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Post by goldenpp72 on Dec 13, 2022 10:17:34 GMT
Hey all, recently I've been on a binge trying to play my disc based games for the TG, unfortunately I've been running into a lot of issues and I'm not yet savvy enough to know if I'm screwed or if there may be agreeable solutions. I will detail the best I can without being too wordy I hope.
Initially, I sent my system in for repair because the audio for both my HUcards and disc would initially start very soft, sometimes coming back, and sometimes not. I sent the system in for repair and he had worked on fixing various traces, he also said he tweaked the laser so that it would better read CDR games (not by my request as I do not use those, but I figured why not?). Upon getting it back, Bonk 3 worked fine and I just assumed all was well. It wasn't until I loaded other games that I began to run into issues, in the case of Dynastic Hero, it won't even start on the system, Lords of Thunder seems fine but has a 100% repeatable point where the audio will cut out no matter what in one level, Dynastics disc looks pretty nice but with some imperfections, but Lord looks flawless.
Since I don't have a second system to tinker with, I put the disc into my laptop and ran both an old PC engine emulator that boots from the disc, as well as Retroarch. With both emulators, Dynastic always has an audio skip both in the opening intro, but also at the first level, but seems to be fine as it goes on. This is fine on an emulator because the music will resume and try to seek again, but it seems native duo systems do not do this? Or do I have the wrong impression?
Cotton seemed to work pretty solidly in my time in, but I'm still working through what works and what doesn't. I'm having a hard time believing multiple of my disc are damaged, and I admittedly am not as well versed on the disc side of this platform as I'd like to be (which is what I am trying to do now :/ )
I also did rip Lord and Dynastic, and then ran the rips using Retroarch, Lord still has the same audio skip in the same level, but Dynastic works perfectly fine when ripped, but ultimately, my main issue is that I can't seem to get them working quite right on my real hardware, and I've heard back and forth on people saying Duos can or cannot find audio again once it skips until a level change or another load of sorts happens, so please excuse the amateur level discourse I have on this subject. I've had this system repaired twice and am at my wits end, I had hoped the emulators would give me peace of mind that the disc themselves were fine but even that is mixed.
I hope this is the appropriate forum to be posting this, thanks all, appreciate any help or information I can get!
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Post by dshadoff on Dec 13, 2022 12:55:35 GMT
Are you having issues reading authentic discs, or just burned copies ?
For burned copies, there are many different brands/technologies of CD-R which have varying levels of difficulty being read - it is not really an issue of the game. But also important is the way the discs were ripped and/or burned; if not done properly, this can also cause all sorts of problems.
Also, it is not clear what exact hardware you have, which may also play a role.
And finally, it’s not clear whether these disc issues are worse than before you sent it for repairs, or the same, or an improvement… which may also point to whatever work was done by whoever was repairing your machine.
I suggest that if you’re planning to play on original hardware, original discs will work far better. If you’re planning on playing digital versions, you should get a system which emulates the CD drive, such as MiSTer, or the TerraOnion SHDS3 attachment, or the upcoming drive emulator from Krikzz.
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Post by goldenpp72 on Dec 13, 2022 17:52:22 GMT
I'm having issues playing authentic disc, the only CDR I own is Rondo, but everything else is legitimate. A few of these games I only just purchased so I can't really say how they worked before the repair as I never got to try them, it was out for repair for 6 months. I'm not sure how to specify the exact model, but it's a US Duo. The only game I know for sure used to work but no longer does is Air Zonk, but I haven't played that in a few years. Admittedly I haven't been able to play my stuff for a few years because of moving multiple times and changing careers, so these are issues I've been running into now that I'm trying to get back to it.
I do own methods like the Supersd3 and such as well, but I still would like to know my disc work properly you know?
I think a big question still is using native hardware, is it true that if the audio skips even once it won't come back until much later? Even using an emulator the skip happens but doesn't bug me since the music returns almost immediately.
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Post by goldenpp72 on Dec 13, 2022 19:34:07 GMT
I did an experiment this morning and tried my fiancees older laptop (forgot it existed) and I ran all my troubled disc through it.. They all ran flawlessly without any skipping using boot from disc, so that means my Duo won't read all disc, reads some, but has skipping issues in some parts, my main laptop works better and runs everything but still has skipping at parts, and now her laptop runs them all perfectly.
That is all the testing I can do at the moment, what would be the suggested course of action? Is there any way to calibrate my laser to have it behave better with my disc?
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keithcourage
Punkic Cyborg
https://www.facebook.com/turbografxfan/
Posts: 231
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Post by keithcourage on Dec 16, 2022 4:03:25 GMT
What media discs are you using for your CDR discs? Not all brands or discs/Dyes are created equal. I have worked on many DUOs that will work with one brand better than another and it is never the same brand. So I can't say just buy this one brand because they always work because this isn't the case. I usually test 4-5 different brands with different kinds of Dye in them when I work on DUOs for customers as everyone wants to be able to use CD-R discs in DUO CD drives that were never really designed to be able to use them. This way I can let my customers know which brand/type to get for their DUO.
Before I started testing out multi brands of discs, I couldn't tell you how many times I had fixed DUOs for people for them to tell me their CD drive isn't working good when they get it back because the 1 brand of CDR they are using won't work in it. Test out some other discs to see what happens.
Also, Computers CD drives will always reads CDRs better than a DUO. The drives are newer, have skip protection, and most were made after the invention of CDR discs. Meaning they were designed with CDR disc reading in mind.
yes, it is normal that if audio skips once that it won't play music again until the next time the game is supposed to load data or audio. There is no skip protection in any Tg16, PCE, DUO, or super cd-rom2 drive. Same with Sega CD drives.
If you are having issues with real CDs then the lens either needs adjustment or the lens is going bad. Also, not sure if the repair person had cleaned and re-greased your lens rails which also normally helps.
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Post by goldenpp72 on Dec 17, 2022 21:43:36 GMT
What media discs are you using for your CDR discs? Not all brands or discs/Dyes are created equal. I have worked on many DUOs that will work with one brand better than another and it is never the same brand. So I can't say just buy this one brand because they always work because this isn't the case. I usually test 4-5 different brands with different kinds of Dye in them when I work on DUOs for customers as everyone wants to be able to use CD-R discs in DUO CD drives that were never really designed to be able to use them. This way I can let my customers know which brand/type to get for their DUO. Before I started testing out multi brands of discs, I couldn't tell you how many times I had fixed DUOs for people for them to tell me their CD drive isn't working good when they get it back because the 1 brand of CDR they are using won't work in it. Test out some other discs to see what happens. Also, Computers CD drives will always reads CDRs better than a DUO. The drives are newer, have skip protection, and most were made after the invention of CDR discs. Meaning they were designed with CDR disc reading in mind. yes, it is normal that if audio skips once that it won't play music again until the next time the game is supposed to load data or audio. There is no skip protection in any Tg16, PCE, DUO, or super cd-rom2 drive. Same with Sega CD drives. If you are having issues with real CDs then the lens either needs adjustment or the lens is going bad. Also, not sure if the repair person had cleaned and re-greased your lens rails which also normally helps. I'm not really sure since I only own one CDR disc and that works alright, the rest of my games are legitimate, I don't think the repair person did a lot with that side of things aside adjust pots or whatever, but in doing so my games that did work no longer seem to work. I've sent it out to someone else who claims they can get it working, but if that doesn't work I might have to surrender for awhile :/
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Post by dshadoff on Dec 17, 2022 22:10:05 GMT
Well, I don't know who you are using for repairs, or where you are getting your information about reputable service shops... but most of the people here have had their machines serviced at some point in the past, and I'm sure they would be happy to give feedback on their experiences with their vendors.
Personally, I have good things to say about KeithCourage (who answered above); he did good work whenever I've needed it, and I didn't have to wait very long to get my systems back (I saw that you commented above about waiting 6 months from your first repairman, and I felt that was not reasonable - unless that was an estimate provided in advance and you accepted it).
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Post by goldenpp72 on Dec 20, 2022 12:21:25 GMT
Well, I don't know who you are using for repairs, or where you are getting your information about reputable service shops... but most of the people here have had their machines serviced at some point in the past, and I'm sure they would be happy to give feedback on their experiences with their vendors. Personally, I have good things to say about KeithCourage (who answered above); he did good work whenever I've needed it, and I didn't have to wait very long to get my systems back (I saw that you commented above about waiting 6 months from your first repairman, and I felt that was not reasonable - unless that was an estimate provided in advance and you accepted it). It definitely was not the expectation but, I do also understand that most people do this sort of thing in spare time, and that sometimes spare time can narrow, I suppose it's only really disappointing that the system is not fully functional. The person who is attempting to fix it now has a seemingly good reputation within a TG group on FB, but I had just happened to have him in my contacts from past experiences. It's a small world with this console, but I will definitely report back with the results, I'm still bracing for the fact it might just be my disc.
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