Used playstation 2 - Defect

[flaxswe]

Yo, haven't been much on these forums lately but anyways

Found a PS2 on an auction site for shipping only atm. It is sold 'as is' and he says that it is having trouble reading DVDs. CD's supposedly works fine.

Anyone have a clue what might be wrong? Is the laser broken or might it just be dirty?

Found another one that has a broken power/reset cord, gonna have a look at that auction too, shouldn't be much trouble at all getting that one to work.

cheers
flax

EDIT: About the broken power/eject-ribbon cable. When he was putting it together after some cleaning, he screwed a screw through the ribbon cable. Could this have shortened the MB in some way? I dont see how though, the reset and power works by putting some voltage or grounding some pins right? So either it has permanent ground on one or both of them, or one or both of them are getting permanent current.

hmm. 1h left on the auction, don't know how ill do. I want to play shadow of the collosus and ICO so bad :P

[MN12BIRD]

Could be one of many things. The top lens assembly can be easily adjusted for height/levelness, there is a lower lens assembly that sometimes gets dirty too. Usually these drives only have one lens so you clean that and think you're done. But you have to remove the top lens assembly to get to the bottom lens/mirror assembly on the PS2 and sometimes its just got dust down in there. I've heard of a few people who say they got their PS2's reading DVD games simply by cleaning the lower lens. Lastly there are 2 pots to adjust the bias to both lasers. One laser is for CD's and the other is for DVD's. You can try adjusting the voltage to the DVD laser.

[17daysolderthannes]

Find out what SCPH model it is. If it's a 5000, fuck it, don't bother, they suck. If it's a 3000, laser swaps aren't too terrible and a significant canned air duster spray down and alcohol lense clean can often bring it back. Adjusting the height and potentiometers is by far a last ditch effort and usually doesn't work. Most people don't realize that properly cleaning their system would net them better results.

The power/eject ribbon cable wouldn't be such a problem except that it can be downright painful to plug in a new cable (if it's even possible to get down there, it's been a while so I don't remember where exactly the other end plugs in).

BTW, you are talking about fats, right? If you're talking slims, laser swaps are super easy and the ribbon cable could be swapped by a 5 year old.

[flaxswe]

I won the auction for a SCPH-30004. It can only read CDs and the power/eject button is broken.

Gonna head down to the shop now, and buy some canned air and other stuff.

Have to get going on portalizing my Mega Drive aswell

http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=33735

[edojapan76]

If you need a 3000 ribbon for the eject buttons I have an extra one. It was taken out of a unit that worked before someone tried to install a mod chip & failed!

[The Jackal]

I have sorta the same problem with my PS2 Fat - only it reads some DVDs, makes loud noises when booting other DVDs,PS1 games and CDs and then doesn't load them.

[Youngie]

Sounds definitely like a lens problem. My PS2 didn't read DVD's properly but CD's worked fine. Though DVD games did work. Confusing. Try a lens cleaner.

[17daysolderthannes]

I have sorta the same problem with my PS2 Fat - only it reads some DVDs, makes loud noises when booting other DVDs,PS1 games and CDs and then doesn't load them.

Sounds like your spindle is slipping. This could either be because your discs have a little too much potato chip grease on them (jk, more likely dust and natural hand oils) or there is dust in the assembly that lifts the lower part of the spindle and it's keeping it from making a good contact. A disassembly and canned air spraydown will do the trick, just youtube "PS2 disassembly" and you'll see plenty of videos. It is sort of weird that it won't boot PSX CDs, though, considering that the PSX CDs are 2X read and DVD games are 4X read, unless you meant only 1X movie DVDs read (are movie DVDs 1X? I don't really know...I would assume so)

Sounds definitely like a lens problem. My PS2 didn't read DVD's properly but CD's worked fine. Though DVD games did work. Confusing. Try a lens cleaner.

that's because the CD and DVD lasers work independent of one another even though they are all contained within the same laser assembly. That is why you'll notice two different adjustment potentiometers on the laser assembly and in some instances they will be labeled "CD" and "DVD." This is because CDs and DVDs have different sized bit bumps on the disc and different frequencies are required to read each format.

It's unlikely that the diode burned out (these things are essentially the same as LEDs, which can last practically forever), so the problem may be a little oxide build up on the ribbon cable, slight warpage from overheating, or a buildup of dust that just happens to hamper precision when it comes to reading the finer DVD bits.

[The Jackal]

It is sort of weird that it won't boot PSX CDs, though, considering that the PSX CDs are 2X read and DVD games are 4X read, unless you meant only 1X movie DVDs read (are movie DVDs 1X? I don't really know...I would assume so)

Well, the PS2 has no problem with PS2-DVD games, but all the rest refuses to load and the error message appears. And yes, PS1 CDs do not load, they were the first type of discs to be affected...

[17daysolderthannes]

Well, the PS2 has no problem with PS2-DVD games, but all the rest refuses to load and the error message appears. And yes, PS1 CDs do not load, they were the first type of discs to be affected...

if a tear down and cleaning doesn't work, you might have to raise the laser assembly a few clicks (using the vertical adjustment, make sure to mark the starting point before turning). It's possible you simply have some laser track wear.

edit: might be poor lubrication as well, see if the lubrication is hard or chock full of dust on the laser rails, that could be the culprit.

[MN12BIRD]

It is sort of weird that it won't boot PSX CDs, though, considering that the PSX CDs are 2X read and DVD games are 4X read, unless you meant only 1X movie DVDs read (are movie DVDs 1X? I don't really know...I would assume so)

DVD movies are played at 1x but a DVD at 1x = CD at like 10x or so in terms of bits under the laser per rotation because the bit density is so much higher. In other words a DVD at 1x is a much higher bitrate than a CD at 1x but the RPM is similar. I think a 1x CD spins at ~500RPM and a 1x DVD at ~600RPM.