DRE. Using recommended media. Already changed pot value

Good day to you all.

First of all, thank you all for the great information contained in the forums. Though I'm a newbie, i spent the most part of last day (about 5 hours) reading through the forums, and the excellent resource [Mod that Cube]. I think I have "done my research".

On to the problem. I have a Gamecube version DOL-001 USA. I bought it about 3 years ago. I'm using ViperGC chip with Cobra Bios v1.1, I have all my backups burned on Ritek mini DVD media (from what I've seen in the forums, seems to be one of the most popular and tested brands).

The problem I'm having it's that some of my backups are presenting DREs in different instances. Some "hang" at about 1 minute of being read, some last for maybe 20 minutes before DRE. Others run perfectly for hours before the DREs, while others have never presented any kind of error (so far, at least).

I checked my pot value thinking it may be the problem. I had a feeling it may be too high (my GC being "old"), but to my surprise the value was 148 ohms (!). In one post it's said that the "recommended" value must be between 170 - 210 so I changed it to 205.

Testing the games after the adjustment, the problem still remains. I have burned all my backups using Nero, most of them at 4x but others at 2x. I found (at least in my case) that burn speed is not a differing factor. Some of the 4x's hang in less than a minute while others last for hours without problems. Same for the 2x's.

The questions are:
- What do you think can be going wrong ??
- Do you think the bios version is the problem ??
- Should I lower (or raise) the pot value from the actual 205 ??
- I've read something about "turning off the burn protection". Do you think this may be the problem ?? (I always leave it on).

Thanks in advance for your help. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.


Regards,
Marco V.

P.S.: sorry if my english is not perfect. I'm not a native writer/speaker.

 

If in doubt, make sure you have the absolute latest version of the BIOS for your chip. Including Betas.

Since you're probably still going to get DREs, there's a couple possibilities:

1) Could be that you're burning a bad/damaged rip. If it's a scene rip, obtained through the usual channels, then the chances of it being a bad go are low.

2) Try adjusting the POT. Sometimes even if it's in the "suggested" range, it isn't the best because lasers do degrade over time. Try lowering it a bit and make sure there's no dust on the laser or your media.

3) Bad media. Even if it's the suggested brand, there's always a chance you'll have some bad discs in the bunch. Unfortunately, it happens sometimes. Not much can be done about it, beyond trying to burn another backup from the same source(hopefully from the scene release image). Don't try making a backup from the backup if you're getting DREs. The chances are too great that it'll only make matters worse.

4) A pinch of caution can save you a pound of Aspirin. When burning the image, make sure to turn the verify option in Nero, so it'll be able to make sure you have a bit-for-bit copy of the file. Burn-proof is a good thing to have on, because there will always be times when your computer might decide to spontaneously hang for a few seconds, which would destroy a non-BP'd session.

Hope this works.

 

try taking the pot down a bit lower. i had the same problem with DRE errors in that pot range of 210-170 and they didnt stop till i took it down to 157. with some monthley tweaking i keep it on that and every thing is great.
im using qoob pro though but that shouldnt matter

 

Thanks for the answers and suggestions !

I'm going to try decreasing the pot value (down to 140, in 20 ohm intervals) to see what happens. What was the minimum recommended value again ?

Also, I'm going to flash my bios, though I can only do it via DVD 'cause the guy who installed my chip never told me about the flash adapter, damn !!

I'll let you know if the tweaking + flashing fixes my problem.


Regards,
Marco V.

 

Since you have an older GC, check if you have a drive 04 DVD-rom. If you do, try using a value of 145 ohms. That's the only way I can get mine to work properly.

 

Perhaps this is a noob question but: how do i know if I have a drive 04 DVD-rom ?? Is it written on the back, next to the DOL version ???

Thanks in advance.

 

Well, the way I found out was by running Ninjamod on my Qoob Pro. Other than that I haven't the slightest clue. The easiest way would be to just load up Ninjamod or GCOS and see what drive it says you have when you try to boot a back-up. It'll say something like "Initializing Drive 04" or something. I think there's three different drives (04, 06, and 08).

 

OK. I have updated my cobra bios to 1.2. Didn't have much time to test a lot of games but so far, the one I've tried seems to be working much longer than before the update.

I will keep testing and I'll let you know if only flashing to 1.2 solved my problems (or at least, most of them).

 

DRE Again !!!

I've been playing a backup of X-Men Legends 2 that had a lot of DREs previous to updating my BIOS, as I said in my previous post, the problems apparently went away, the first backup I tried was this DVD and it worked without problems! The last week I've played for hours with no problems whatsoever, but yesterday, the DREs attacked again...

Do you think the pot value could have lowered and that may be causing the problem??? Do you think it's my GC lens that's about to bust ??

I'd really appreciate your comments with this matter. Tonight i'm going to measure the pot again and trying it to the 145 value that was mentioned in a previous post.

Thanks for your help !


Regards,
Marco V.

 

I have a similar problem. I have played around with my pot and still get dres in exactly the same places on all games :/

I have tried using this ninja program to boot them, it gets the game to a further point, but i still get a dre.

I have tried full size memorex and ritek dvd-r's with the same results. Could it be the NTSC games on a PAL cube?

 

Well, after a bit of reading I found out that ajusting the pot too often could damage the laser. Which seems to be the case with mine.

I can play originals just fine but back-ups don't even work anymore, so my brother decided to buy a new laser for me to install in it. Hopefully, it'll fix our problem.

So, how often did you adjust your pot anyway? Mine got progressively worse until it crapped out completely.

 

Is that so ??

I have read some comments on the board of people adjusting it *a lot* of times during "testing" periods. Another guy commented that he kept adjusting the pot periodically, as some kind of maintenance.

So the question is: how many times is too much ? at least, an aproximate number of times.


Thanks in advance.

Forgot to tell you: I have adjusted it about 5 times.

 

Well, in the span of three days I adjusted it maybe 30 times trying to find a working value for what I now realize was a ****ty burn cause by my burner's lens being dirty. I'd say that's too much.

Five times is fine. I'd say that if you go through all the values and you end getting worse results consistently, then you've done it too many times. Can't really give you a limit though.

 

I think I'm so lucky. I got the qoob pro with bios 1.3c. Burnt three games: Mario Soccer, Baseball and Party 7 with the same media [MAXDATA] and they all work like a treat. I haven't adjusted my pot!!

 

To Venom5880:
I know that perhaps there's no easy answer for this question but: How do you know if you have a faulty burn ?


I'm begining to suspect, that my DREs *might* be caused by my DVD Writer Unit... Does anyone know how can I verify this ? Are there certified or recommended DVD Writer Units ??

I've been testing my GC with some new backups, but I keep getting the DREs. Now I'm trying with "Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance" and I get an "An error has ocurred..." message every time that one of my units tries to attack the same enemy unit in chapter one.


Thanks for the help.

 

It's a bad burn if you're getting different results every time you burn it and play it. So if it screws up in a different spot on each burn, then it might just be a bad burn. If it's the same spot everytime, it's the iso. Try cleaning your DVD burner's lens with a DVD lens cleaner (the disc with little brushes on the bottom) and when you burn the games have nothing else but the burning program running. Don't have anything hogging the RAM or processor either, so close any processes that are unnecessary at the time and reopen them again later.

Also, if you're using a scene release back-up of Fire Emblem, I had problems with the one I used. I ended up having to make a back-up myself for it to solve the problem.