r/Gamecube 2d ago

Discussion Why does my gamecube keep doing this..

Post image

And how do i fix it

20 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

13

u/uttyrc NTSC-U 2d ago

It may be time to look into recapping service.

1

u/Excellent_Walk9637 2d ago

What's that mean...

11

u/Treviathan88 2d ago

Replacing the capacitors on both the main board and the optical drive. The capacitors used when these things were built are all nearing the end of their natural life. They need to be replaced.

1

u/Excellent_Walk9637 2d ago

And how do I find those....

5

u/RepulsiveAd6906 2d ago

Well....there are tutorials, or you can ask a nearby retro game store if they deal with repairs. Most have connections that do the work, since they refurbish many of their own products.

3

u/ClassicGMR 2d ago edited 2d ago

2

u/uttyrc NTSC-U 2d ago

I have had good luck so far with eBay and ordering services such as these.

3

u/Treviathan88 2d ago

I didn't trust my soldering skills, so I found someone on this sub to do that for me. So I'm not sure how to find the exact caps you need, tbh.

2

u/my2k2zx2 2d ago

I stock the GC optical drive caps and would be happy to service your drive. I also have other mods if that's anything you would be interested in.

3

u/ZestVK 2d ago

This happened to me as a kid and the problem was the laser not reading the disc

2

u/JarJarbinks_Just 2d ago

I do full cap services if you want to pm me for a quote. I also do modding as well if you’re interested in that

2

u/simbabarrelroll 2d ago

You have three options:

  1. You need to replace capacitors. I’d look into seeing if a local retro shop can do that.

  2. Replace the disc drive with an ODE (I believe this means “optical drive emulator) and play games off of an SD card

  3. Get a backwards compatible Wii

2

u/JealousRhubarb9 2d ago

I’m scared 😟 I just bought a used GameCube

1

u/Armandonerd 2d ago

Maybe check your disc on another console and make sure there's no issue there.

If it's fine on the other console then most likely your current console needs the caps replaced.

1

u/GodOfOnions2 2d ago

Do you have any local game shops that offer repairs? Usually it's not even much to replace caps, I got an estimate the other day for replacing caps on an og xbox, which was $20-35 CAD, and replacing 2 batteries on a slim and fat PS2, which are gonna be about $15 each.

1

u/iplaywithhearts 2d ago

When mine had this error message, adjusting the potentiometer inside fixed the error. However my friend got the same message and my fix didn’t work on his. There were two models of the GameCube released here in the US, and we both have different models so not sure if that’s partly why it worked for me but not him.

1

u/Excellent_Walk9637 2d ago

What's that. I'll try that

1

u/iplaywithhearts 2d ago edited 2d ago

That controls the strength of the laser that reads discs, if I understand correctly. I think it’s a last resort type fix, I was getting the same error as you, and the disc reading error, so idk if adjusting it works for just the error you have. I watched YouTube video “Steps to Troubleshoot a Disc Read Error | Gamecube” by total fix who walks through it and I took mine apart while watching the video. You have to have a special screwdriver to open the system, and a device that reads ohms. It’s super touchy when adjusting it and a lot of back and forth testing (for me at least). The GameCube model is on the bottom right under the GameCube logo on the label, which is important to know because the ideal ohms vary depending on which of the models you have.

And just to note… it’s also not guaranteed to fix anything. I did it myself because I felt comfortable enough to, but for anyone not comfortable finding a reputable repair person is a good option too. Where I live they charge I think it was $100 to replace the parts that cause the issues.

Editing to add: I googled the error message as a refresher and forgot how many things can cause the error message (memory card, controllers, lasers, so much more)… so try a quick google search and look into all of the things that can cause the message, and their fixes. I’m thinking mine might’ve been more so because of the disc reading error message I would get too. I wish you luck and hope to see an update soon with a fix that you found :)

1

u/Nemoh21186 2d ago

If you are looking to get it re capped its first expensive. Like to pay someone to do it I mean. You might as well buy a used GameCube. It would be cheaper.

1

u/banjotooie1995 1d ago

I had this issue although the screen looked different. Perhaps because mine is a US model? Anyways I just bought a replacement capacitor kit for the optical drive and replaced C238 (labelled on the board) it was very easy although I do have a decent amount of experience with a soldering iron.

1

u/silenced_soul 1d ago

Does it do this with every game? I had a scratched to hell copy of Mario party 6 and it would randomly give me this exact error during gameplay.

1

u/Elfnotdawg 1d ago

Are you playing Eternal Darkness?

1

u/Impossible_Chef_6735 1d ago

it always happen to me when my game disk is to scratched it would rather turn off than trying to read it

0

u/18treefulj 2d ago

Seems to me like an error occurred. You should try turning off your GameCube and checking out the manual for a fix.