Adjusting the Gamecube's Laser | Retro Gaming How To
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มี.ค. 2023
- Today we are adjusting the Gamecube's Laser to make it read discs again. Will this actually solve my problem?
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Dude you saved me so much hassle. I had 2 gamecubes that kept not reading but i could hear the drive going and see that the lens moved. One of my gamecubes was reading at like 800 and the other 480. Adjusted them both and now they work perfectly!
Thank you for the video :D
Glad to be of help! And good that you were able to get your cubes reading again!
Thanks a lot for this video. Great explanation and my son is very happy that he can play on our old Gamecube again!
Thank you for teaching me. I'm an automotive technician and familiar with a multimeter, but I did not know how to fully open a gamecube or what the resistors should be on. Love this video and thanks again for you work
I try to be as informative as I can be with what knowledge I have. Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad I was able to help!
Hey, thanks for this tutorial. It worked for me :)
first off good to see im not the only one with a open button thats sticks. and well dang i just replaced the laser and i coulda just spun a thing smh.. i dont have a multimeter tho and im sure the new laser wont hurt it so at least its not a waste
Try turning the screw counterclockwise its how I fixed my original nintendo game cube and it works excellent
how long does this laser tuning last? ive seen alot of videos doing this but no mention
I tuned my laser like this on a 360 and it lasted another 1-2 yrs before completely dying
Which way do you twist for the multimeter thing
Hey man thx for the explanation, i finally feel relieved that i know what the problem is, fantastic video. The only thing is im super clumsy and i dont think i hv the patience and steady hands to remove everything and put it back together cuz i lose things easily. Do u think if i take it in to geek squad or an electronic repairs shop they could get the job done explaining the problem to them??
Geek squad probably not. An electric repair shop might be able to or maybe call around to any local game stores and see if they might do repair work. A local store would be my first choice if I didn’t want to do it myself. They would be at least a bit more specialized in console repair, if they do in fact do it.
The laser is working better but now I dont have a display. Disk is spinning when holding buttons, fan is running but no display. Do you might know why?
On my DOL 001 unit, if you tried to play a disk right after turning it on it would show no disk, but then 5-10 minutes later it would work. Apparently, that is a sign that the capacitors on the optical drive PCB are failing, which is quite a common issue with these consoles now they are over 20 years old. You can buy cap kits for the GC and recap the optical PCB fairly easily. Not saying adjusting the variable resister on the laser won't fix it in the short term, but be on the lookout. If you don't rate your soldering skills, you can buy replacement boards that have been recapped (and even modded with things like xeno chips etc).
Yeaaahhhh, I have noticed the same thing on mine, even now after tuning it. So I think a recap is in my near future. Probably worth doing a video on that as well.
@@TheCartCollector Yeah, that would be good. I watched a couple of videos before doing mine, it was fairly straightforward as long as you have some soldering experience. One thing, on one of the videos one of the capacitors had leaked and corroded the pad underneath, and they had to do some funky wiring to fix it. That's what really prompted me to pull my finger out and just do it - I'm no expert, but I figured the longer I left it, the more likely a more serious failure was (maybe).
also just an fyi for everyone having this problem the laser itself is only like $10. dont buy a whole new drive if you dont need to! its definitely alot of screws but very accessible
Where do u find one for 10 dollars?
From where?
@Overcast_daKid there's some at Amazon for $15-14
Interested to know as well cuz everywhere i look is deff more than an used unit.
whats the name of the song its stuck in my head
I would take and cut out the potentiometer section of that shield
I got a gamecube usa it was broken but now it slides uo and down could you a live stream only on TH-cam
Great video! Do you have a link to your toolset? Thanks!
It’s the iFixit Mako tool kit. You can find it here:
a.co/d/a311WHM
@@TheCartCollector thank you.
I have a dol 001 (USA) I had to turn mine down to 50 ohm for it to work…. Bruh… between 150 and 250 was not cutting it not even 100. So 50ohm did it for me.
Is there a risk of damaging game discs when adjusting the potentiometer of a Gamecube? Can the laser be too strong?
In short, yes. It can be made too strong and can burn the discs. But on a positive note: If you’re having to adjust the laser and make it stronger, then it’ll have to go pretty far before it gets strong enough to actually do that. Still, best to only adjust it as much as you need to to get it to read.
I'm confused so if it should be between 450 and 600 how come 180 which is nowhere near that worked?
So as the laser ages and starts going bad, It will need more and more power to be strong enough to read the discs. And lowering that resistance allows more power to get to the laser. 450-600 is the range within that the potentiometer will be set to when it’s brand new from the factory. As this is the same laser that my system had when I got it as a kid in 2001, it’s pretty damn old, and I had to lower it to 180 to give it enough power to read the discs. The fact that it still even works at all is a marvel to me.
I did this to mine, for some reason it'd just freeze on either bootup or just freeze if i dont load a new place after a certain time. Sadly i dont have anything to read the pentiometer...let's hope.
When I close the lid or press the power button, it tries to read the disc for about 7-8 seconds, and then the message “disk error” appears. I can also hear a whistle every now and then, or louder noise of the mechanism. This happen with a lot of attempts, even 30-40, untill at a certain point the game starts. From that moment, every time the disc starts immediately, on the first try, even changing games. If I leave the console off for a few days, the problem reappear. Based on this, could it be that it just needs a calibration?
I might would try cleaning the lens first since it is capable of reading the discs, but for whatever reason it just isn’t able to do that on a consistent basis. Ensuring that the lens is clean should be step 1 as that’s the easiest thing to do.
Assuming you’ve done that already, then yes, I think it would be worth pulling it apart to check the calibration on the laser. Mine wasn’t reading discs at all, so it definitely needed to be adjusted, yours might be right at the edge of not reading discs, so just a small change might be all you need.
@@TheCartCollector I'll try! Hope it works 🤞Thank you
@@TheCartCollector I have a PAL 001. So i should High or low based on the value I find, between 450-600 ohms?
450-600 is how it comes from the factory, but if it’s not reading discs, you’ll have to lower it until it starts reading discs consistently. So if it currently is at 450, then try lowering it to 400 and try it again. Then again to 350 if it still wouldn’t read. You want to lower it a little bit at a time so you don’t make the laser too strong and burn it out.
@@TheCartCollector I tried and now it reads! Just tested, the value was 245. But isn’t it very low for a DOL-001? So I tried to lift it up. At 380 it didn’t worked, also at 550. So I tried to lower it to 200, and now it works! But wouldn’t this value be good for a DOL-001? Will this cause any damage?
If i leave my gamecube powered on for 10 minutes, the laser starts working properly.
Something can definitely be said for letting a laser warm up like that. Good thing to be aware of in the future when my laser starts to act up again!
That is your laser capacitors going bad. That’s usually what it means when you let it warm up then it works. Needs a recap which is kind of a hassle process if you’re new to soldering. If you try this guys method of adjusting all your doing is putting more pressure on those caps and yes it’ll fix it but very very temporary. If you keep adjusting the pot everytime it goes out you’re going to fry your caps when they’re already well on their way. You’ll probably need a new disk drive all together if you aren’t confident that you could recap it or take it to a console repair shop.
@@junebug4899 thanks for the info. I figured the drive was toast. I pre-ordered the flippy drive as an alternative to getting a new spinning disc drive.
BS advice.
Twisting the pot will kill tne laser fast.
You need to recap the PCB under the drive. 10 capacitors and the cube will read your disks again like the 1st day you had it.
If the disk spins, it means the laser works. No need to touch the pot.
NEVER , its factory calibrated for this laser.
TO FIX THE PROBLEM YOU SHOULD CHANCGE THE CAPACITORS ON THE DISK DRIVE BOARD, NO NEED TO ADJUST THE POTENTIOMETER.
If you don't want to buy a tool you're never going to use again you can just drill out the plastic around the bolts took me 10 minutes didn't damage anything important.
no use a 4mm socket instead of destroying shit