Something to try if your old PS2 stops reading discs

[bacteria]

I had bought a PS2 console for £5 at a car boot sale months ago, thrown into a cardboard box by the seller with a few other similar ones; scratched and obviously seen better days. I thought £5 was worth a risk so bought it, came with remote control too (I think it works with the PS2 anyway).

Just decided to try the console out, as if it didn't work i'd have to get a replacement at a car boot sale.

Booted the PS2 up, got the configuration screen ok, but the disc didn't read. Tried another disc, same thing. Typical I thought, seller at car boot sale sold it knowing it didn't work, rats!

Nothing to lose, so took my usual cavalier attitude to modding (BTW, the definition of "cavalier attitude" is "Carefree and nonchalant; jaunty"), opened up the PS2 and also the disc drive. Used a soft cloth on the laser unit, gave the whole area a good spray with compressed air in case any old dust was clogging up something; tried again, nothing.

I then noticed something - the black surround on the motor unit where the disc rests on, was raised in parts and not in others, looked closer, the plastic surround was raised; so pressed it down, and it was flat and even. Turned the system on and voila! Worked! So, i've got a working PS2 console for £5. I reckon the seller at some point dropped the console and thought it was dead.



working:

[Curlypaul]

Nice discovery, I have a mate with a launch day PS2 that is starting to struggle to read disks. Taken it apart and cleaned the laser and all the dust out of the thing and that helped but its still struggling to read the disks. I'll take a look again and see if his has the same problem.

[fvgazi]

It would be amazing if this was the cause of all DRE's. I have a near launch PS2 and I think i've only had the error once or twice. I've played probably thousands of hours and it still works like a champ.

This is a great find!

PS.. Do you often play jenga while modding?

[AppleQueso]

I wonder if it would work on a slim...

[MrAfterFx]

Bacteria is a freakin genius! Thank you Bac-Man I cant wait to use this on my MBB ps2 (when and if it gets a disk problem):

[Bradtemple87]

Awesome find, seems like the fix was easy enough?

[bacteria]

Fix was easy, just pressing fairly lightly on the plastic top on the drive motor until the plastic top was popped in fully and flat.

This was rather lucky, consoles with CD drives fail for a variety of reasons, usually lens failure or similar, which isn't worth repairing on old consoles (cheaper to get a new one). Only guessing of course if the unit had been thrown about before, this might be what happens after time to a PS2 drive, no idea; however it's "something to try" if the same happens to your PS2!

I have someone at work who keeps promising to bring in his old PS2 that his son dropped on the floor and it no longer read discs - he hasn't bothered to bring it to me yet. That's what made me think this might be the issue - being dropped - the internals of the PS2 are pretty bolted down after all with only the drive unit as having moving parts.

Jenga - lol - no not at all, I bought a pack for 50p at a car boot sale as they are small wooden blocks so ideal for elevating boards and similar when modding, if need to; also thought they might be handy for making shelf supports for my Alpha Omega, maybe not, but worth 50p!

[fvgazi]

Jenga - lol - no not at all, I bought a pack for 50p at a car boot sale as they are small wooden blocks so ideal for elevating boards and similar when modding, if need to; also thought they might be handy for making shelf supports for my Alpha Omega, maybe not, but worth 50p!

Kind of ironic being a game about falling down. Another good idea from Bacteria! Now I can finally make use of the stupid truth or dare party version my fiance has.

[bacteria]

It's only wooden bricks of the same size after all.

BTW, Jenga is a game not of falling down but of maintaining the stack as long as possible! It is a very boring game and a waste of time, but like I said, nice handy wooden blocks.

Nothing ironic, by Alpha Omega casing will be made really strongly and rigid.

[skate323k137]

nice. I've heard you can tweak the potentiometer too, though I've never had to. Typically a good lens cleaning is all I've had to do to get my ps2's happy again. However, if all else fails on a "fat" ps2, throw a network adapter and HDD in there and use HDLoader and/or SMS via freemcboot.