Graphical glitches when playing from CD-ROM

[Debvgger_]

This looks like bad RAM to me. Damn.

Do the glitches appear at the same positions if you power off and then try the same game again?

If the answer is yes, try to burn the same game two times and see if the glitches are the same too.

Do you have another system card to try?

[thesteve]

not all games as system card to PCE (low addresses) would still be solid
the issue is bad data from ram to CPU
this can be caused by bad ram, or bad connection to ram
bad connection on an address pin will only effect certain addresses so connections are still a possible issue
the issue could be in the PCE or IFU, or connection between
note i have seen this on a duo with corroded traces to the ADPCM RAM
it only effected grafix if the PCM ram was used
it effected PCM sound quality as well

[Punch]

Waist of money.

Nullity check this out, wanna get rich?

[Everblue]

This looks like bad RAM to me. Damn.

Do the glitches appear at the same positions if you power off and then try the same game again?

If the answer is yes, try to burn the same game two times and see if the glitches are the same too.

Do you have another system card to try?

I have copied the same game for a few times on the same kind of media and different ones for a few times, with the following results:

1. Some copies play fine every time
2. Some copies have graphical glitches every time
3. Some copies don't work at all
4. Some copies work intermittently

Makes sense now?

[thesteve]

if the game works right (any copy, same game) then your having cdr issues, from the sounds of it bad burns

[Everblue]

if the game works right (any copy, same game) then your having cdr issues, from the sounds of it bad burns

Yep, but then I even tried burning using a different machine with similar results. I also burn with verification.

Last resort, I am getting a bunch of CDRs of the brand "X Lyne" which seem to work everytime, 100% error free. Will confirm.

[ddoubledee]

This is pretty rare to see, but I had something similar happen to me once. I burned a copy of Ys 4 translated onto a cheap Maxell CD-R... Loading was SO SLOW and often it would load corrupt data-- small graphics were garbled and text boxes would be filled with gibberish *#($&$@! stuff... You could really hear the drive struggling to read the disc, too.

I would guess that you're having a similar issue and it has something to do with the CD-Rs... Reading a CD-R in one of these old CDROM2 drives is like reading a badly scratched up original... The pits in the disc of a CD-R aren't so perfectly defined like in a factory-pressed disc... So you could say they appear 'blurrier' to the laser pickup and it has a harder time distinguishing the 1s and 0s.

Your drive might benefit from a pot tuneup. That might help the drive read a bigger variety of discs. I usually start off with a factory pressed disc, like a music CD, and adjust the pots until it reads perfectly and skip recovery works good. Then I will change to a good quality CD-R and adjust again. Then I will change to a crappy quality CD-R and adjust one more time.  But be warned... THIS CAN BE A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE TO DO BY 'EAR' (without an oscilliscope). You could spend hours or even days adjusting the pots and still end up making it worse.  But if you get it tuned just right-- It should be somewhat tough to get an original factory-pressed disc to skip by tapping on the drive... While CD-Rs will skip much easier, the skip recovery should work most of the time.

Also some drives just plain work better than others with CD-Rs. Newer drives especially have better tolerance when reading CD-R. **On a side note... Great idea using an old CD burner to burn the discs. I've noticed my older burner seems to do a better job for these picky consoles, too.**

[bigbacon]

i can play audio from a cd-r no problem

[ddoubledee]

It's possible you could have a different problem than the OP (Everblue), bigbacon. I'm assuming you haven't been able to get any CD-R game to work properly...? (While Everblue has had the odd one work).

Keith Courage, thesteve and Debvgger_ also had some good observations / ideas.

[bigbacon]

i only piggy backed here instead of making a new thread because my issues, visually, looks exactly like the screenshots he posted.

[thesteve]

heh, i didnt realize i was responding to 2 different users/devices

[ddoubledee]

It's too bad you guys can't get ahold of an original CD game... any abundant / common game like Cosmic Fantasy 2, or something to test... For kicks, if anything.

[bigbacon]

well... for 7 dollars shipped I just grabbed cosmic fantasy 2...so we will see

[wolfman]

Your drive might benefit from a pot tuneup. That might help the drive read a bigger variety of discs. I usually start off with a factory pressed disc, like a music CD, and adjust the pots until it reads perfectly and skip recovery works good. Then I will change to a good quality CD-R and adjust again. Then I will change to a crappy quality CD-R and adjust one more time.  But be warned... THIS CAN BE A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE TO DO BY 'EAR' (without an oscilliscope). You could spend hours or even days adjusting the pots and still end up making it worse.  But if you get it tuned just right-- It should be somewhat tough to get an original factory-pressed disc to skip by tapping on the drive... While CD-Rs will skip much easier, the skip recovery should work most of the time.

Or you skip this whole frustrating procedure and use a factory copy of ICFTD for setup. Since playback of video is the most critical part, you can go that route as well. If the videos play fine for, say, 20 mins, then you have a perfectly setup drive that will read CDRs as well, like all mine do.

Interestingly mine doesn´t like the Taiyo Yuden too much (no matter which speed I burned them at) - others work fine even when burned 40x. I didn´t have much to re-adjust after  heavy CD playing for quite some time.


If you can find silver-sided CDRs, then I would go that route.

[esteban]

Your drive might benefit from a pot tuneup. That might help the drive read a bigger variety of discs. I usually start off with a factory pressed disc, like a music CD, and adjust the pots until it reads perfectly and skip recovery works good. Then I will change to a good quality CD-R and adjust again. Then I will change to a crappy quality CD-R and adjust one more time.  But be warned... THIS CAN BE A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE TO DO BY 'EAR' (without an oscilliscope). You could spend hours or even days adjusting the pots and still end up making it worse.  But if you get it tuned just right-- It should be somewhat tough to get an original factory-pressed disc to skip by tapping on the drive... While CD-Rs will skip much easier, the skip recovery should work most of the time.

Or you skip this whole frustrating procedure and use a factory copy of ICFTD for setup. Since playback of video is the most critical part, you can go that route as well. If the videos play fine for, say, 20 mins, then you have a perfectly setup drive that will read CDRs as well, like all mine do.

Interestingly mine doesn´t like the Taiyo Yuden too much (no matter which speed I burned them at) - others work fine even when burned 40x. I didn´t have much to re-adjust after  heavy CD playing for quite some time.


If you can find silver-sided CDRs, then I would go that route.

Yet another reason everyone should own ICFTD (besides the title song).