My Game Cube can't read discs - SOLVED, SOLVED

When leaving home 2 weeks before everything worked fine, but now I return and I have this problem:

What happened:
I play a game. I play it for some time (1/2 hour - 1 hour) and then the game stops and it says that it can't read "this" game-disc.
First I thought that is because it was a previously owned game.
So I tried my own bought games. But now the same phenomena appeared in my own first-hand games!
So I came to the conclusion that the laser has a problem.

What I think is the problem:
Possibility 1: The laser is dirty.
Possibility 2: The laser is broken.
Possibility 3: All the discs I tried are scratched/dirty.
Possibility 4: The laser is decalibrated!!

Questions:
Main question: I don't want to buy a new Game Cube, especially since the Revolution comes next year. What can I do?

Side question 1: How can I clean my laser?
Side question 2: How can I clean my game-discs?

This post has been edited by Guinea on Oct 29 2005, 12:53 PM

For the discs, I know for a fact there's a product called SpinDr and another called GameDr. If they sell one of the two of them or a similar product over where you live, you should be able to pick one up and use it to clean the scratches in your discs.

I know this isn't my topic, but my first gamecube (which i still have lying around, unused) had this problem, except not reading discs at all.... so is there any way to repair the laser?
because my gamecube that i'm using is for some reason not holding down the power key :<

Probably the spring is broken or something.
Unless your warranty isn't out, try getting it dismantled by an EXPERT, and a sole EXPERT, I repeat.

Try this, but do it at your own risk!
Click here

NO.

I lost 3 GC discs and a few XBox games over one of those

my gamecube can't read either sorry



oh wait

i was told to pour alcohol over the disc, then freeze it(never worked for me)

... how the hell is that supposed to work

You could go on Ebay and they have a lot of gadgets or whatever to fix this kind of problem

It probably never worked for good reasons D=

I'm currently trying triforcemario's advice, since this is exactly the problem I have.
I hope it works...

Stay tuned to hear how it worked.

I have nothing to lose - it can't be worse than broken, so it's no risk.

This post has been edited by Guinea on Oct 29 2005, 09:36 AM

Dammit, double post..

This post has been edited by Guinea on Oct 29 2005, 09:35 AM

It might sound stupid, but have you ever considered blowing air into it? That's how you get dust out of cartridge based systems, without harming the game or the console (To my knowledge). I know Gamecubes are CD based, but it might just work.

Or maybe, every now and then, pause the game, open the CD drive, clean the disk, and put it back in. Hopefully, when you unpause, everything should still work, and it should eliminate the problem of 'dirty disks'. (Note: Not all games will allow you to do that, so save if possible first.)

Thanks, but the problem is not the disc, it's the laser.
The laser is decalibrated.
And trust me, before I open my GC and re-calibrate the laser, I thought about blowing over it.

The GameCube is open!
We have already found the potentiometer of the laser.

Soon we will know if it works...

... the hell did you cut it open

No, I deformed a screwdriver...

Well, good news! It works perfectly!
Thank you a lot triforcemario!!

You saved me 99 bucks!

Thats OK, now, pay me those 99 bucks for helping you!

You do realize your GC's on it's way out when you have to "recalibrate" your laser right?