong, hopefully now I can finish burning these games and start playing and enjoying them.

[ReliantLion]

How did your tests go? Also, how long does the Wiped GCM Fixer take to fix the GCM file? It seems like it is taking forever for me.