Help Needed with U.S. TG-CD system

[2X4]

I have recently purchased the CD add on and I don't want to play original copies in it.  I have always heard that the TG-CD plays cd-rs with little or no problem, more reliably than a duo system does.  Well, I have burned copies onto verbatim media with blue "super azo" dye, with carefully checked cuesheets and TOCs, cleaned the laser lens thoroughly and repeatedly, and still, this thing refuses to read the discs.  Before anyone asks:

I cleaned the lens "carefully" with alcohol and a q-tip

I burned at the slowest speed possible with my drive (bin-cue).

Yes, the motor spins the cd up.

The legality of my copies isn't relevant.

Why the hell won't it work?  It may load the intro sometimes, then it just spins, spins for eternity like a vortex spiraling into the scorched pits of hell, while a disturbing laugh echoes in my head until I get pissed and chuck my umteenth copy of Ys into the trash can.  Can anyone offer some insight?  

[T2KFreeker]

I have recently purchased the CD add on and I don't want to play original copies in it.  I have always heard that the TG-CD plays cd-rs with little or no problem, more reliably than a duo system does.  Well, I have burned copies onto verbatim media with blue "super azo" dye, with carefully checked cuesheets and TOCs, cleaned the laser lens thoroughly and repeatedly, and still, this thing refuses to read the discs.  Before anyone asks:

I cleaned the lens "carefully" with alcohol and a q-tip

I burned at the slowest speed possible with my drive (bin-cue).

Yes, the motor spins the cd up.

The legality of my copies isn't relevant.

Why the hell won't it work?  It may load the intro sometimes, then it just spins, spins for eternity like a vortex spiraling into the scorched pits of hell, while a disturbing laugh echoes in my head until I get pissed and chuck my umteenth copy of Ys into the trash can.  Can anyone offer some insight?  

Actually, the lagality of your games isn't an issue here, but are you burning ISO files or disc to disc as I have never had a problem with my games when they are disc to disc. Also, are you burning at "Disc At Once", and what burning program are you using. I can't help you with ISO files as I don't use them as I only make back ups of games I have for myself, but if they are originals, I might be able to help. You need to specify these though as burning ISO files is different from burning CD to CD, as I am sure you know. If people are to help you though, you need to be honest about the file type you sre burning from.

[malducci]

hey 2x4,

 I didn't even think about the burning process (I replied on ME forums). If you have the original CD - use TurboRip from NightWolve's site (there is a sticky in one the forums sections here with the site address - Dev I think) and burn with NERO 6.x.x.x using DAO (not DAO/96 or TAO or SAO). I'd had problems burning the ISO/WAV/CUE with Alcohol120% even though it mounts them fine for emulation. CDRWIN is no longer the only software available to do 1:1 backup (use TurboRip over it). Besides, all the gfx/game mod patches and translation patches I release will be for ISO format only


-Rich
(Tomaitheous)

[2X4]

Hey, thanks for the quick responses guys.  Ok you got me, as I have just purchased the cd unit, I have no originals as of yet.  But even when I do get them, I will want to play backup copies and preserve the originals.  I was ambiguous about that so as not to bring up the unspeakable issue of isos and whatnot.  As I said before, I use Bin + Cue, and I carefully check the TOCs with the NECstasy database.  

Software:  CDRWIN and Nero 6, both failed to work (except in ME)

And I need this to work, because even though I will buy some originals, some great originals as we all know simply can't be purchased for realistic amounts of money.  I don't see anything wrong with burning these games when the alternative is dropping 2 benjamins on dracula x when konami won't see a dime anyway.  Ok go ahead and censor me, kick me or whatever, we all know its true.  Please just leave enough of the original message so I can get some assistance.  

[2X4]

Is this too stupid of a question?  I appreciate the two reponses I got, but then someone posts a topic like, "Need help digesting food" and gets 10 replies while my question gets buried and forgotten!  come on!  I need expertise here!

[malducci]

Hmm. If you have a verified ISO/WAV/CUE with TocFixer - burn it to CD-R with nero using DAO at 8x (yes 8x). Once the game has finished burning, try it on the duo for the sake of it, then pop the CD-R bank into the CDROM drive and open Nero - goto the top menu and click on "extras" -> "save tracks". Once in this program, look at the first track and make sure it starts at "0:02:00". Use both CDRWIN and TurboRip to make images of this newly burned CD-R. Mount each image set with alcohol120% or Daemon tools and test each mounted image with ME.

 It's got to be one of three things: burner, media (or the combo of the two), or bad luck. If I remember right, you have a DUO and a TG+CD so chances are one of them would play a properly burnt CD-R - but you never know (both could be on the frizts).

[SignOfZeta]

Until you have at least one legit game its kind of pointless to speculate. This is not because the people here are anti-piracy crusaders or something, but just because for all we know your shit is totally broke, and won't play jack.

Do you at least have an audio CD to try it with, or all those pirated too?

[2X4]

Until you have at least one legit game its kind of pointless to speculate. This is not because the people here are anti-piracy crusaders or something, but just because for all we know your shit is totally broke, and won't play jack.

Do you at least have an audio CD to try it with, or all those pirated too?

  At least its a response.  I thought I had already mentioned this but yes, I have tried real audio cds, which work fine.  Yes I do pay for music, since it is easy to find for a reasonable price and music labels don't abandon albums.  And I would be surprised if you don't have both "pirated" games AND pirated music.  

 

It's got to be one of three things: burner, media (or the combo of the two), or bad luck. If I remember right, you have a DUO and a TG+CD so chances are one of them would play a properly burnt CD-R - but you never know (both could be on the frizts).

No, I only have the TG-CD.  Sorry for the confusion.  Since I had heard that the TG+CD systems are more reliable (apparently duo lasers burn up a lot) and since I had the TG from long ago, I figured that was the best way to go.

I was hoping that someone with the same setup would say something like "yea I had the same problem, I had to _____" or "No, TG-CD units always play cd-rs fine if you do this this and this . . ." I assumed there were several folks here who own TG-CDs and know what to do or if you should even have to do anything in the first place.  Anyway, thanks for the idea, I will try that, in the meantime, anybody feel free to chime in with more.  

[nodtveidt]

Even with the best advice possible, there's still no guarantee that you will ever get it to work as you want. It's likely that your CDROM unit needs the intensity adjustment tweak if you cannot get it to work even after using all the steps suggested. Some of these old machines are just simply past their prime, as this is quite old technology nowadays. There may simply be nothing you can do about it.

[GUTS]

Try a different type of CDR or a different burner.  I have old CDRs I burned on my last computer on gold bottom CDRs that run perfectly, but I can't get my nice new laptop to burn Duo games for shit.  I don't know about the blue dye stuff, but from my experience Duo games are best burned onto gold bottom CDRs if you can find them.  I can't find them anymore and that's probably why my duo won't read anymore, I can only find blue bottom now, hell I can't even find silver bottom CDRs anymore.

If you can find them, there's a brand called Mitsui (don't know if they still make them or not) that are AWESOME for Duo games, that's what I used to use back in the day and they always worked flawlessly.

[Keranu]

Also it's recommend to burn at slower speeds if you are going to run it on actual hardware, no more than 4x usually. When I burn CD games to run on hardware, I usually only burn at 1x speed, sometimes 2x.

[malducci]

My new plextor can burn at 6x, but no cd-r plays correctly when written to at that speed - I have to burn at 8x, no faster and no slower. The whole is process of elimination and you still have yet to try multiple official pressed CDs.

 I leaning towards what Nodtveidt said, it might be the intensity of that laser in your unit, but until you've tried some other things you can't say for sure. I have a the original PCE+CDROM2 setup as well as a SGX+SCDROM2 - both play CD-Rs better than my now dead DUO. I don't know if you can get replacement laser module for the old cd unit like with the Duo units.

[Keranu]

Replacing lasers on a old CDROM2 system would be an incredible struggle :\ .

[2X4]

Even with the best advice possible, there's still no guarantee that you will ever get it to work as you want. It's likely that your CDROM unit needs the intensity adjustment tweak if you cannot get it to work even after using all the steps suggested. Some of these old machines are just simply past their prime, as this is quite old technology nowadays. There may simply be nothing you can do about it.

Ok, so how do you tweak the laser intensity?  Is there a tutorial somewhere?

Replacing lasers on a old CDROM2 system would be an incredible struggle :\ .

Yeah, I looked inside, it would be tough, but doable.  And if anyone was curious, yes, you can buy replacement laser modules:  Sony KSS-220A.

[2X4]

Hey, I hate to be a nuisance, but I won't let this thread die until someone tells me how to do the laser intensity modification.