Doctor V64 Disc Drive Errors

[WarGames]

Hello, I'm sort of new to the Assembler forums, but I've been checking in and out for a couple weeks now or so. For this site I am very grateful because from the information here I was able to fix my power supply for the V64. Which may or may not be a part of the problem.

A couple weeks ago I soldered an svideo cable to the power supply's inside. Before I was about to put it into my Doctor V64 I made sure to test it with a multimeter, once at home, once at my university's electrionic lab. From there on I was ready to go and kick some ass with my Doctor V64.

The problem starts here....

For the first few minutes I was excited because everything appeared the way it used to. The bios came up and I was able to scroll around the menu using the buttons on the unit. The problem was, it wouldn't recognize the cd. When I pressed the play button the unit just stalled, and say "time out" error.

:no......
After researching some more I remembered the v64 files needed to be burned it a special way, I burned a data cd using nero 5.5 with the settings seen in the attatched picture.

But alas, it did not fix anything, and I got the same error.

But as I was trying to figure out the problem, I noticed the drive was making a SOFT "clink" or "purdink" noise which nevers happens when I used both of these drives on the PC's. I began to wonder what was wrong with the drive. I think that the noise was caused by the laser bumping into the rotating center (motor), as if it were stuck. This bothered me.

-(small note: delayed time for ejecting the drive)

-(another small note: the bios seemed to run much slower while the drive was making this sound. When performing the V64 self test, the NTSC at the right hand corner of the screen would sometimes be missing the C, the or the SC.
[NT or NTS instead of NTSC])

(-latst note for now: as many of you may know, the v64 needs to be tightly shut in order to function properly which can become an annoyance!)

I opened and close the Doctor v64 unit about 50 times today, trying two different drives and different combinations. I even led myself to believe that two cd-rom drives had become broken and I spent an hour and a half anaylzing the insides of them taking apart almost every piece trying to figure out what the problem was. Only thing I noticed was that the bars used to slide the tray could have used a tad more lubricant. But, by far, nothing seriously wrong. I put them back together, and took them apart again and again, before I decided to test the drives on my PC to see if they would eject and play the cds.

The drives worked average to good in the PC just as they would normally do. Which dumfounded me even more. I double checked to make sure the IDE cable was attatched to the V64 and it was indeed. I took it out and put it back in again to make sure. Nothing I have tried has worked. :angry

can somebody with more knowledge on the subject of Doctor V64s please post what you think the problem may or may not be.

INFORMATION:
Doctor v64 NTSC: Bios v2.02
Drive 1: "Aopen" 52x CD Drive
Drive 2: "Samsung" 8x or around CD drive
Current Error Screen: Drive error or no disc


thank you all in advance! :)

[Cactusjack1999]

Let me get this straight....

You soldered an S-video cable....into the power supply.

[Calpis]

1 (that's the status of your power supply error flag ;)

[WarGames]

NOTE PEOPLE:
THE DOCTOR V64 POWERS UP FINE, AND ALL OF THE BIOS FUNCTIONS WORK PERFECTLY, THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THE CD DRIVE!

Let me get this straight....

You soldered an S-video cable....into the power supply.

:smt071
..Yes, the cable that attatches to the Doctor V64 is a Din4 jack, exactly the same as a S-Video cable, the only difference is that the S-video cable is coaxial, meaning that the "signal" or power wires in my case, are shielded by ground, meant to block interference etc, but doesnt make much difference when it comes to power.

1 (that's the status of your power supply error flag ;)

I'm not sure that i get what you mean. Can you explain more to me?

[Calpis]

Yeah, I'd recheck the PSU. Something's not right, perhaps the 12V is at fault. If the V64 works chances are 5V is acceptible. Check to see if the 12V goes anywhere besides the CDROM. I'd try to get that 5V current too, since maybe it can't supply enough for both the CDROM and V64. Can you try powering the CDROM with your PC while it's connected to the V64?

[WarGames]

Getting the drive connected to the PC's power source will be tough while trying to connect it to the V64 at the same time since the IDE cable on the short. The power supply is getting exactly 5 and 12 volts in the correct places, however i have not checked the amperage yet, so that could be the problem. However, I don't see how it could loose significant current through the wires in an svideo cable. However I will see what I can do. If the current is good, and it still doesnt work what would people suggest.

[mdmx]

burn the disc with ISO Level 1 and NOT Level 2.

if that won't work, test the cd drive with a music cd. the Doctor V64 should play it. use a original disc and no copy. if the V64 can't read the disc, the last thing you could try is a bios update (V2.03 is the latest). a friend of mine had problems with his V64 too, after a bios update his machine worked fine.

[Benedict_Arnold]

Buy a Z64. That's what I say.

[Warakia]

OT something I have been wondering - why is the visual quality of games loaded through the v64 greatly lower than if it were just running of the 64 normally? Is it the outputs on the v64 that mess it up? I actually tried the v64 with a vcd I had kicking about and the quality was no where near as bad as the v64 booted games, any clues?

[Benedict_Arnold]

You can buy a VGA Enchancer that makes the quality sharper and better. I noticed the same thing you are talking about.

[Calpis]

The reason for the degradation is that the V64 is a composite video passthrough device. It itself a NES-like embedded computer (hence why you can play VCD's without the N64); because the V64 outputs composite video natively, and composite video is by far the N64's most popular connection, the two can be multiplexed on the same bus. That's what the V64 does. The N64's composite video output (and stereo audio) is fed into the V64 where it is then either terminated or output to your TV depending on whether or not the N64 is powered on. The audio is also passed through a DSP (I presume it is a side-function of the VCD decoder) which I personally don't mind, some do. Since composite video itself isn't great, noise from the V64 can substantially make it worse, it all depends on the system as a whole's noise.

The bottom line: You don't have to pass video through the V64, it's just convenient. You can still use your RGB modified N64 on one of your TV's inputs and the V64's composite out on another, you'll just have to manually switch.

[Warakia]

Thanks, it was annoying me, I'm playing on a lcd screen with the brightness way up so you can really see the clarity, which means interference on blacks really shows up! Still why is the composite supposed to pass through the v64? Surely it would be better to hook the v64 up by composite, load the game. Then swap composites to the n64. I tried hooking the composite cables to seperate ports on my tv and I could not get anything on the screen without passing the n64 through the v64 at some point. Ho hum, no biggie, just annoying - especially when composite n64 usually looks very good.