Newly bought Dreamcast has loud hum

[ernamath]

Hi everybody, hoping someone can help me with a simple problem here.

After a long hiatus I dug out my old Dreamcast to find that it won't read discs anymore. So I bought a new one on Amazon.

Each time I load it up, the regular hum it makes (not the disc seeking noise) is very loud. After a half hour of steady play it calms down, to the level where it's only a bit louder than my old Dreamcast. But next time I load the system up, it's loud again, repeat.

So my question is, can I expect this new Dreamcast to quiet down eventually, or is it loud because it's already been used too much? I seem to remember my old Dreamcast being louder once. The seller said the one I just bought had gotten 60 or so hours of use from him, and he bought it from someone else, so no telling how much use it's gotten over the years. My old Dreamcast, by comparison, has seen 200 hours of play, probably more.

Should I go in there with some compressed air and see if it's gummed up or something?

[Axaj]

Should I go in there with some compressed air and see if it's gummed up or something?

That's always a good idea, even if it's not working correctly.

[hailrazer]

Just switch the new working optical drive into the old one and boom, you have a working quiet Dreamcast.

[Klaymator14]

I would do what Hailrazer said

-Blayke

[Steamdnt]

Revision 2 and 3 dreamcasts have stronger fans. that could cause the hum

[ernamath]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I wanted to just return the console, but there's an interesting development. I mentioned in passing that I had been interested in trying out some homebrew games, and the seller has fixed onto this point and accused me of ruining the console through playing said games, even though, considering the timeline between when I received the console and emailed him about the noise problem, there's only about a 24 hour period in which this could have happened.

He also claims that homebrew games are illegal; I thought they were legal? As I understand it, people make these things, then either sell or give them away. You buy them, burn them to CD, and play them. Nothing illegal about that, right?

So I have two questions.

1. It would take months of playing homebrew games (which I didn't do; have not yet played a single homebrew game, though I was planning to) to cause damage, right? Not 24 hours, even if I had been playing constantly.
2. Are homebrew games illegal?

[joeyjoe9876]

Homebrew is legal in most cases. it mostly depends on how you use it.

[HotDog-Cart]

The only damage that the homebrew/CDROMS can do to the GDROM drive is actually burn out the motor. But that doesn't happen until a LONG time. Like, Ive had mine for 3 years, and I play burnt games on it everyday. It was used too, and it STILL works.

[ernamath]

Thanks for the replies. The seller eventually agreed to a replacement.