System rebooting... Always at same point in game

[ibeatgodzilla]

Hello,

I've just bought Sonic Adventure 2 on ebay and decided to give it a go.

However the game isn't playing ball. It was described as excellent condition and working, and upon inspection I wouldn't disagree - no scratches or anything on the disc at all.

But it won't work. Menus, no problem, cutscenes, no problem, but as soon as it loads the first level, the system crashes and reboots.

This sounds different to the random rebooting issues I've found elsewhere online related to pins inside the console needing pushing back in etc. And none of my other games ever crash.

If the disc were scratched, I wouldn't be surprised - but it's perfect!

What's odd is that the first time round, it played the cutscene, loaded the level and I actually got to play about 5 seconds before it crashed. Second time, it crashed just after loading the level, within a second of the level actually appearing. Every time in a dozen attempts since, it's just crashed at the loading screen, before even getting to the actual level. Oddly on the last two tries, instead of showing me the cutscene with the helicopter there has been a voiced level intro text instead. It's as if the console tried, then decided it didn't quite have what it takes to run it and crashed instead (except it should because it's a dreamcast game, played on a dreamcast).

Has anybody else experienced anything like this before, or have any idea what the cause and solution might be? It's a bit frustrating that a perfect-looking disc is crashing so consistently at the same point.

- Dan