Welcome to the great page of DRE. One of the most misunderstood parts of the GameCube modding scene. For months I debated with people as new to this crap as I was, but in the end most of my theories panned out and now here I am to present my findings.

First, lets define a DRE. Now read carefully as this might hurt. DRE = Disk Read Error. Yes, this means if the Cube can't read the disc - for any reason - you've got a DRE. Of course I'm not going to cover idiot remidies like cleaning the laser or dvd, but will get to the heart of the matter.

Types of DRE

* Game Wont Boot
* Game TOC Loads, but fails to boot (You get the Cube setup screen)
* Onscreen Error "Can't read disc, etc"
* Onscreen Error "Refer to instruction manual, etc"
* Random Game Freezes
* Choppy Movie Playback
* Black Screen of Death

There are a few variables included in getting rid of DRE's, but most can fit under certain catagories including ...

BIOS (IPL) Version
- GCOS
- Cobra
- NinjaMod
- GCOM
- Qoob
- etc, etc

BLANK MEDIA USED
- Cheap Crap (Crappy Dye)
- Good Stuff (Good Dye)
- DVD+R or DVD-R

BURNER USED
- Burner Type
- Burning Speed
- Burning Options

POT
- GameCube Version


BIOS

I dreaded the days of trying to explain to countless people that the actual BIOS had a lot to do with actually booting the discs you were using, but finally gave up. I guess as I have every single chip and BIOS out there I must not know a damn thing I'm doing. Okay - depending on the BIOS you use some games may or may not boot at all or give your random DRE. An example would be the Qoob Pro BIOS v1.3a compared to v1.3c. If something doesn't boot try another BIOS before attempting to do anything else.

BLANK MEDIA USED

There are various types of Dye that DVD media is made from and depending. If it's a good quality dye your chances of having it boot will be drastically increased. Google for Dye comparison charts and read about the various types. In my experience RitekG04 dye is a 99% sure bet. Note that the DVD's might not even be labeled Ritek, but will still be made from their dye.

Depending if you use DVD+R or DVD-R will also effect your overall success rate. I would try to stick with DVD-R as these seem to be the most compatible. DVD+RW and DVD-RAM will not work at all.

BURNER USED

There are a lot of rumors going around that the burner makes a big difference and in some instances if you rely on this variable alone that may be true. People claim that Lite-On, Memorex, Sony and various other burners never work for them, but they fail to take the other possibilites into account. Generally, people go with a Pioneer DVR-109 unit, which is a good writer and it does DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW and Dual Layered DVD's, but personally I have never come across a burner that was unable to burn a game correctly.

The media itself has a suggested burning speed and then depending on the speed your burner writes at will either create a less or more readable disc. RitekG04 Mini Media have a max burning speed of 4x, but a few Lite-On burners I've used would produce unreadable discs at this speed. Lowering the speed to 2.5x or even 1x solved this issue. Also, one must remember that the system specs of the machine you are using have a lot to do with your burns. If you're using a slower computer and doing other things while burning you'll end up with a lower quality burn (this is common burning knowledge.)

When burning you should use a program that allows you to control most of the aspects of the process such as Nero Burning ROM. When burning always make sure Nero closes the Disc Session (Finalizes) and if you're running a lower end system turn OFF the write protection buffer. If you do turn off this protection and your DVD burner loses it's buffer due to you loading FireFox or something else the burn process will be aborted and you're disc ruined. So if you chose this option don't touch your computer while it burns.

Luckily, these is a way to test to see if you're burns are bad or not. Various programs such as DVD Info Pro that will allow you (if your burner supports it) a PI/PO test. When you run a PI/PO test you are looking for the AVERAGE and PEAK errors. If you're average is less then 80 and it your peak less then 500 your disc is fine. Note that all burners will produce errors as this is just they way they are designed to operate. If you are producing <80 / <500 results you should be able to mark the DVD Burning and DVD Quality off your list of variables.

POT (POTENTIOMETER)

The GameCube's DVD drive, like all other optical drives that use lasers are pre-adjusted to various POT levels for reading media. Basically, the higher the POT the brighter the laser shines. The brighter it shines the less life you're going to get out of the laser itself. Now, depending on the GameCube drive revision (yes - there are a few different drives), the BIOS you're using, the media you're using and how you burn them the POT may need to be adjusted to actually read the discs.

Say for example you're using the Qoob Pro BIOS with RitekG04 and your POT is set to 175 and it works fine, but say you're running the Cobra BIOS with RitekG05 you may have to turn it to 220 even if you're using the same GameCube.

Adjust the POT will require a Multi-Meter (hopefully you have a digital one) and the guide for adjust the GameCube's POT can be found here. Personally, I always check the POT on the GameCube while installing any modchips as some of them come from the factory at a very high setting. The first one I ever adjusted was set at 600 and ended up working when set to 170.

Like the guide says try adjusting it from the range of 170-220 in increments of 20, 10 and then 5. If you can narrow it down to more or less then 5 you should be fine, but narrowing it down to the exact number wouldn't be a bad idea either.

WHY IS THE CUBE SO PICKY? The GameCube has a built in DRE protector (unlike the PS2) which will prevent the laser or the drive components from overheating resulting in the destruction of your drive. Due to it's picky standards you'll have to find the right mixture of the above variables to satisfy it's needs. Note that newer BIOS such as Cobra and Qoob will turn raise the "read retry" rate a lot to try to keep reading, but this in no way disables the built in overheating protection and will not damage your GameCube's DVD assembly.

CONCLUSION So basically you must take each of these variables into account when trying to boot a backup and getting rid of Disc Read Errors and I would suggest once you find a working combination to stick with it. I wouldn't try to mix media and burners or you're going to run into problems. Also note that there are people who never get DRE as they end up with the winning combination to begin with.

To be safe I would use RitekG04 media, a Pioneer DVR-109 burner and set your POT to 175. This seems to be the most common setting. When you do - and you will (unless you give up like a whimp) - figure out the correct combination of these variables please take some time to enter them into this database so others may be able to better judge what they should do beforehand.