4 ms·

I recall having 'burnt out' two optical drives on hand-me-downed PS1's. Instead of needing a mod chip, you could jam the internal open/close switch mechanism c

I recall having 'burnt out' two optical drives on hand-me-downed PS1's. Instead of needing a mod chip, you could jam the internal open/close switch mechanism closed. Allowing you to open the disc tray while it was still spinning. You'd let a legitimate game boot up to pass the DRM, then swap in a burnt disc. I wondered if it contributed to the drives failing. Also to your point, is Disc Rot itself attacking original discs.

nullsense 6y ago
Used to do this trick. Its called the double swap trick.
kingosticks 6y ago
I did this too but I thought I also had a module that I had to plug into the back to make this work. This was 20 years ago of course so maybe I am remembering this wrong.
- fmj 6y ago
  You had an older model PSX with the parallel port and a Gameshark Pro or similar device. All these disc swap techniques work the same. The PSX only authenticated discs on boot or after the cover was closed, the latter being easily defeated with a piece of tape. If you could swap an authentic disc for a burned one after it had been authenticated, but before any of the actual data had been read, the PSX would run it. The cheapest option was to just force the motor to stop spinning by hand and swap discs at the correct time in the boot process. Cheat discs/devices like the Gameshark made this process easier because they would spin the drive down once you reached their menu and were designed to launch another disc when commanded so you didn't have to precisely time the swap.
  - dugditches 6y ago
    -The cheapest option was to just force the motor to stop spinning by hand Ah, yes that's why I recall thinking doing the trick caused the disc drives to fail.
    - 737maxtw 6y ago
      At least in the USA, most drive failures of early models (the ones that the swap trick worked on) were due to poor quality plastic carriages. Flipping the system upside down would help... for a time.
fmj 6y ago
The best way to do this trick was with a Gameshark/Action Replay disc. After the Gameshark booted it would let the drive spin down until you told it to launch the game. You still had to jam the switch since the PSX reauthenticated the disc when you closed the lid, but you didn't have to worry about damaging the drive or swapping discs at just the right time.
yardie 6y ago
The drive failure comes from the burnt discs. Pressed discs (PS1, CDROM, etc) have pits and a reflective layer that reflect almost 100% the light from the laser. Burned discs have a thin layer of ink. They simulate those pits when they are burned. But since the light has to pass through a layer of ink you lose about 30-50% reflectivity. Those early lasers weren’t designed for CD-R. And to compensate for the loss of reflected light the CDROM controller would pump up the light output. And eventually burn out the laser. And one day you’d be unable to read discs. Then you’d hop on eBay to find hundreds of replacement laser modules for sale because it was super common
- garaetjjte 6y ago
  That's interesting. Any source on this? Because CD-R specs says: >After recording, the CD-R disc satisfies the specifications as written in the chapter DISC SPECIFICATION of the Red Book.
  - alisonkisk 6y ago
    Why does that matter? That doesn't mean that Sony's non-RedBook drive laser can read CD-R for 20 years
  - bdcravens 6y ago
    Presumably Sony had no reason to design to full spec compliance.
  - yardie 6y ago
    “ Some hardware compatible with Red Book CDs may have difficulty reading CD-Rs and, because of their lower reflectivity, especially CD-RWs.”[0] Also it was common knowledge in the modder community that playing with a modchip burned the laser diode. The theory was the CD-Rs reflectivity made it overdrive. It could also be the modchip itself caused the laser to burnout. Most chips were soldered directly to the CDROM controller. And may have been inadvertently overdriving the laser. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R
- ColdHeat 6y ago

nullsense 6y ago

Used to do this trick. Its called the double swap trick.

kingosticks 6y ago

I did this too but I thought I also had a module that I had to plug into the back to make this work. This was 20 years ago of course so maybe I am remembering this wrong.

fmj 6y ago
You had an older model PSX with the parallel port and a Gameshark Pro or similar device. All these disc swap techniques work the same. The PSX only authenticated discs on boot or after the cover was closed, the latter being easily defeated with a piece of tape. If you could swap an authentic disc for a burned one after it had been authenticated, but before any of the actual data had been read, the PSX would run it. The cheapest option was to just force the motor to stop spinning by hand and swap discs at the correct time in the boot process. Cheat discs/devices like the Gameshark made this process easier because they would spin the drive down once you reached their menu and were designed to launch another disc when commanded so you didn't have to precisely time the swap.
- dugditches 6y ago
  -The cheapest option was to just force the motor to stop spinning by hand Ah, yes that's why I recall thinking doing the trick caused the disc drives to fail.
  - 737maxtw 6y ago
    At least in the USA, most drive failures of early models (the ones that the swap trick worked on) were due to poor quality plastic carriages. Flipping the system upside down would help... for a time.

fmj 6y ago

The best way to do this trick was with a Gameshark/Action Replay disc. After the Gameshark booted it would let the drive spin down until you told it to launch the game. You still had to jam the switch since the PSX reauthenticated the disc when you closed the lid, but you didn't have to worry about damaging the drive or swapping discs at just the right time.

yardie 6y ago

The drive failure comes from the burnt discs. Pressed discs (PS1, CDROM, etc) have pits and a reflective layer that reflect almost 100% the light from the laser. Burned discs have a thin layer of ink. They simulate those pits when they are burned. But since the light has to pass through a layer of ink you lose about 30-50% reflectivity. Those early lasers weren’t designed for CD-R. And to compensate for the loss of reflected light the CDROM controller would pump up the light output. And eventually burn out the laser. And one day you’d be unable to read discs. Then you’d hop on eBay to find hundreds of replacement laser modules for sale because it was super common

garaetjjte 6y ago
That's interesting. Any source on this? Because CD-R specs says: >After recording, the CD-R disc satisfies the specifications as written in the chapter DISC SPECIFICATION of the Red Book.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Why does that matter? That doesn't mean that Sony's non-RedBook drive laser can read CD-R for 20 years
- bdcravens 6y ago
  Presumably Sony had no reason to design to full spec compliance.
- yardie 6y ago
  “ Some hardware compatible with Red Book CDs may have difficulty reading CD-Rs and, because of their lower reflectivity, especially CD-RWs.”[0] Also it was common knowledge in the modder community that playing with a modchip burned the laser diode. The theory was the CD-Rs reflectivity made it overdrive. It could also be the modchip itself caused the laser to burnout. Most chips were soldered directly to the CDROM controller. And may have been inadvertently overdriving the laser. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R
ColdHeat 6y ago