Replacement laser for jap dreamcast?

[stepp]

Hi all

My mate has a jap dreamcast which is playing up, wont read disks etc, skipping.

Obviously its the laser at fault but can these be replaced?

Anyone know what to look for...where to buy from?

Any help would be great

Thanks

[chaoticjelly]

Try cleaning the laser lens with isopropyl alcohol, and failing that tweak the laser pot, there are guides on the Internet.

I've seen some lasers on eBay but they aren't particularly cheap, so probably cheaper to get another Dreamcast and use that, or swap the GD-ROM drive rather then replace the lens.

[stepp]

Are all dreamcast lasers universal then? IE: can he get a UK dreamcast and use the laser from that?

Tried cleaning it, doesnt make any difference really, i think he did try tweaking the pot a few months back, so whether him doing that has made it worse i dont know.

Thanks for the info.

[Link83]

Yeah, they are universal so you can swap them out no problems. The only exception to this is the USA revision 2 consoles (quite rare) which has the laser motherboard combined into the consoles motherboard - all UK consoles are revision 1 and so have a separate removable GD-rom assembly.

When pot tweaking you need to make tiny adjustments (even 10-20 degrees is enough most times) Usually the DC lasers pot is not far off to begin with. If you turn it too much you can give too much power to the laser and burn it out

[chaoticjelly]

The actual whole assembly can be swapped over, but the actual lens assembly has two different versions. I forget the model numbers but one is called SPU-3200 and is in later Dreamcasts, most have another type of lens assembly which I saw for sale on eBay.

[Link83]

The actual whole assembly can be swapped over, but the actual lens assembly has two different versions. I forget the model numbers but one is called SPU-3200 and is in later Dreamcasts, most have another type of lens assembly which I saw for sale on eBay.

Yep, there were two different lasers used during production of the Dreamcast:-

-SPU3200 made by Yamaha
-R48 (sometimes also called R48G) made by Samsung.

From my recent experiences I have often found that the Samsung R48 laser is the one most likely one to fail/need to be pot tweaked - I am only basing this off six Dreamcast consoles though, so I could be wrong.

If you are replacing just the laser itself you need to make sure that you are replacing it with the right one, heres a pic of each - R48 on the left, and SPU3200 on the right:-

Its quite easy to tell which one you have without even dissassembling your Dreamcast, just open the drive door and if the laser has a 'curved' edge its an SPU3200, and if its got 'straight' edges its an R48. Heres a pic of both drives assemblies, this time Yamaha on the left and Samsung on the right:-

If you look closely at the lens you should be able to see the differences (Just to be safe dont do this whilst the console is on!)

If you are swapping the whole GD-Rom assembly (which is the easiest method) it doesnt matter which laser it has.
--------------------------------------------------------------
As I mentioned before, the only Dreamcast that you cant easily swap the whole assembly on is the very last revision which has a motherboard VA2.1 (Circle '2' on the consoles bottom silver sticker) This is because the Dreamcasts main motherboard and the GD-ROM motherboard have been combined together. Heres a pic of the insides:-

This is also the model which has the Bios modified so as not to accept CD's in the audio/data format (often incorrectly called the MilCD format) which stopped many pirate games from working, This worked until the pirates changed the releases to the data/data format

You are very unlikely to come across this last revision, as few were made before production ended, and you will only find this revision on US or Japanese consoles. In Europe Sega still had lots of inventory of European Dreamcasts so never had this last revision.

Anyway, I have waffled on long enough! I hope this info helps/interests someone