Having a problem with track read, its not the caps

[Edmond Dantes]

The culprit is a US Duo.  It's been region-modded.  It's had the caps replaced and a new laser put in.  And yes, I've tried cleaning both the game and the system.

I'm playing Ys I and II.  I'm almost near the end of Book I.  When I found Reah/Lair in Darm Tower (the part where she gives you the glasses) the audio track containing her dialogue... it doesn't want to play all the way.  The first time, it skipped and loaded up a music track from way later in the game.  I reset the console multiple times and went through this scene but each time it cops out at some part or other, often leading to a long scene where she silently mouths.  I had to just put the game in my computer's drive and play the track manually to hear the dialogue.

It does the same thing on Dark Fact--his dialogue just skips around and sometimes he just stops talking, but the animation of his mouth moving still plays.

None of the other voiced bits so far have had a problem.

I repeat:  on this duo, the caps have been replaced, and it recently had a new laser installed by one of the users here.  So that shouldn't be the problem.

I'm wondering if there may be some simple solution that I should try.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(Additionally:  How do you *use* the glasses?  She says they let you read the Books of Ys but I can't figure out how)

[Keith Courage]

Does the audio glitch at all during the Ys 1 and 2 startup cinema scene as well? Go back and let this play through and see if it glitches out anywhere. If so then it sounds to me like a lens track issue where the lens isn't quite moving across it's track far enough. Generally this is caused by friction/bad lube. Then again, your new lens might need adjustment on one of the 5 potentiometers on the motherboard. Not all lenses are created equal. A tutorial on that can be found here http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=3586.0

[geise]

I am having the same issue, but with HellfireS.  The first level music starts in the middle of the song.  I cleaned the disc since there are some small scratches and cleaned the cd lens.  Same issues everytime.  I then made a burned copy from a perfect non scratched disc.  At first the burned game was doing the same thing.  So I then opened up the Duo and re-greased the rails with white lithium grease.  The burned game now plays perfect everytime.  My original copy sometimes plays fine and sometimes the first level music still starts half way through the audio track.  It definitely might need a pot adjustment.  Difinitely check that link Keith posted about the pot adjustments, but I would have someone else attempt that if you've never done a pot adjustment before.

[BlueBMW]

Lets try and relube the laser tracks first.

[Edmond Dantes]

What would I relube the track with?  Would WD40 work?

And no its not doing the same thing during the opening movie.  Lair and Dark Fact are the only ones who have evidenced a problem so far.

I'm partly suspecting it might be the disk, but I'm hesitant to put it through a skip doctor or a buffer until I have another unit to test it on.  Fortunately I'll have two Turbos soon.

[Keith Courage]

It might be the disc. Usually when the CD track needs lube the CDs tend to mess up on the higher numbered tracks. I always use Ys1&2 or Dungeon explorer CD to test this since the beginning cinema audio is a good distance down the track. If the beginning opener audio is fine then I'd rule out re-lubing the track.

[tru]

I'm partly suspecting it might be the disk, but I'm hesitant to put it through a skip doctor or a buffer until I have another unit to test it on.

If you suspect it is the disc, you could always try making a copy of the disc and trying the burned disc in the system and see if it still skips. I've used cdrs in my system for many years (over 10) and have never had a problem with my duo reading them or original discs...

If the disc is the problem, a PC cd drive may be able to read the disc better than the duo's laser, thus giving you a near perfect copy of the game to use to play through the parts that your original has suffered read errors...

[Edmond Dantes]

Unfortunately I don't have a save before talking to Lair (I meant to make one but I accidentally saved over it) so I can only test Dark Fact.

On the backup disc, track plays perfectly.

When I put in the original and played the scene again, all that happened was it dropped a second or two of dialogue.

I should mention I tried cleaning the lens with a soft cloth and alcohol, which it seems might have helped a bit.

I'm gonna go through Ys II and see if the issue ever crops up again.

[geise]

If you do lube the rails the cd lens is on do not use WD40. Get some White Lithium grease or clear Silicon grease.  WD40 really isn't great for lubrication and can dry up over time and make things worse.  Also, grease the plastic gears.  Is Ys the only game you have issues with?

[Edmond Dantes]

So far yes, but the other CD-ROM based games I own are either shooters or fighting games so I doubt there'd really even be a situation where this kind of thing could crop up.

Also, it happened again at the part where you have to put on the Whisper Earrings to talk to the boy.  Haven't tested this scene with the backup disc, but I still want to see if this plays fine on another Turbo before I take the disc down to GameXchange to have it buffered.