Graphical glitches when playing from CD-ROM

[Everblue]

I just got myself a PC Engine complete with CD-ROM2 and was trying to play some copies which I burned on Traxdata CD-Rs with verification (no errors). Some games work fine, others show some glitches - see images below. Also sometimes audio track music stops playing while the game still keeps going. Any ideas what is wrong? Thanks!

[thesteve]

dirty system card
bad cd work ram
bad iso

[Everblue]

A small update. I got in touch with the guy who sold this to me (he buys them from Japan then refurbishes them) and I was told that he puts a brand new laser in them (not the original). As long as I stick to particular brands of CD-R I should not have problems.

[blueraven]

There is a lot of information on this in the repair forums. Do a search here and read up on whats involved in a laser replacement.

[blueraven]

And thesteve is 100% right. Start there before you think about replacing it.

[Everblue]

Which is the brand of CD-R to use in terms of compatibility?

[bozo55]

Which is the brand of CD-R to use in terms of compatibility?

You're more interested in Media ID than brand.  This is because the same brand can have different suppliers.  Perfect example is Verbatim.  Their Super AZO discs are some of the best, but their other stuff is typically terrible these days.

What you want is Taiyo Yuden or MAM (Mitsui).

[Keith Courage]

Some CD drives hate CDRs no matter what you do.

However, I have found for me that regular Sony CDRs or TDK CDRs work best. All those expensive gold or silver discs do not seem to make a difference with what I've tested. Waist of money. Make sure to burn at 8x or slower.

[bigbacon]

having the same issue with memorex cd-r.

burning at 7.3 speed on a old computer. Oldest cd-r drive I  have as well. only drive that worked for burning sega cd games.

[Keith Courage]

Does the CD drive sound like it's having trouble reading the games? Does the lens click or reset at times? If not then you have a hardware issue. Maybe a faulty CD system card or IFU docking station. I haven't come across a CD drive with these issues before but maybe some one else here has? Generally when I see those glitches it's system card or bad IFU. IFU might be repairable.

however, if you are having reading issues like slow loading times or clicking of the CD lens here and there as it's trying to read then maybe some minor potentiometer adjustments will take care of the problem

[bigbacon]

and I assume just because it can read and play audio cds no problem that it doesn't mean games will work?

[thesteve]

The drive doesn't care what the CD contains, so if it reads CD music I'd suspect the base or card
Connections between the system and base could also be at fault

[bigbacon]

If you get the CD player on the screen is that any different than just popping the disc in there and hitting play?

like Ys 1&2, text shows up but graphics are a mess. I tried cleaning the connections between the drive and the base and it seems if I wiggle the drive around and keep trying it never seems to fix it but it seems to effect loading time depending.

I can move the drive and it loads quite quickly but other times it seems to take a good 30 seconds to start to load the game.

I am running CD-R game as I have no legit games to try.

[thesteve]

it would be system to base, not drive to base

[bigbacon]

wouldn't all games have issues then?

[Debvgger_]

This looks like bad RAM to me. Damn.

Do the glitches appear at the same positions if you power off and then try the same game again?

If the answer is yes, try to burn the same game two times and see if the glitches are the same too.

Do you have another system card to try?

[thesteve]

not all games as system card to PCE (low addresses) would still be solid
the issue is bad data from ram to CPU
this can be caused by bad ram, or bad connection to ram
bad connection on an address pin will only effect certain addresses so connections are still a possible issue
the issue could be in the PCE or IFU, or connection between
note i have seen this on a duo with corroded traces to the ADPCM RAM
it only effected grafix if the PCM ram was used
it effected PCM sound quality as well

[Psycho Punch]

Waist of money.

Nulltard check this out, wanna get rich?

[Everblue]

This looks like bad RAM to me. Damn.

Do the glitches appear at the same positions if you power off and then try the same game again?

If the answer is yes, try to burn the same game two times and see if the glitches are the same too.

Do you have another system card to try?

I have copied the same game for a few times on the same kind of media and different ones for a few times, with the following results:

1. Some copies play fine every time
2. Some copies have graphical glitches every time
3. Some copies don't work at all
4. Some copies work intermittently

Makes sense now?

[thesteve]

if the game works right (any copy, same game) then your having cdr issues, from the sounds of it bad burns

[Everblue]

if the game works right (any copy, same game) then your having cdr issues, from the sounds of it bad burns

Yep, but then I even tried burning using a different machine with similar results. I also burn with verification.

Last resort, I am getting a bunch of CDRs of the brand "X Lyne" which seem to work everytime, 100% error free. Will confirm.

[ddoubledee]

This is pretty rare to see, but I had something similar happen to me once. I burned a copy of Ys 4 translated onto a cheap Maxell CD-R... Loading was SO SLOW and often it would load corrupt data-- small graphics were garbled and text boxes would be filled with gibberish *#($&$@! stuff... You could really hear the drive struggling to read the disc, too.

I would guess that you're having a similar issue and it has something to do with the CD-Rs... Reading a CD-R in one of these old CDROM2 drives is like reading a badly scratched up original... The pits in the disc of a CD-R aren't so perfectly defined like in a factory-pressed disc... So you could say they appear 'blurrier' to the laser pickup and it has a harder time distinguishing the 1s and 0s.

Your drive might benefit from a pot tuneup. That might help the drive read a bigger variety of discs. I usually start off with a factory pressed disc, like a music CD, and adjust the pots until it reads perfectly and skip recovery works good. Then I will change to a good quality CD-R and adjust again. Then I will change to a crappy quality CD-R and adjust one more time.  But be warned... THIS CAN BE A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE TO DO BY 'EAR' (without an oscilliscope). You could spend hours or even days adjusting the pots and still end up making it worse.  But if you get it tuned just right-- It should be somewhat tough to get an original factory-pressed disc to skip by tapping on the drive... While CD-Rs will skip much easier, the skip recovery should work most of the time.

Also some drives just plain work better than others with CD-Rs. Newer drives especially have better tolerance when reading CD-R. **On a side note... Great idea using an old CD burner to burn the discs. I've noticed my older burner seems to do a better job for these picky consoles, too.**

[bigbacon]

i can play audio from a cd-r no problem

[ddoubledee]

It's possible you could have a different problem than the OP (Everblue), bigbacon. I'm assuming you haven't been able to get any CD-R game to work properly...? (While Everblue has had the odd one work).

Keith Courage, thesteve and Debvgger_ also had some good observations / ideas.

[bigbacon]

i only piggy backed here instead of making a new thread because my issues, visually, looks exactly like the screenshots he posted.

[thesteve]

heh, i didnt realize i was responding to 2 different users/devices

[ddoubledee]

It's too bad you guys can't get ahold of an original CD game... any abundant / common game like Cosmic Fantasy 2, or something to test... For kicks, if anything. ;)

[bigbacon]

well... for 7 dollars shipped I just grabbed cosmic fantasy 2...so we will see

[wolfman]

Your drive might benefit from a pot tuneup. That might help the drive read a bigger variety of discs. I usually start off with a factory pressed disc, like a music CD, and adjust the pots until it reads perfectly and skip recovery works good. Then I will change to a good quality CD-R and adjust again. Then I will change to a crappy quality CD-R and adjust one more time.  But be warned... THIS CAN BE A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE TO DO BY 'EAR' (without an oscilliscope). You could spend hours or even days adjusting the pots and still end up making it worse.  But if you get it tuned just right-- It should be somewhat tough to get an original factory-pressed disc to skip by tapping on the drive... While CD-Rs will skip much easier, the skip recovery should work most of the time.

Or you skip this whole frustrating procedure and use a factory copy of ICFTD for setup. Since playback of video is the most critical part, you can go that route as well. If the videos play fine for, say, 20 mins, then you have a perfectly setup drive that will read CDRs as well, like all mine do.

Interestingly mine doesn´t like the Taiyo Yuden too much (no matter which speed I burned them at) - others work fine even when burned 40x. I didn´t have much to re-adjust after  heavy CD playing for quite some time.


If you can find silver-sided CDRs, then I would go that route.

[esteban]

Your drive might benefit from a pot tuneup. That might help the drive read a bigger variety of discs. I usually start off with a factory pressed disc, like a music CD, and adjust the pots until it reads perfectly and skip recovery works good. Then I will change to a good quality CD-R and adjust again. Then I will change to a crappy quality CD-R and adjust one more time.  But be warned... THIS CAN BE A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE TO DO BY 'EAR' (without an oscilliscope). You could spend hours or even days adjusting the pots and still end up making it worse.  But if you get it tuned just right-- It should be somewhat tough to get an original factory-pressed disc to skip by tapping on the drive... While CD-Rs will skip much easier, the skip recovery should work most of the time.

Or you skip this whole frustrating procedure and use a factory copy of ICFTD for setup. Since playback of video is the most critical part, you can go that route as well. If the videos play fine for, say, 20 mins, then you have a perfectly setup drive that will read CDRs as well, like all mine do.

Interestingly mine doesn´t like the Taiyo Yuden too much (no matter which speed I burned them at) - others work fine even when burned 40x. I didn´t have much to re-adjust after  heavy CD playing for quite some time.


If you can find silver-sided CDRs, then I would go that route.

Yet another reason everyone should own ICFTD (besides the title song).

[bigbacon]

ok, even a real game doesn't work right for me. I got cosmic phantasy 2 or whatever and the logo screens and the animation screens work fine but the in game graphics are messed up.

The characters on screen render fine but the backgrounds are just a jumbled mess of tiles, like someone took a slide puzzle and messed it all up.

starshipvonbraun.com/ss/WP_20150511_15_54_45_Pro.jpg

[thesteve]

that is a definite hardware issue
either bad ram (IFU or system card) or connections between system, ifu and system card

[Debvgger_]

You really need to find someone nearby and try combinations of different system cards / IFU units / consoles.


BTW, nice 7800 games there :-) I like the 7800 too.

[thesteve]

i second that
im in cali
i have PCE IFU CDR2 and TG16 but no TGCD base
lets see who is near by you and could help nail it down to a modular part

[bigbacon]

well... anyone out near Winchester VA?

I've tried different system cards and even launched the system card (both US and JP) from an everdrive and it does the same thing.

so you guys are thinking it is the base not the TG16 or the cd drive itself?

[thesteve]

i suspect the base

[bigbacon]

know what is really funny with cosmic fantasy 2. every time I bring up the menu, the tile set changes.

[thesteve]

i have fixed 1 TG CD base with grafix issues
on CF2 the images were mostly right but the text was garbled
replaced 2 DIP ram chips

[bigbacon]

Are they socketed things or something you would need to solder?

[thesteve]

they are soldered in

[ddoubledee]

Yikes, yeah... Must be a memory issue.

[ddoubledee]

Nothing to do with the OP... I just wanted to say thanks to wolfman. I fixed up another CD-ROM2, and I used It Came From the Desert to adjust the pots. Worked a treat, faster than the way I've been doing it.