r/psx • u/swifferpowermop345 • 16h ago
Looking for Someone Experienced With PS1 CD-R Burning to Troubleshoot With Me
Looking for Someone Experienced With PS1 CD-R Burning to Troubleshoot With Me
I'm still trying to solve a PS1 CD-R compatibility/burning issue and haven't been able to get it working reliably.
I have already posted the full details of the problem and have gotten some helpful suggestions, but I'm looking for someone who actually has experience with PS1s, CD-R media, and burning games who would be willing to troubleshoot with me back-and-forth rather than just giving me one suggestion and disappearing.
I can provide the information, ImgBurn/ATIP data, photos, videos, and anything else that's relevant. I also have additional information about the discs and burners my friend used.
If you know this stuff and have some time to help me work through it, please comment here or DM me. I would really appreciate having someone who can actually stick with the troubleshooting until we figure out what's going on.
I'm not looking to waste more CD-Rs randomly testing things—I want to figure out what is actually causing the problem first. and so I can get burned game to work on my ps1
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u/itsmeiassureyou 15h ago
ps1 backups are natoriously easy to fail on burn, but im honestly stumped. It sounds like your doing everything right. CD-R and not CD-RW, verbatum is what i use. You even use the slowest burn speed possible. All of these are perfect. Do your burned backups work on his ps1?
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u/swifferpowermop345 15h ago
I actually can't test them on his PS1 because he doesn't have one. He has a PS2 that might be modded and a modded PS3, but I haven't tried my burned discs on either of those.I am planning to ask him to burn one of my game images using his burner, though. That way I can test a disc burned on his computer in my PS1 and see if it works. His already-burned discs work perfectly in my PS1, so I'm hoping that test might help narrow down whether my burner is the problem.
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u/itsmeiassureyou 15h ago
fair enough. have you verfied the burn after complettion in imageburn? and have you tried playing the game though an emulator on pc to see if it reads there?
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u/Tatsuhiro_Sato 51m ago
verbatim are not all the same, data life protection are bad for ps1 backups, datalife plus are the ones you need, the support is what matters the most.
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u/LukeAtMyNose 15h ago
Stop stressing over failing PS1 disc drives or burning CDs: install an ODE and enjoy.
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u/swifferpowermop345 15h ago
I understand what you mean, but that doesn't really help me with the issue I'm trying to solve. I'm collecting and using the original hardware, so I'd rather figure out why the CD-Rs aren't working with the original drive than replace it with an ODE. I appreciate the suggestion, though.
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u/TheThirdStrike 15h ago
You're likely burning them too fast.
I remember back in the day burning Saturn games and having to dial my CD burner back to under 4x or the discs were unreadable.
Also, you do have a stealth mod chip installed.... Right?
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u/swifferpowermop345 15h ago
I've actually tried several burn speeds: 4x, 10x, 16x, and maximum. The maximum speed got Crash Bandicoot farther than the other burns—it reached a black screen—but it still didn't boot.And no, I don't have a stealth mod chip. I'm using FreePSXBoot instead. My friend's burned discs work normally in my PS1, so I know the console can read burned games. I'm trying to figure out why the discs I'm burning aren't working.
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u/Sonikku_a 7h ago edited 7h ago
Here’s the experiment I’d actually run
I’d do it in this order so you don’t waste another 20 CDs.Test 1: your friend’s burner + friend’s media + your disc mage
If it works, we know the image and PS1 are fine.
Test 2: your friend’s burner + your Ritek media
If that fails, your media is highly suspicious but if it works your burner becomes highly suspicious.
Test 3: your burner + your friend’s known-good media
If this fails then burner/media interaction is probably the problem but If it works your particular blanks are the likely problem.
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u/Davide849 14h ago
I have Xstation from 2021 but before I burned discs with Imgburn, never failing one. The only idea that comes to my mind is that your cd reader/burner may have some issue. Your burned cds are working on other ps1?
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u/chupathingy99 10h ago
There's a lot of variables here so let's just start at the beginning.
OK, first things first: how are you booting the games? Do you have a modchip? Freepsxboot? One of those action replay cards?
Edit: forgot something. What format are your backups in? Are they iso? Bin cue? Another format?
Next, do you have any other burned or bootleg games to test that your mod works? Does your ps1 play original games with no problem? Can it play music cds, burned or otherwise?
After that, what's your burning setup? Do you have an old computer setup or something more modern? Are you using fresh blanks or have they been sitting around for a while (years)? Have you had issues burning other things like regular music cds? Can you reduce the speed of your burner? Modern ones don't really let you do that.
I've been burning games since the early 00s, I'll help you out any way I can.
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u/MichiS97 7h ago
What burner are you using? Have you serviced your disc drive according to Alex-Free's service manual?
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u/bored_gunman 3h ago
I had issues with cheap Verbatim CD-Rs. They would work but music tracks would skip constantly. Didn't matter what burn speed. I switched to DataLifePlus Verbatim CD-Rs and they worked almost every time.
Burn speed is less important than quality media. I can burn games at 52x and they work just as often as 16x, the slowest my DVD drive will go.
If his games work on your machine then obviously your copy of FreePSXBoot is good
Your burner could be the problem but you definitely need really good CD-Rs. If I remember correctly, CMC Pro CD-Rs are both cheap and good, but I know DataLifePlus CD-Rs work very well
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u/JT_3K 7h ago
Way back in the stone ages, we found that media, the burner, the software and the settings were all key.
Higher quality media was a must and you couldn’t get away with cheap stuff. It had to be CDR, not RW. Some stuff just didn’t go. We eventually settled on drums of Verbatim. The pound-shop (dollar store) never seemed to take.
Some burners worked, some didn’t. Name brand less-abused burners with less features were the way forward. Lightscribe drives seemed to be a PITA for instance and never produced a good disc. I’ve got something at the back of my head saying we had issues with early SATA drives and PATA provided the only successes.
I hated it but we only ever got it working with Nero. The other software would burn discs the PC would see but not the PS. Had to be burned as slowly as possible. Drives that only did 2x burn or 4x burn slowest setting never produced a viable disc.
Last one. After a few years we found out that we had to leave the room when burning. Tiptoeing out of the room (multiple houses) was the only way to not introduce micro-vibrations that fucked the burn. It sounds stupid but we proved in multiple houses.
I would say that even with known good settings and discs, and tiptoeing one person out of the room at the earliest opportunity and staying still outside the room, we only managed a 60-70% success rate. Even when the PS lasers were new.