I fixed my Naomi GD-Rom drive with a Dreamcast GD-Rom unit

[OldFoo]

Well, I'm really happy, my dead Naomi GD-Rom drive now works. I saw an ebay auction for a Dreamcast GD-Rom laser assembly, and the description noted "fix your Dreamcast, or your Naomi GD-Rom drive". So I took apart a spare dreamcast unit, and then took apart the GD-Rom drive, and stuck the Dreamcast GD-Rom assembly in the Naomi GD-Rom case. Here's a link to a pic of the bad Naomi drive for anyone that hasn't disassembled one before, there's a connector on the bottom that fits into the DC mobo/Naomi GD-Rom pcb -



http://www.flickr.com/photos/8703176@N03/2483762962/



I plugged it all in, and the Naomi fired up and loaded the GD-Rom game, yay!

The DC was a spare one I got years ago for 5 bucks, so it's not that big of a deal. I don't know if this swap is good for all models, or if it'd cure what ails another bad Naomi GD-Rom drive, but hey, it worked for me.

[OldFoo]

Thanks, good to know as I have a few spare DC's around (some just non-working and just for parts). Although I really have no idea how a Naomi GDRom goes bad (don't play it as often as a DC).

[OldFoo]

I did compare the GD-Rom drives before swapping them, I didn't note that. They were identical except for the DC had 311 stamped on it and the Naomi had 321 stamped on it, just above the 3.3V stamp. Revision or model number, maybe?



I've seen it mentioned on here before, so it wasn't like the ebay auction gave me a revelation about trying it, it just jogged my memory enough to make me actually try swapping them. Well, eventually, I think I saw the auction a few months ago. Not sure why I just jumped up last night and swapped 'em, the thought just popped into my head.