Dreamcast condition

[Neku]

Hey guys, so I got a dreamcast for my birthday and it is great! I am a bit worried about something though, when playing games I can hear the console making sort of like a chugging noise. It is only at random times but it worries me that it's scratching my discs. I know it's probably just reading them but I need to make sure. Also, when turning off the console I usually just go to the games menu and hit the power button until I learned you can go to the menu by pressing all the face buttons and start, is the first way I did it potentially harmful? If so, will it effect anything if I only did it like 3 times?

Thanks!

[daniel116]

The sound is fine, every dreamcast does that.
I don't think that turning off the dream without going to the main menu will harm it in any way, or else there would be an "exit to main menu" thing like with the PS3.
The main problem with machines that don't have a stand by mode is that when you turn the machine on it goes from zero power to full power and receives a big electric shock that might hurt it, but if you don't turn your dreamcast on and off 50 times a day it will be fine and will provide you with years of pleasure <:D