So a friend of my wife gives her son's PS2 to me to "fix." Problem? Disc's won't read. Any of them. I adjusted the laser voltage as suggested on one online tech help thing... then I adjusted the angle of the laser. I got back all of these: PS2 discs with blue face PS1 (or PSX) with black face CD Audio (originals) CDR Audio (ya' know, them burned 'uns) I cannot get it to read: Any DVD movies Any "Silver faced" PS2 discs Any other fixes out there? She doesn't want to buy her son another with such a short time before the PS3 comes out (although late '06). Suggestions? Or have I done all I can do?
If you went through all the trouble to adjust the laser voltage, you did try cleaning the lense, right? That's usually the problem. Assuming the lense is clean, it's important to realize that there are actually two lasers. One reads CD based (blue) CD's, and the other reads DVD based (purple/silver) CD's. I think that's an over-simplification, but you get the idea. So while you have have fixed one, there's actually another screw you can adjust to get the other CD's to work. But it's also possible/probable that the laser is ruined. I think you can get replacements, but those things are a big mess to try and repair.
Yes. I definitely cleaned the laser... about 3 times. I did adjust both lasers going about 2 degrees at a time, less voltage first then more voltage. It seems to have only needed to be messed with, then reset at the starting point for the darker discs and cd's. This is what I don't get. The dark PS2 discs are DVD-ROM aren't they? So why would they read and not the silver ones... compounded with- The CDA & CDR are silver like a DVD, yet they can be read... EDIT: I just figured out what you were saying, the blue ones are just CD-ROM format... the DVD laser just went bad... Perhaps it's just the old problem of playing too many hours in a row on a game that constantly uses the disc to terraform and map... he did have several of those type games on his memory card. LOTR:ROTK, LOTR:TT, MC3ub Ed., Tony Hawk Underground... I guess those have a great demand on the laser. My PS2 has never had issue #1. But then, I only play the occasional Tekken Tag, or Blitz with company...
Verify that the drive is bad by swapping it with yours. If it is the drive you can get replacement drives for $80. I found a place online that you can get em from. http://www.richspsxparts.com/psx2.html
Thanks PEF, I'll let the mom know... she may just get him a "Slimline" or a refurb from a gamer store... Then if she gives it to me, I'll fix it!
I had to fix my PS2's errors a few months ago. Have you tried to adjust the gear in the disc drive by turning it a few clicks? What I did was spin the gear all the way around until the whole gear and laser "dropped". Then I read that you had to test it out. If it doesn't work, turn 4 clicks...then test again until you see if it works.
For the most part, I've actually been leaning towards the possibility of a early (late spring/) launch next year for the PS3, in the US at least. A few developers have commented that there were told to prepare their games for the Spring of next year, and they weren't making games for the Japanese launch. Sony has recently come to agreements with Ageia (physics), Havok (physics), and Epic (Unreal Engine 3.0) to put some of their middleware in the PS3 software development kit. Combine this with the fact that Sony is aiming to ship out 3000 kits in November and it seems like it may be possible that some software may be ready by the spring. The only problem I see so far is getting the game code to use the SPE's of Cell. The games I have read abotu so far have only been using the main processor of Cell and either a weaker version of the RSX or SLI'd 6800 Ultras. Considering the SPE's are the workhorses of Cell, so much more can be done by using their power. Hopefully they can get that straightened out. Long story short, it isn't out of the question that the PS3 may come out earlier than late '06...now, whether or not it will be ~$300... As for your problem, I don't know too much about fixing PS2's, even though DRE's seem to happen a lot. I've yet to have it happen to me, so I fortunately haven't had to learn how. I was planning on using guides like these two from GameFAQ's... http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/ps2_disc_read_error.txt http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/ps2_disc_read_error_a.txt ...but it sounds like you already tried online tutorials. Sorry I couldn't be of any more help.
The original PS2 I had wouldn't play DVDs very well at all. In fact the only way I could get it to read them was to put another blank disc on top of the DVD and insert both of them into the disc tray. I don't know how that worked, but it did.
i had this exact problem so i searched gamefaqs.com and i found a thread which gave me the number to some sony customer service, i talked to them, told them my problem and answered some questions.. and so they fixed it for free, all i had to do is pay for shipping
If so, Sony must have switched out my PS2 a year or two ago while I was asleep or something. Darn those Sony ninjas.
From my experiences it seems to be about 2. If your having a problem with the disk read error more than likely it's time to buy a new one. I've been there and done that. I was only able to correct the problem temporarily however it got to the point where it just wasn't worth fixing anymore.
I've had the same problems with both of my ps2's. But I never fixed it, I just traded 'em in and got a slim. But I've heard... you can open it up and clean it with alcohol. I've also heard you can take it someone, and they will clean it for you. I've also heard sometimes you have to get the laser readjusted. The alcohol thing works, had a friend who did it and said his ps2 works fine now.
