Scratch to death!!

[xmod]

Hey guys,
From a very long time, i wanted to ask... PS2 making scratchy noises while running a cd-r, is this ok? I know that the cd and dvd read speeds are different and so these noises would come but would it cause any harm to the laser?? And one more thing.. Can a Dummy file help reduce these noises? Sounds dumb but i read somewhere that if we put in a dummy file while burning a cd-r, it increases the TOC to a higher level and that would consequently reduce the noise...

I don't have any probs with these noises, my cd's and dvd's are read perfectly but i jus wanted to know more and see what u guys come up with...

[xmod]

bump

[mabcom]

just ingnore the sound it is normal
Cd's are spinning on a higher speed that make the highpitch noise while reading it

grtz
MABCOM

[xmod]

yeah i know bout the sound.. i've heard it in all 3 of my ps2's... but wat bout the dummy file thing... is it true? cause i've read it in many places including this forum..

[broodje]

well yeh, it works. Adding a dummy file will push the data more to the outside of the disc. As they told me...

wich ofcourse, spins faster then the inside.

But i always wondered... what if the dummy is pushed to the outside and the data stays on the same place on the inside? This may sounds stupid, but why would a dummy file push the data outside? and not reversed?

[kioshi]

when you burn a cd it burns the data from the inside out in a counter clockwise motion. So the cd/dvd is being read at a counter clockwise motion nad usually since a cd is "pressed" in a factory it takes up the whole cd and not just a certain part. So most likely dummy files are there for a reason to give the laser something to read instead of it seeing nothing and searching more.

[xmod]

i see some logic in your post kioshi.. but has anyone tried running a cd-r with or without the dummy file?? you find any difference?

[mabcom]

it can help a little bit but not much not enough to bother with it
also adding extra files to a disk could cause mistakes when a Game does some check ups to the TOC

what really is terrible for your ps2 are bad DVDrips with relinked video's
those rips should realy be avoided

grtz
MABCOM

[broodje]

hehe, i think ppl should never use DVDrips, i mean c'mon, ur just cheap if u already have a modchip wich saves u 100 or even 1000's of dollars, but if dont even want to buy sum DVD's, ur just cheap lol.

and if ur ps2 doesnt read DVD's that good, spent that sum of those dollars u save with backups, u know what i mean. no one bought évey game he has.

but ontopic, i must say sum cd's have worked better for me when i added about 100 Mb of dummy files, my PS2 had sum trouble reading 500 KB elf files from a 700 MB cd...

[l_oliveira]

Let me add a bit to this thread ....

Dummy files are added to the discs so the important data is closer to the edge of the disc. The PS2 is capable of readign discs on 2 modes:

CAV - Constant Angular Velocity
In this mode the speed of the disc is fixed and the DVD drive CPU has to poll the disc data varying with the width of the track. Since the laser runs a smaller distance per revolution on the inner tracks the data rate is smaller close to the beggining of the disc. Pushing the data to outside DOES a HUGE diference as you get aproximately 12x at the inner ring of the disc. what you get at the outside ring is 24x data rate. That at the drive's maximum speed for CD.

CLV - Constant Linear Velocity
In this mode the laser is running the disc at the same speed regardless where it is at the disc. This read mode is used only at 1x and 2x (Reading audio CDs and PS1 discs) Since the data rate is aways the same, there is no reason for a PS1 disc to have dummy files.

The scratching noise (sounds like a "shhhhhh" noise) is caused by the tracking and focusing of the lens on the disc. Since it's a recorded media and you probably burnt it on a very high speed it's signal is weak and the drive is having trouble to focus it. So since it's difficult to read, the drive microcontroller raised the gain control for the focus, sending more energy to the focusing coils, causing the noise to be audible. It's done automatically and there's nothing you can do about it besides changing the media brand and/or writting it at slower speeds. The same way the PS2 can control the focus/tracking gain automatically it can also control the laser gain automatically so reading CDRWs and badly burned CDR discs are lethal for your laser. A good burn really sounds like a silver when it's running.

Another weird/wrong thing that people say is that DVD rips break/burns the laser. What break/burns the laser is the boot method (at the time we were using DVD rips we were mostly doing swaps for boot).

If you use a swap method, the PS2 will auto adjust to the disc it read 1st (Swap magic, Game shark, Action Replay, etc etc) and you will force the laser to run at a lower gain than it would with a CDR/DVDR, making it harder to read. To solve this people "tweak" the laser pots. That solves the problem but as drawback the laser lasts half of the time it was supposed to last.