Anyone had this happen?

[RodaMan]

After recently playing through the Ys Felghana patched game, which was awesome by the way (a big thank you to NightWolve and Psycho DeuceBag), I decided to dust off my old Duo, order up an import copy of Ys IV, and give the translation a shot. I had trouble with the TurboRip utility as I don't think it liked my DVD drive. Anyways, after some messing around with Ultra ISO and Nero, I was able to rip the CD, apply the patch, and burn it back. Everything plays great on the original hardware but I've noticed two issues.

1. The Duo makes a high pitch whining noise when playing the burned CD. I tested out several of my other old games (Ys I & II, Dragon Slayer, Cosmic Fantasy II, Bonk 3, etc.) to make sure none of them made any noise and they were silent. Also, the original Japanese disc of Ys IV is silent.

2. This is the most important one: I have noticed that several tracks in the game (the one on Fire Mountain and the one in the huge Roda tree so far) tend to cut out and then not re-loop. Sometimes they cut out after 15 minutes, sometimes after 1. They always seem to make a scratching noise and then just die. All the sound effects and menu noises keep working. If I step out of the area and come back in, the music loads up again and is fine (until it cuts out again, that is). Here again, I test out several other game to make sure the problem wasn't with my 15+ year old Duo.

Has anyone had issues similar to these? Do you think it might have anything to do with the media I burned it on (Dynex CD-R)? Just for clarification, I did perform the rip/patch/burn process twice just to make sure I didn’t get a bad burn for one reason or the other but I get the same results each time! Does anyone have any suggestions/ideas? I would be grateful for any help as I am at a loss.

[NightWolve]

The cut-off problem is with your Duo getting old I believe. That happens with mine and original discs, not just CD-Rs. You might try putting lube on the laser's pole and see if that helps. Beyond that, I don't know much else you can do short of replacement.

[Paladin]

Like NightWolve said it is most likely your Duo just getting old. It also sounds like the CD ROM type audio problems instead of the capacitor related ones that the regular JP and American Duos sometimes develop. The lube isn't a bad idea, but if you have to replace it I've heard that an HOP-M3 CD pickup works in a Duo. There are some posts pertaining to this sort of thing over at PCEngine-FX.com.

[RodaMan]

That's what I was afraid of. I think I'll try a good cleaning and maybe some lube on the laser's slider. It's still a little strange to me that there seems to be no problems with my "from the factory" CD's. I might try burning another copy of the patched game on a different brand of media to see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the help NightWolve and Paladin, and if anyone has any other suggestions, feel free. I would much rather try some crazy ideas that might work rather than shell out $$ for a replacement. Well, here's hoping I get lucky.

[Justus]

Try burning at 1X.  Those burns seem to work better for me.  Also, if you're shopping for CD brands, Verbatim.

[RodaMan]

Well, I re-burned the game on Sony media and there is definitely a marked improvement. The sound still cuts out once in a great while but it's 10 times better than it was before. Justus, I'm going to try your recommendation of burning it again at 1X. I may even go pick up some Verbatim discs as I too have had good luck with those in the past.

This is just such a strange issue. I did some extended testing of some of my other CD games and they all work perfectly so I'm starting to think I lucked out and my Duo is still working well. That’s enough to make my weekend.