Using a PC-CDROM Laser in a Dreamcast
It's been a few years since anyone put together a tutorial showing how you can revive your Dreamcast with a PC CD-ROM laser. If you have a Dreamcast that struggles to read games, then this may be an option to consider. I am well aware that digital options exist to upgrade your Dreamcast and replace the GDROM with something more modern. With that said, some of you may not want to go this route. In the collectible space, a Dreamcast with a working optical drive may be more desirable for those that want to collect consoles. You may also want to just preserve your console's natural condition and continue playing your original library of games. Or you may want to just try something that is inexpensive compared to the other options. If any of this applies to you, then this tutorial is for you.
MATERIALS & TOOLS:
- Philips Screwdriver
- Dreamcast with a Samsung GDROM Drive (most V01 consoles)
- Compatible CD-ROM Laser
- Dremel with sanding attachments (optional)
COMPATIBLE CD-ROM DRIVES:
- Samsung SC-152 (also called Master 52x)
- Creative CD3228
- LG GCR-8521B
- Mitsumi CRMC-FX4820T
For this tutorial, I will be using a Samsung SC-152 CD-ROM. I lucked out and found one on eBay in unopened retail packaging for $15. This laser is unused and should potentially last another 20 years. If you can also find a laser that is unused, then this will be your best bet for longevity. However you can also have great luck with a used laser as long as it's still working. I listed a few additional CD-ROM models that others have had success with in the past. There are likely others that are not listed that will work as well. The biggest key is that it has to be a CD-ROM laser and not a CD-RW, DVD-ROM, Bluray, etc. The non-CD-ROM models use a different pin configuration for the ribbon cable connection and are not compatible with the Dreamcast. With that out of the way, let's get started.
There are many tutorials online that cover disassembling the Dreamcast console. I won't cover that here for the sake of space. Once you do take it apart, make sure that it has a Samsung GDROM Drive. Most V01 Dreamcast Models use the Samsung Drive. In my case, the GD-ROM itself says Samsung in the bottom right corner.
With your console lid removed, you will next need to remove 3 Philips screws that are holding the GD-ROM to the rest of the console's body.
With these screws removed, you can lift the GD-ROM out of the case with a little bit of force. It is connected to the rest of the case by a small connector on the bottom (which releases with a bit of upward force). Once you remove it from the case, flip it over. There are 5 Philips screws that will need to be removed in order to separate the pieces of the drive. The top two screws are hidden under a piece of foam. If you run your finger over the foam, you can feel where these screws are located. I used a thin knife to cut a slit in the foam so that I could remove these two screws.
With these screws out of the way, you can lift up on the bottom cover and remove it. Under it, there is a green computer board that features the ribbon cable connection and two wire connections. Disconnect the ribbon cable from the back of the laser, but leave the other side connected to the computer board. Disconnect the two wires from the computer board and separate each of the pieces. It should look like this when you are done.
The gears for the laser are held in place by a plastic clamp. Remove the single screw on top of this plastic clamp and lift the clamp out of the console.
With the Gear clamp out of the way, lift the gear that is connected to the swirled laser rail. If you lift up from the bottom side where the gear is located, it will allow you to remove the entire rail and the laser along with it.
This is what it looks like once you've removed the rail and laser from the GD-ROM enclosure.
Rotate the rail counter-clockwise to remove it from the laser assembly. At this point you can go ahead and remove the laser from your CD-ROM drive. The exact steps for this process will vary based on which drive you have selected. Keep in mind that you aren't trying to preserve that CD-ROM, so you can be destructive if needed. Just don't damage the laser.
Once you've removed the laser, it will look something like the picture below. If you look at the GD-ROM laser, you'll notice that there is a white plastic piece on the end that is secured with two small screws.
This white plastic piece is what guides the laser up and down the swirled rail. It's really important to get this part right. Hold the laser to the side and notice the little teeth in the white plastic piece.
This is what it needs to ride that rail. I'm pointing this out because on my CD-ROM laser, the spot where you mount the white plastic piece is slightly thicker than the same spot on the GDROM laser. If left as-is, it would prevent those teeth from making proper contact with the rail. I used a small dremel bit to sand this down to make it fit exactly as it does on the GDROM. If yours needs to be adjusted, you will want to sand down the area pictured below.
It's extremely important to get this white piece positioned exactly as it was on the GDROM. Otherwise your new laser will not move up and down the rails. This is what the new CD-ROM laser looks like with the white plastic piece attached.
Now you can insert the swirled rail into the new laser. Twist it clockwise into the guide on the laser and double-check that the teeth in the white plastic piece are making good contact.
Install the new laser into the GDROM enclosure in exactly the way that you removed the original. Reinstall the white plastic gear clamp and make sure that the gears are turning properly as you move the laser up and down the rails. For my particular laser, I noticed that it wasn't going all the way to the back of the rails. This would potentially prevent it from reading certain kinds of disks. You may need to pull out a dremel again and trim back the areas that I outlined in the picture below until your laser goes all the way to the back of the rails in the same way that the original GDROM laser did.
Your last steps are to attach the GDROM ribbon cable and reassemble the GDROM enclosure. The ribbon cable step requires a slight adjustment. The ribbon cable for your GDROM has 16 pins. The Ribbon Cable slot on your new CD-ROM laser has 17 pins. Not a problem though. When you insert the ribbon cable, insert it all the way to the right and leave the left-most pin open on the CD-ROM slot. Just like the picture below.
And that's it! Assuming everything went well, you should be able to put the casing of the GDROM back together (don't forget the two wires that need to be connected to the computer board). Insert the GDROM back into your console and try a few games. If you are using a used CD-ROM drive, hopefully everything reads properly at this point. If it doesn't read, you may need to adjust the POT screw on the back of the laser to tweak the frequency. It's unlikely that you will have this issue if you're using an unused laser. Let me know in the comments if you successfully upgraded your Dreamcast. If you discover additional CD-ROM models that are compatible, please list them as well!
