Fixing a Gamecube Disc Read Error (DOL-001)

We did it! Subscribe for more repairs.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Affiliate Links (I get a small commission if you buy from these links, thanks for helping me out!):
Storefront:
‣ www.amazon.com/shop/fantastic...
Tool List:
‣ Multimeter: amzn.to/3GKUwn7
‣ Soldering Iron: amzn.to/3IoqgyQ
‣ Solder Wire: amzn.to/3ayhmT1
‣ Flux Pen: amzn.to/3uE8lym
‣ Game Bit Driver: amzn.to/3OT60bf
‣ Screwdriver Kit: amzn.to/3OWja76

[@DashRetro]

Forgetting to put the disc in after the entire fix, successful test, and uplifting reassembly montage is pure comedy gold.

[@FantasticQuack]

Thanks man I'm glad you liked that!

[@DrDolan2000]

"Babe, I fixed it!" "Wahoo!"

[@mikepicarello5226]

Best part. What a mood! 😊🎉

[@garrettdlouhy5531]

First time watching your channel instantly subbed. Keep up the excellent and straight to the piont content especially with these older game consoles!

[@FantasticQuack]

Thanks for this feedback, glad to have you!

[@andrestapia1493]

Thanks so much for this video! I fixed my Gamecube today and now it works no problem :)

[@FantasticQuack]

Love to hear success stories like this. Good work dude!

[@JudgeMud]

I love that these things are so simple to fix if you know what you are doing but the average person would just throw it out thinking it is broken. Well done! I saw IGN credited you for the research into fixing joycon drift. Congrats on that!

[@FantasticQuack]

Thanks man! Could you share a link to the IGN thing? I wasn't aware of that!

[@JudgeMud]

@@FantasticQuack Sure! Here it is kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHiXe4Rsd7WgfLc&ab_channel=IGN

[@FantasticQuack]

@@JudgeMud That's really cool, thank you!

[@banangela]

Simple 😭 ahhh I wish I could do this

[@joesaiditstrue]

just subscribed to your channel, you've got a great presentation style, looking forward to more restoration/repair videos, particularly the PS3 but I will watch anything really 😂

[@FantasticQuack]

Thank you for the kind words! Glad to have you here :) Somehow that ps3 video got a lot of attention, I need to find more to fix i guess!

[@ShineDawg]

perfect video, no wasted time, bravo

[@FantasticQuack]

Thank you very much!

[@jackvelez2837]

Thank you so much for this I got my old GC working

[@FantasticQuack]

Glad to hear it, cheers!

[@Domfire594]

I was able to fix my Japanese spice orange GameCube because of watching this video borrowed my dads tools for a bit and eventually got it to work thanks so much

[@FantasticQuack]

Glad to hear this, happy cubing!

[@Emess_902]

Thank you kind sir, i purchased Batman Vengeance on Amazon & it wasnt reading but i got it fixed!

[@FantasticQuack]

Glad I could help!

[@fra93ilgrande]

I tried it and worked for me, thanks! 👍🏻

[@FantasticQuack]

Great to hear!

[@jerriies]

its the "Wahoo" for me. really fascinating video!!

[@FantasticQuack]

Thanks for watching!

[@seanosorio1631]

This video definitely helped me in my journey to fix my GameCube. My potentiometer was at 352 needed to increase it and now it’s working fine! Had to change out the capacitors as well tho.

[@FantasticQuack]

Glad to hear you got yours working!

[@robertg6339]

I have a question. How do you know if it needs to be turned up or down?

[@seanosorio1631]

@@robertg6339 depending on the model that you have let’s say you have (DOL-001) that models potentiometer has a range of 450 ohm - 600 ohm so if you check your potentiometer and the range is above or below that range then you would have to adjust it according to the range. There is no magic number tho you just have to try and hit that sweet spot. If it still doesn’t work after trying multiple times then more then likely it’s not the potentiometer you need to adjust but something else like the laser or the capacitors.

[@robertg6339]

@@seanosorio1631 awesome thanks! Another issue I was having is that in the middle of Playing my game stops and says the disc cover is open. The game resumes if I either, push down on the disc cover or open and close it again. Any idea what might be the cause of that? I can't really find a video addressing this issue.

[@windyace]

the woohoo in the background 🤣

[@Onaboat97]

So cool thanks for showing

[@FantasticQuack]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@vincentlopata7061]

I tried to tweak the pot but it wasnt enough . Now I've Seen your video I remember having a LOT of trouble measuring the resistance of the pot , may a little soldering be enough ?

[@FantasticQuack]

Yo that's definitely what you need to do, I've fixed around 10 consoles with the issue at this point and over half of them needed the solder joints reflowed. I've had to do it once on a PSOne and it was the same story as well.

[@LordofDestruction123]

I've never tried soldering before, and I don't have the supplies to do so. It looks like replacing the whole laser unit might actually be cheaper and easier for me.

[@FantasticQuack]

The soldering involved here is extremely simple and cheap soldering irons can be picked up from Amazon for just 10 bucks. An ohmmeter is nice to have but not 100% required, they can also be found as low as $10. Just pointing that out, but do whatever is comfortable for you, hope you can get it fixed!

[@LordofDestruction123]

@@FantasticQuack hey, thanks for the heads up. I might take some more time to look into this then. I kinda crippled myself recently, so I have plenty of time, since carrying packages to my 2nd floor apartment isn't really feasible on crutches lol.

[@BMR86]

look into changing the capacitors of the disc drive! that also is the culprit of the laser not reading discs!

[@FantasticQuack]

Will have to keep that in mind if my usual technique doesn't work in the future!

[@BMR86]

@@FantasticQuack I have recently repaired a PSOne by replacing all capacitors so I am on a mission to tell everyone repairing consoles to consider that option lol, I just didn't know those little bastards cause all sorts of havok !

[@addyou100]

For the multimeter where which setting do I turn to, to measure resistance on the potentiometer?

[@FantasticQuack]

To the resistance setting.

[@JuicyJakeRepairs]

interesting that all it required some joints touched up, wonder how they got faulty in the first place

[@FantasticQuack]

I thought this as well. I ran into the same problem in the past on an original playstation and reflowing those solder joints on the adjustment pot was all it took to fix. Maybe outdated solder alloy or flux which caused oxidation or movement (possibly exacerbated by poor ventilation/heat) over time. When you don't know, reflow!

[@MrJayKay95]

Hey man love the video unfortunately don’t have any experience soldering and don’t want to mess anything up I have this same issue and wondering is there a way I can pay you for the repair

[@FantasticQuack]

Check my channel info and send me an email!

[@putinw6840]

my gamecube recently stopped reading discs after running perfectly fine the day before and i was super bummed out as i use it quite often. this video was super helpful but i don't know where to find the device they used to test it? i don't wanna poke around in my console without needing to and would like to properly diagnose the problem. any help or input would be awesome!

[@FantasticQuack]

The tool to check the laser potentiometer resistance is called a multimeter (also referred to as ohmmeter)

[@putinw6840]

@@FantasticQuack thank you so much!

[@gabeblanchard157]

mine too i wish i will be able to fix it

[@hudsonball4702]

Was the disk spinning at least? Or would it not spin before giving you the read error.

[@FantasticQuack]

It would spin then stop spinning when the system couldn't read it. I've had some where it doesn't spin at all though and it always comes back to the laser potentiometer being the root cause.

[@blank0po367]

What's weird is I can get into the game and play it but after a while it gives the disc could not be read sign

[@FantasticQuack]

Sounds heat related which points to an intermittent connection. I would try reflowing the potentiometer solder joints.

[@blank0po367]

@@FantasticQuack thank you

[@andresmiranda8729]

Hi I have a question i can see the laser turn on but it doesnt move up and down to read the disc, will this fix it? the disc also doesnt move at all

[@FantasticQuack]

I think the laser won't move if it doesn't see the disc so yes this could very well solve that

[@reginaldfairfield]

Hey! I didn't play my Cube for a while. The 3 games I have got dusty, I cleaned them off and now only one of them works. The other 2 will get to the pre-pre-starting screen before throwing an error. So, if one works, shouldn't that mean that it's able to read the disc and I don't have to break this bad boy open? I've cleaned the lens and cleaned the disc plenty of times, but they just won't boot up. Do you have any other fixes?

[@FantasticQuack]

Have you tried resurfacing the discs having problems? If you have at least one disc working normally it could just be that the other games need to be resurfaced, or possibly you're right on the edge of the potentiometer being in a good range.

[@iexplorerbrrz]

Saved my Dad's Gamecube.

[@FantasticQuack]

Awesome!

[@zeromechdragon700]

Quick question, if your cube is fine and there are problems with the disc itself; can the disc be repaired?

[@FantasticQuack]

If the disc has visible scratches you can resurface it manually with plastic polish (or even tooth paste works sometimes). Retro game shops will resurface discs for you as well for a small fee or even free if you make a game purchase.

[@zeromechdragon700]

@@FantasticQuack Okay good to know, someone was selling a cheap version of pokemon colosuem but it was not working so it might just be their cube not working

[@fmbbeachbum8163]

Did'nt work for me after cleaner lens, adjusting from 150 to 600 ohms. Ordered a new optical laser. My 2 Dreamcasts just had door sensor issues so I did'nt have to mess with the ohms.

[@FantasticQuack]

Did you try reflowing the solder joints on the laser? 50% of the time I have had to do this for it to work. If you already got a new laser then I hope that works out, cheers!

[@ctg8563]

I did this when I adjusted the pot once i hit over 459 my multimeter will start to read 0.04 and up instead of 500 or 600 but when i go lower my multimeter will read it correctly. Why is this?

[@FantasticQuack]

Either a bad meter or intermittent solder joints on the potentiometer. I'd guess the latter and would recommend reflowing them.

[@Clodd1]

I got an error message “the disc could not be read” while I was playing. I’ve never got this message before. All my games works flawlessly. Now I don’t know if I have to adjust the POT only because of this game. The game has normal scratches like others games has and all of them works.

[@FantasticQuack]

If it's just one game causing you trouble I would try getting that disc resurfaced as a first step.

[@Clodd1]

@@FantasticQuack I try to adjust, no success. Now I can open and close the lid when I get the error message then the game returns working. The game is Metroid Prime 2, and read that Metroid Prime gets the laser really busy during the entire game. The problem was fixed on Player's Choice version, but mine is the regular version, I got the first prime on Player's Choice and I have no problem with it. An odd thing when I mesure the POT it was really low, less than 100, i set to something like 200, it got worse, the more I increase the more it get worse, so the best number I got was between 70 ~80. My meter was set to 2k, was this right? is the laser getting tired or something? Thank you for answering.

[@brianortiz9455]

How do you fix the second error message

[@FantasticQuack]

There can be other causes such as a faulty disc drive. I was getting either no error, or one of the two error messages shown in the video each time I turned it on so it was not consistent. In my case I fixed it by reflowing the solder joints on the laser adjustment pot to repair it's connection which had become intermittent over time. Then I adjusted the pot to a more nominal resistance value. This is all shown in the video.

[@danankney9299]

What kind of flux did you use?

[@FantasticQuack]

I updated the vid description to include this info, Thanks for watching!

[@gabeblanchard157]

I removed my disc while in the menu of mario kart double dash and it was running without the disc until it noticed the disc was out and I turned it off. when I decided to turn in back on to play, it would refuse to read any disc I would gave it. the game cube as whole was still working since I was able to navigate in the menu settings so uh yeah, I believe it is a problem with reading the disc. It does not read disc anymore nor does it make the disc spinning. what's up, according to you?

[@FantasticQuack]

A pot adjustment should fix it. Basically following the exact process in this video (with the soldering possibly not being necessary).

[@TangerineAltoid]

What multimeter is that?

[@FantasticQuack]

I added it to the tool list in the video description. Forgot this at first so thanks for pointing it out!

[@matteog.6909]

When I close the lid or press the power button, it tries to read the disc for about 7-10 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 hours, the problem reappear. Based on this, could it be that it just needs a calibration?

[@FantasticQuack]

I would try the pot adjustment for sure

[@matteog.6909]

@@FantasticQuack i did that. It was at 248, lowered it to 200 and now it works! But shouldn’t it be at around 450-600? What does this means?

[@FantasticQuack]

@@matteog.6909 Just take the win and don't question it :) The nominal value can vary depending on the gamecube model and no one seems to have a consistent answer on what it should be.

[@matteog.6909]

@@FantasticQuack What about a fat Playstation 2 that has no problems reading, but has very slow reading times (2 minutes)? Di you know anything? The same trick can be done?

[@catmanjesus1476]

Oh yeah pokemon colosseum 😎

[@FantasticQuack]

A man of culture I see

[@rescuecomplex5115]

Hi. My gamecube disc drive makes a loud snap from time to time, like hiting hard at the plastic where the lens move. Please help?

[@FantasticQuack]

It sounds like one of the plastic pieces tied to the guide rails or otherwise nearby may have broken off, and is loose inside the drive causing the noise you're hearing.

[@rescuecomplex5115]

@@FantasticQuack I dont understand, it's nothing broken and all fits right

[@rescuecomplex5115]

@@EdingardSIGMA Yes, opened and checked. I dont know what it could be.

[@rescuecomplex5115]

@@EdingardSIGMA Mine is Made in Japan DOL-001(EUR). Do you know the ohms in your potenciometer?

[@rescuecomplex5115]

@@EdingardSIGMA Ok. Thank you!

[@BanditsBest686]

how long does it stay "fixed" after adjusting the pot like that?

[@FantasticQuack]

The oldest one I've pot-adjusted that I still own is the one in this video, and it's been about 2 years without issue. My guess is it will go 5 more at bare minimum before the pots drift too far again. Basically I expect it to last at least half as long as it did brand new out of box. Whether something else goes wrong in that time period is another question. If you want the pot to "last longer" you could search digikey or mouser for an equivalent one and replace it. Problem is that that pot will also drift over time and have the same problem one day. Similar problem exists for replacing the optical drive entirely. So may as well adjust the pot that's already in the console.

[@BanditsBest686]

ok sweet, just was wondering on average, i adjusted a 360 and it lasted like another 1.5-2 yrs tried to fix my gamecube and its totally shot i went from like 200 down to 90 and nada, wont spin the disc so probably completely shot or something or disc drive itself@@FantasticQuack

[@FantasticQuack]

@@BanditsBest686 not spinning the disc is a different problem. Did you check the switch that tells the system the lid is closed? That's likely the issue and you should probably bring your pot back up ahead of time--90 or even 200 is way too low. Check out my more recent gamecube repair vid for an example involving that switch i mentioned

[@BanditsBest686]

its a dol-101 model gamecube i played with switch, it activates fine for that lid switch cause the laser activates, it just acts like it doesnt read the disc.@@FantasticQuack

[@BanditsBest686]

i was manipulatin the switch by hand with the case off too@@FantasticQuack

[@CanadianCustomRetro]

Just an update. Sent my whole messed up GameCube to WarioParty and they sent it back SD Card modded. So, no matter how badly you can mess it up, apparently someone can fix it up better than new

[@FantasticQuack]

Glad to hear it!

[@TheStickCollector]

What happens to a gamecube that boots into other games but fine but breaks on this game? It reads fine, it just won't boot. it seems to be the only game to be like that. is it the disc? It looked relatively unscratched.

[@FantasticQuack]

Hard to make confident suggestions without seeing all the discs you've tried but resurfacing the problem disc is the easiest option to test, followed by a laser pot adjustment.

[@TheStickCollector]

@@FantasticQuack well resurfacing worked for most of them but not colosseum. I tried it on multiple GameCubes but it gets past the Nintendo logo but then goes into the read error. I tried other games I resurfaced which worked on one of them (with a better laser?). Disc is probably either damaged in some way or needs like some multiple odd sessions.

[@Wicked_maniac]

I don’t know if my disk is just too scratched or my GameCube just isn’t reading disks anymore

[@FantasticQuack]

Do you only have one disc to test with? You can get them resurfaced at retro game stores too.

[@Wicked_maniac]

@@FantasticQuack yea I only have Metroid prime, my brother have away most the games, but I think it’s the GameCube anyway

[@The_Memory_Maniac]

What mode is your multimeter on?

[@FantasticQuack]

Resistance (ohms)

[@The_Memory_Maniac]

Is it 20k?

[@The_Memory_Maniac]

I put my voltage in 206 and it worked for a few minutes then it turned off?

[@The_Memory_Maniac]

Do you know the right voltage to set it on

[@FantasticQuack]

You shouldn't be using the voltage setting. My meter auto detects range so there's just one ohm setting, if yours has multiple settings either the 200 or 2k one should work, just make sure you are reading the units correctly. You want something like 450 ohms for DOL-001 cube models and can continue to reduce in small increments until it works. Check 3:40 and onward in the video.

[@rodolfodelatorre-books3940]

where are you based? do you fix for a price?

[@FantasticQuack]

Hey there, I've done repairs for many subscribers. Check my channel info and send me an email if you want to chat!

[@rodolfodelatorre-books3940]

@Fantastic Quack sent you an email

[@FantasticQuack]

@@rodolfodelatorre-books3940 didn't come through. [e-mail]

[@clairewelsman1489]

Strangely i have a gamecube with the exact same issue reading pokemon colleseum the exact same way...

[@FantasticQuack]

Hope you can get it fixed!

[@hove131]

Put a new laser in a 001 and I've made pot adjustments all over the place and still cannot get it to read a disc

[@FantasticQuack]

Sorry to hear you're having troubles. Are you using a meter to check the resistance? I'd be very curious to see what's going on with yours myself because so far I've never seen this method not work.

[@hove131]

@@FantasticQuack I believe it's a bad cap on the disc drive board.

[@Pvnk_Eternal]

I ran into an issue immediately with not having the 4mm gamebit screwdriver 😑

[@FantasticQuack]

Classic non starter, luckily you can buy one from the link in vid description on the cheap. Cheers m8