I had a Dreamcast in 2001 and was very happy, the best video game I ever had. But thieves entered my house (yes, I live in Brazil) and stole my video game
Now, 15 years later I bought another one! The game came without power cable and AV Cable, but no problem, power cable is universal and for video I bought a VGA Cable that is working.
My problem begin when I tried to play, I still have the games that I bought in 2001, only backups, except the Demo disc and Browser disc.
The games don't work
I read of lot of stuff about laser calibration and I tried to do it, I have some knowledge in electronics because I am technician in electronics. I begin rotate the Trimpot to right to decrease the resistance and test a game, I do it until the resistance is 800ohms and no games worked (not even the demo disc and browser) and I stopped because I was afraid of burning my laser.
I tested the flat cable and it is ok, the power supply voltages is ok too.
So I remember that I have a 2001 Compaq Cd-rom Drive, I opened it and took the lens. The lens is almost identical to the Dreamcast, but have 17 ways (is correct to say 17 ways?). I put it in Dreamcast and tried decreasing the Trimpot little by little and... no games worked again. But I can see the a light flashing in the laser lens, so it is working, even with one way of flat lacking.
My doubt is : is there any other component that is preventing my game to work? What else can I try?
Here are some photos:
The lens:
Left is DC and right Compaq
Left Compaq and right DC
Left Compaq and right DC
Compaq lens
Someone can help me?
