New Member
My PSX died yesterday, and my other one skips on FMV and music, and locks up (even when played on its' side or upside down). I am thoroughly disgusted with the PSX durability. I have no reason to believe the PSX2 was better made, given Sony's reliability on all their other electronics products.

So here's how it pertains to Sega. I've been reading about DC failure rates being high on other message boards, and I see a LOT of auctions for dead units on ebay. So how can one prolong the life of one's DC? Is the Dreamcast as crappily made as the PSX? The failure rate seems about the same. Even though the Saturn was a very well constructed console, with Sega exiting the hardware biz, our choices in the future are Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Which will be the one that produces a console I don't have to replace in 3 years?

My original SNES (bought on launch day) still works flawlessly, and that thing has been mistreated more than anything I've ever owned. (Took it to college with me, in a house of three smokers/heavy beer drinkers.) Now if Nintendo can just bring back the third party support they blew...


Staff member
cd systems are alot more likely to fail than any cart system. the DC can last a long time, many of the dead units are from people trying to adjust the laser for cdrw reading, or installing modchips.
the early psx problems can be rectified though (the skipping problems), either by repairing the track the laser sits on or by replacing the laser unit (new ones of those are about Â£35 from consoleking, but you could probabbly find them elsewhere (i think liksang might have them listed, but not in stock)

see this site for the repair method


note ive never tried it personally, but ive seen this technique mentioned on several websites


New Member
Mine's been banged around slightly too... you know, those controller cables are stuck in there pretty well. Watch the cord while you play.


New Member
My first playstation started skipping when I fell asleep playing FF7 and left it on all night. In the morning, it was skippy. Ever since then I've been real careful with cd consoles.

My SNES is greyed (yellowed?) from heavy smoking around it. Dirty bong water and beers have been spilled on it (I used to live with savages) and all the cords are chewed up (probably from the mice we had). It still loads up pretty much first shot every time. I think the things' invincible.

My NES has the problems due that they all have, with the bad contacts, but I think it was treated pretty well for me and my brother being kids. It was dropped a few times, but nothing abusive. On the other hand my neighbors were absolute monkeys and have PUT JELLY SANDWICHES in the game slot. I remember it would take 15 minutes of them fucking with it and blowing on the carts to get one working. All their games smelled like shitty diapers. It was funny having these kids as neighbors, their mom was fucking crazy. I never wanted to borrow their games because I was always afraid to fuck up my own unit, but I did borrow Contra and Castlevania a few times.

What about these "cooling fans" units? Do these actually extend the life of the system or are they a rip?


well, ive never had a system die on me (i have an NES[which does have its problems, but ive found ways to make it load every time], genesis, sega cd, 32x, N64, dreamcast, and hopefully my saturn will come in the mail this week or next). Ive been pretty careful with most of them. The NES has taken some abuse, and I've moved around a bit, but for the most part they are all pretty well taken care of, so they better not die...


New Member
I'm realistic enough to expect hardware failure over time, but I've only played through 4 rpgs on the playstation (200 hours) and probably put about another 300-400 in other games. My Saturn's got about 3x the mileage on it, *and* I bought it used. There's a clear difference in engineering and quality of product there. I've NEVER seen an auction for a broken Saturn (although I'm sure there's been one). You can routinely find an auction for a broken playstation (or a lot of 20 of them).

My computer CD rom drive is sturdy enough. What gives?

Mo Threat

New Member
Sony = crap quality

I've had my current PSX for about a year and a half. I mostly use it for watching VCDs (maybe twice a week). The fucking hub just fell apart - eight pieces. The laser's still fine, but good luck without a hub to hold the CD in place. I hate Sony [still enjoy some PSX titles though].

My Saturn's are both five+ years old, and I bought them used. They're both totally perfect. I wish I could afford to pick up a VCD card for one of them. :)

My 3DO is even older - I got it used too - it's AOK.

My DC shows no signs of poor construction. At least the hub won't crack apart anytime soon. I think the busted DCs we've all seen listed are just abused or fucked with like Arakon already said.


New Member
I would have to disagree with you all on this point. From what I have seen, the DC does not have a long functioning life. One of my friends bought his A couple months after launch, and almost 1 year to the day later, it broke. The system would just stop working in the middle of a game, and he kept it in absolute mint condition. He kept that thing in better condition then some rich guy would with a Rolls Royce. Not only that but he never used anything on it other then sega made games, no emulators, no copied games, no off brand hardware, nothing. My DC is also showing some signes of where and tear, and I have only had it for about three months!


Staff member
I've had my DC since day 2 of the launch in europe.

I dropped it.

I opened it and soldered a 26 pin mod into it.

I opened it about 30x more, messed with the drive, randomly connected pins to see if I can find a 50/60 hz jumper, played it on the floor on a carpet in the sun, carried it around, stepped on it.

I replaced the LED with a blue one.

replaced the blue one about 3 more times till I found the right voltage so they wouldn't burn out.

used tons of cdr's on it.

hooked it up to pc via modem and serial port.

forgot to turn it off and didn't notice for 2 days.

The only thing ever wrong with it was a dead power supply cause of being dropped. replaced it, and it's been working perfectly ever since.
The sega master system cartridges are bullet proof. Seriously, I've droped them from the roof of a 2 stroy building (it wasn't my game, I'd never do that ;)) and it still works, albet for a couple of scratches on the cartidge.


New Member
Ummm, you do realize GreatSayamanGohan, that it doesn't matter how high up you drop it, it will always fall at the same speed?

(Edited by Fabrizo at 2:46 am on Oct. 11, 2001)


New Member
not if you do not give it enough height to reach its terminal velocity

I smashed an N64cartridge against a wall by accident, I wanted to pretend throwing it at somebody but I was a little bit too drunk to realise that you do not let go of something if you only want to pretend that youÂ´re throwing it. The wall has a dent in it, the cartridge works just fine.


New Member
I know someone who broke their dreamcast from playing hentai MPEGs on it too much.... it would get so overheated that it would just stop during play.... and now there are only a few games that he can play without problems.... ;)


New Member
Wow! Hot Hentai! ;)

I have 2 Dreamcasts and take them everywhere with me. I keep one in the back of my van hooked to a VGA monitor. It cooks in the sun on hot days and freezes in the winter. I modded both of them and included an electroluminicent cable under the lid of one. I paint the cases, inside and out. Never had a problem.

You can see one of the modded DCs at http://www.planetpso.com/planetp....(Edited by Kamalot at 2:01 pm on Oct. 12, 2001)


New Member
I have had a DC for about a year now...never had any problems whatsoever.

As for PSX, I have never had any problems with that either. It is the very first model, bought when it first came out by some kid across the street. He sold me it when N64 came out (sucks for him..he only played Zelda and that's it). Anyway, It has been dropped 4-5 feet on my concrete basement floor..the only thing that doesn't work is the right audio channel..but that's only if you use the AV cables. I don't use the AV anyway because it won't plug in to the TV in my room

I totally agree with everyone on the SNES, too. Those things are rock solid


Staff member
My experience has been that every Nintendo product since the NES has been rock solid. I've never even heard of anyone having a broken SNES, Gameboy, N64 etc. that wasn't due to abuse, and the thought of one of my N products dying has never really been a concern for me. I should really find out who manufactures their stuff. I think I heard Mitsumi did the SNES controllers, but that's about all I know...