GCN Looking to possibly rejuvenate an old GC of mine...

[Silent_Gunner]

...that's just laying around, taking up space in the house, and could use a new owner while also looking to bypass the problem of its basically dead mini-DVD drive. (it's a miracle if you get it to work at all with anything, let alone for long before the game tells you to shut the game down, hopefully without the sound going to Memory Corruption City)

I know about stuff like the GCLoader and another hard mod called SWISS, but IDK about much else. I also know that RetroArch is coming to the system, and that homebrew for the Wii is compatible with it, and that there's some Memory cards that have SD card slots in them that, from my 5 minutes of browsing, seems to require at least being able to read a disc like an Action Replay (which I don't think I have anymore because the inner plastic that attaches to the started breaking off).

My ultimate goal in attempting to fix the GC is to try and bypass the need for a disc to do anything with it, and to do so without having to de-solder and re-solder stuff together if possible. Why take the hard mod route when you can go soft?

As for the model of GC, it's a DOL-001, US region.

Thx in advance!

EDIT: Going for the Dolphin-GC PNP whenever I finally start work at my upcoming job.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Swiss is not a hardmod but homebrew software which is able to load games from various places (burned media, original media including out-of-region, SD-gecko, SD2SP2). The problem is booting Swiss without a functional drive.
Try adjusting the potentiometer (if not already done). Maybe you get the drive to reliably boot up genuine discs. If the drive works reliably for about a minute on each boot this is enough.

As for booting into Swiss refer to this page:
https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Booting_Homebrew

Almost all methods require the DVD drive (XenoGC chip + burned Swiss disc; Genuine game + save exploit; Datel Action Replay/SD Media Launcher).

Good luck finding an IPL replacement chip (Qoob, Viper) which require soldering… You can more or less forget about this. Won't find them.

Means: The best way to get rid of the need for the drive is the GCLoader optical drive replacement. If I remember that correctly the current version of GCLoader does not require any soldering. I wish I had one…

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Swiss is not a hardmod but homebrew software which is able to load games from various places (burned media, original media including out-of-region, SD-gecko, SD2SP2). The problem is booting Swiss without a functional drive.
Try adjusting the potentiometer (if not already done). Maybe you get the drive to reliably boot up genuine discs. If the drive works reliably for about a minute on each boot this is enough.

As for booting into Swiss refer to this page:
https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Booting_Homebrew

Almost all methods require the DVD drive (XenoGC chip + burned Swiss disc; Genuine game + save exploit; Datel Action Replay/SD Media Launcher).

Good luck finding an IPL replacement chip (Qoob, Viper) which require soldering… You can more or less forget about this. Won't find them.

Means: The best way to get rid of the need for the drive is the GCLoader optical drive replacement. If I remember that correctly the current version of GCLoader does not require any soldering. I wish I had one…

Good luck and have fun!

Yeah, literally after posting this, I found a video about the GCLoader and the creator said the PNP was a thing, so no more having to adjust the potentiometer which my older brother tried to do (wasn't as confident in my "DIY repair" skills as I...still am not, but building PCs has made me willing to at least give solutions like the GCLoader and the GDEmu a shot. Now, if only the Saturn had a better ODE than the Rhea/Phoebe where the creator apparently can't hire a secretary to handle communications with customers), and it worked...for like a week before it simply became

 

[MockyLock]

You have the MODE ODE from Terraonion for the Saturn.
https://terraonion.com/en/producto/terraonion-mode/

 

[LiveMChief]

You have the MODE ODE from Terraonion for the Saturn.
https://terraonion.com/en/producto/terraonion-mode/

Mode isn't compatible with the gamecube.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Mode isn't compatible with the gamecube.

We were talking about the Saturn/DC.