What now?

[MadnessUNC]

Hello dreamcasters,
I recently received a dreamcast, among other things, that my friend found in his attic. Enter support:(long post to follow, sorry)
The box he gave me didn't have controllers or games, but I held on to some games from when I used to own one and tried to fire it up. It went to the date time screen and without a controller I was stuck. I bought a controller and vmu at a flea market for $16, get home and no go. Dead controller port. I order a resistor and cap pack and a new battery, $9, solder them in and yes, controller works and date time save. While I had it open, I also cleaned the power board pins and greased the laser poles. Back together, fire it up, but no boot of game. Stuck on logo screen. It would run audio CDs though. So I thought my old games were scratched up, went to play n trade (far away) and got one resurfaced(gunbird2)$5.
That sucker looked brand new, No luck. I had cleaned the laser with isopropyl alcohol, but then read in here that that is bad; bought some meguires plastx $9. That lens is Very Clean! Won't load games. Finally, I decided to adjust the screw on the front of the laser. Counterclockwise did nothing. Clockwise, from factory to 90 degrees, there seem to be like 4 "hot zones" that cause the gd rom to try and boot differently(which makes me think it's some kind of variable switch and not a poteniometer), but no luck. Factory seems closest to correct. So, I'm $40 in on this "free" dreamcast and I want it to work.
Finally, I think I have three options:
1. Find a cheap "untested" dreamcast and hope gd-rom works. But aren't they all going bad? Anyone have any luck with this?
2. The jvc spu-3200. All I can find with Google and reading reviews, no one has ever gotten this to work. Anyone? Anyone?
3. My favorite, the fantasy option. The reason the dreamcast fails is because the laser is "degrading." What is degrading? It kind of acts like a ps1 with an off kilter laser. Is that possible? Under the laser there is a screw with with spring for a washer and the two black screws next to the lens seem to affect the seating. Anyone smarter than me done any research? There must be a reason/way to save all these dying DCs!
Sorry for the long post.

[MadnessUNC]

I got it working. For the record:
Samsung - Cd-rom Drive, Cd-master 48e Sc-148, Dell Id-00y750 Rev.a00 (black)

No modification and I got it used for $8 including shipping(pot NEEDS to be adjusted initially though)

[Aleron Ives]

If you intend to adjust the potentiometer, you should use an Ohm meter to see just how much you're adjusting it. Twisting the screw blindly probably won't yield good results.

[krssn]

If you intend to adjust the potentiometer, you should use an Ohm meter to see just how much you're adjusting it. Twisting the screw blindly probably won't yield good results.

Hear, hear...