Dreamcast-Talk.com

Hello

Lately I'm seeing various people online reporting issues with fried GD EMU.
That alone defeat the purpose of its existence as it should last longer than a normal GD Rom drive (yeah of course it is made to play pirate games, but the normal excuse used is that "gd rom drive are not reliable and gd emu is the only time proof solution").

Not onyl that, I'm seeing various post on forums of fried Dreamcast units, and majority of them were used with GD Emu (clones and originals).
My question is: is it a coincidence or GD Emu is simply not reliable (and even dangerous) like any "bootleg" products?

It really last less than a standard gd rom drive? Also what about the SD Serial adapter? Is it reliable and last longer?

All i can say is i got 2 gd emus , both from Ali express. I use my dreamcasts daily and so far i have no issues at all. I installed them both about 2-3 years ago i think

VirtuaShenmue wrote: Not onyl that, I'm seeing various post on forums of fried Dreamcast units

My bet would be that's because they also opted to use those dodgy PSU replacements.

Tarnish wrote:

VirtuaShenmue wrote: Not onyl that, I'm seeing various post on forums of fried Dreamcast units

My bet would be that's because they also opted to use those dodgy PSU replacements.

you mean those pico PSU?
Well I always read there weren't good, but if they really destroy the DC...

I was literally one of the first early adopters of the GDEMU clones back in 2018. My system is an overclocked Dreamcast @240mhz with various other mods such as bios and CMOS battery mod. I use the stock PSU and never had any problems. I think the PSU mods are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist. The stock PSU is the best one you can use. Mine has been modded like this with GDEMU clone for over 5 years, I know the DC has had the other mods done to it for about a decade now from my friend who was the previous owner who commissioned a modder on eBay to soup it up. Anyways, I agree it is most likely due to PSU replacement that killed them which has had countless warnings against using by various veteran modders in the community. Not least of which the RetroRGB site had an article about the dangers of using them which Bob went over in a deep dive article about how much of a colossally bad idea it is to replace the stock one with them. Sega engineers knew what they were doing. Besides the CMOS batteries failing and the disc drives just breaking down from over 20 years of use, the system is very reliable and built like a tank.

https://www.retrorgb.com/dreamcast-repl ... lysed.html

You can also see my long-time friend Voultar saying why they are not a good idea. He makes the point here.

https://twitter.com/voultar/status/1281718888284250122

Folks that saw somebody recommend it on youtube are recommending it to others and literally are the blind leading the blind. Look, I am not going to tell people what to do, but there have been lots of high-profile people in the community who advise against using them for obvious reasons as the voltage regulation isn't the same and it can and will and has, destroyed systems.

VirtuaShenmue wrote:

Tarnish wrote:

VirtuaShenmue wrote: Not onyl that, I'm seeing various post on forums of fried Dreamcast units

My bet would be that's because they also opted to use those dodgy PSU replacements.

you mean those pico PSU?
Well I always read there weren't good, but if they really destroy the DC...

They might not kill the system instantly. But apparently they're hardly an ideal solution.

Would be interesting to know how many of those fried systems did indeed use a 3rd party PSU replacement when they kicked the bucket. I'd start asking about that before blaming the GDemu.

Main killer from gdemu is the cut pci connector and noob not installing it correct also the crap PSU's from china seen as upgrades .. They Also bump it miss align the pins when plugging it in and another dead dc..

Look where talking about people that cant solder cant burn a cdr or even adjust a laser with out breaking it.. THey see no solder mod to dc it gives me games it's the first console they have ever open or worked on.. Pretty much cluster F of storm of broken DC's due to user installed crap mods..



I think it's combine user error and just plain slack work and know how of what your doing..

Voultar’s tweet above should be posted in its entire context given that he also says PicoPSU’s from respected sources are fine - such as Chrisz2600.

The issue with stock PSU’s in PAL Dreamcast’s is that even removing the 12v regulator does very little to reduce heat given the 240v rattling through it.

An NTSC PSU at 110v, sure nice and cool, but the heat off a stock PAL PSU with a GDEMU is dangerously high, I’m talking 50 mins of gameplay and the side/inside of the disc tray above the PSU is hot to the touch.

I’m using the upgraded version of the PicoPSU, the DreamPower, which is smaller with less parts and less soldering than the PicoPSU, and it’s great. Both came from the same trusted UK eBay seller too.

So yeah, it’s easy to quote Voular and he IS an expert but the entire context of his comments should be made clear too via the thread. He doesn’t say ALL PicoPSU’s are bad, and his main gripe is with cheap versions like DreamPSU which weren’t even designed for the Dreamcast.

https://twitter.com/voultar/status/1248 ... G2cvykP0Vg

I was thinking, together with the picoPsu, while modding people seems to change even the stock fan.
I heard bad things about that too (less air capacity than the stock fan), could it be also factor?