Playstation 2 Laser Cleaning

[philipofmacedon]

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know a reliable method for cleaning a PS2 laser. What materials should be used?

I have a fat PS2 that will no longer read PS1 discs and barely reads PS2 ones. I've yet to find a definitive answer on the internet for the best or even a safe method of cleaning the thing. It's possible my console's laser is just dead, but as it has seen a lot of use and never been cleaned, I'm hoping that cleaning is all it needs.

[corn619]

It might be dead but its worth cleaning just to see I took my brothers fatty PS2 apart after it stopped reading and hit the insides with those keyboard dust cleaners "compressed air in a can" and hit the laser with it lightly and cleaned it with one of those dvd lens cleaners you can buy anywhere and it worked for about 2 more years before the laser was dead for good the whole process took about a hour.

[Niode]

My fattie bit the bullet years ago as far as PS1 games were concerned. I tried compressed air, DVD laser cleaning kits the lot. Nothing fixed it. I think it's just a problem with early Playstations (a similar problem plagues the first generation Playstation). I dread to think what problem will rear it's ugly head with the PS3 a few years from now… Rather than fixing the PS2 drive with a replacement/ or risk opening it up and fiddling with laser calibration, it would be easier to just find a cheap PS1.

It's the main reason i've just bought a mod-chip. I'm gonna make sure I can keep using my PS2 for as long as possible before mod chips are harder to find (like the ps1 chips are getting now) and the DVD drive gives up the ghost for PS2 games. I know i've still got my Slim PS2 but the drive mechanism on that seems to be going as well. It takes a few attempts to get certain games going as the games don't click in. It'll be easier to just load games off the hard drive on the fattie.

[diehllane]

I doubt that it needs cleaned. More than likely it just needs a laser adjustment. That'll reposition the laser to read discs better.

[ubelaffe]

I've fixed at least 4 playstations and two dreamcasts that were "broken" and "unusable" by cleaning the lens with alcohol and cotton swabs. It might need laser adjustment, but especially since the fat models have gotten to be fairly aged now, it's more likely that you've got some grime in there.

[philipofmacedon]

Thanks for all your input guys. I'm curious if people still have suggestions.

When you say alcohol, ubelaffe, do you mean isopropyl alcohol mixed with water? At perhaps a 91% concentration or higher?

I've heard that cotton swabs could leave fibers behind, but it seems like that can't be worse than grime.

[ubelaffe]

I use a bottle of rubbing alcohol. I don't remember percentage, but I've never diluted it. I keep the bottle of rubbing alcohol and a box of q-tips in my gaming rig at all times. I've never really had the problem of trace cotton particles. If it's dipped in the alcohol, it's usually fine, just don't ever rub too hard.

[philipofmacedon]

I disassembled and cleaned my Playstation 2 laser today. Now it reads silver backed games, PS1 games, and DVDs. It would not load blue backed discs but I didn't feel that was enough of a problem to justify bothering with adjusting the potentiometer.

To clean I used Isopropyl alcohol 91%, cotton Q-tips, and compressed air.

My final thoughts after scouring the internet and talking to pharmacist at my drugstore where I bought the alcohol.

* 91% alcohol was adequate, but 99% would have been ideal. The store didn't have any so I would have needed to order it online.

* I'd be careful if buying a bottle of "rubbing alcohol." Often rubbing alcohol is 30% water and contains lanolin, a fatty additive that should not be put on optical lasers.

* Q-tips worked for me but it did look they were leaving little cotton fibers behind. In the future it would be nice to get some foam swabs instead. I've seen them online; they look just like brown Q-tips.

Thanks for all your advice guys. I hope this information is useful to others.