Yeah I had to remove about 15-20 screws to get the laser unit off too. When you remove the screws, lift the laser unit off, turn it upside down and remove the metal plate on the bottom by taking out the 6 small screws. Then you can see the board of the laser unit and the potentiometer. When you tweak, turn the pot in as small increments as you can manage!!! Seriously, a little turn can make a big difference. And turn counter-clockwise!! Not sure what you mean about these clips Spud, I had to take off the complete laser unit. I thought it was just the controller ports and the backflap that were on clips

Looks like I was wrong about the lidswitch - like you say Spud, with minis no switch mod needed.

I had the same bic problems too! Kept wearing away the plastic every time I turned! I had one screw that was a real bastard to get out, but did it in the end. On Maxconsole, somebody was saying they jammed up the hole with melted plastic so they couldn't get at the screw, so they just had to crack it off instead

Not sure about Anaconda being region-free - AFAIK, if your TV is 60HZ, you should be ok, but not really not sure, I am sticking with Cobra for now.

mmm, I've just hit problem number 1:
The disks say they have 1,459,617,792 bytes free to write and the image for RE4 is 1,460,285,440 WTF is wrong??

same for starfox and I assume all other non wiped GC images

***Update***
worked on the 2nd batch, the first must be faulty

This laser tweak is a fucking nightmare though, I'm struggling to get it to read copied disk on ANY media

I'm down as low as 30Ohms and still nothing

sweeet!

Just tried my first disc. Spiderman 2, burnt at two speed on datawrite (minis!) with a pioneer 108. Booted up and plays dandy.

I haven't played far into the game but everything worked a-okay.

As for the screws, I haven't needed to take the laser fully off, so maybe there more screws I haven't seen. There's these little plastic things though that you push in and bits fall off lol... maybe I broke it Either that or its bits of burnt biro

170-210Omhz is your tweak area. You only supposed to tweak if your initial setting is over 250. (as I deduced after hours of studying the photographs that had this written in big red letters )

I'm going to try another game now... wish me luck.

okay;
Spiderman 2 -> boots everytime, no problem
Fifa 2005 -> boots everytime, no problem... erm except it was in spanish? Anyone know how to change language
RE:Cover Veronica -> Won't boot

Now going to try, metroid prime and rebel strike 3.

Datawrites are good by the looks of things Haven't touched my laser.

Have you tried RE4 yet Spud?
Or Starfox assault?

Don't trust that guide Spud! There is no optimum level, every cube is different. That guide is very old now and hasn't been updated more than once right after it was written. And if your cube is 250ohms, doesn't mean your not gonna have to change it. Some people have cubes that start with 130ohms and they still have to tweak them down!

Basically as long as you put it down a bit you should be ok, but I certainly wouldn't put it down too much, I already did, tweaked it back up a bit and now it works better than ever at 340ohms. YOU have to find the best level for your cube. The factory settings have ranged from like 90 to 600. Don't just jump straight to what the guide says to you. Keep it as close to factory as you can, as long as it boots you should be ok and your laser won't burn out too quickly.

Seriously, trust me on this. Find out for yourself what works best, there's no standard.

I heard about a bad batch of minis - if you ordered them from SVP they will replace them for you.

I have Starfox working on Viper. but the game sucks.

Just re-read - so you haven't had to tweak at all Spud? Lucky!!

How's it going with Disc Read Errors? Any problems? Apparently Mario Golf and Tennis are among the worst for giving DRE, but I only had 1 on Tennis myself.

Firstly I see what you mean about the screws lol

Secondly, Okay folks, I've got a very expensive multimeter borrowed from the local school.

My Gamecube is at ~160 +- .1 Ohms . At this it boots spiderman 2 and Fifa no problems, however, it won't boot Resident Evil Code Veronica nor will it boot Rogue Squadren 3.

I've tried 184.5 and its the same. I also tried 130 and its the same.

Trying 153.5 Ohms. I'll try a few more, including some high one at 300, and then report back if it works.

DRE btw? All I get is that it either boots or doesn't boot, in game it's just like any other game.

I wonder if its the actually iso that's frelled though, the two that don't boot work over the LAN mind, but maybe they've had garbage stripped? They were 1.35GB so I didn't think they'd have had anything removed.

I tried loads of levels, but it works just the same in all, except really high, where it doesn't boot even spiderman 2

you know, I think its the media thats just really good, and those isos were bust. It does say in the boot guides they don't like all the isos.

Wow your ohms are low, mine was 480. Anyway, tweaking up won't help you, and you don't want to go too low and if you're booting those 2 games ok I think your laser is fine at factory setting, so set it back and hope you never have to change it again.

I'll explain about ISO wiping and stuff because it's quite confusing maybe. Some games have no garbage removed, some have garbage WIPED and some have garbage STRIPPED. Wiped = garbage replaced with zeros, stripped = garbaged totally removed. In the nfos, they sometimes refer to wiped releases as stripped and vice versa so don't trust them. Basically, if the iso is 1.35GB it is either with garbage or wiped. If the iso is less then it is stripped. Cobra/Anaconda can read wiped isos no problem, the problem is with stripped ones.

You can replace the garbage in most stripped games with a tool that you can find here: http://forums.maxconsole.com/showthread ... stid=31891
You might have to search through the pages in that thread to find the latest version with a gui. this tool can also sort out streaming audio on isos with streaming audio and it can re-align all the data etc. read the thread for more info.

But your isos sound ok if they're 1.35gb. Every game I have burnt works for me unless I have made a mistake and I have sorted it in the end. Which releases of the games that don't boot do u have? I have Starcube Rogue Squadron III USA and Morrigan Code Veronica USA. If you really want me to burn one, I'll do it (preferably Code Veronica!) and see if it boots for me.

There are some dodgy isos out there thought so be careful if you don't want to make mini-coasters.

Not having much luck after those two titles, Legend of Zelda Four Swords doesn't boot either

Its Star.Wars.Rebel.Strike.Rogue.Squadron.3.USA.NGC-STARCUBE , it boots over a lan but not from the disc... or at least I think it did, might have been 2 that booted.

But they're so cute!

Well all the ones I've attempted to burn boot over the lan, so I assumed they'd be okay from the disk... it just doesn't take to the disk.

It doesn't have any error msg or anything, you hear the laser power down, I switch in the disc, it spins, but then nothing

I tried both discs of Code Veronica, Rogue Squadren 3, and Zelda Four Swords. None of them boot, the Fifa and spiderman 2 do.

I'm sure your isos are ok. It's just a few bad apples out there that are fucked.

The only thing I can think of really is different media. I know you're using your Pioneer to burn them so that shouldn't be the problem. If the iso is 1.35 it should work, and most Starcube releases seem to be wiped and have worked for me. Before i tweaked the second cube i vipered, some of my games were working but some weren't, but they all worked after I tweaked.

I told you to get Datasafe!!! Work best in both the gamecubes i tried.

Just wait until PCA tries his Bulkpaq

Yeah, nothing good to report about bulkpaq

wait a minute, i find it a bit suspicious that I've 100% boot from PAL, and 0% boot from NTSC!!!! I don't think this thing is region free

It isn't (yet)

although some people are having more success by holding B whilst booting PSO then selecting 60hz, it seems to work more often.

This claims to be though : http://forums.maxconsole.com/showthread ... eadid=3973

doh, in that case, 100% success with PAL datawrites
unknown success with NTSC datawrites lol

I tweaked my gamecube back to ~160Ohms... btw is it a good idea not to bother putting any of the screws back in? I've been booting up without doing that because I couldn't be arsed.... everything plugs into place anyway.

edit: nope that doesn't work, either method.

Have you seen the new release? GCOS 1.1? Fixes region compatability apparently, it didn't work in 1.0

And the pressing B thing is only for NTSC users playing pal games, it's to swap between 50hz and 60hz. They don't have that in NTSC games, I think their B allows swapping to progressive scan.

no i haven't I will do now though!
http://forums.maxconsole.com/showthread ... eadid=3973