PS2 Slim won't read discs

[Anapan]

I reseated the ribbons and cleaned the laser before deciding the laser was burnt out ($30 to know the laser is brand new isn't too bad IMO). Wish I'd noticed earlier that it couldn't read the disks well cause the laser had scratched rings into a few games when trying to refocus the beam. Same thing happened with my friend's slim - too many hours with the laser streaming GTA level data and days of the PS2 being left on playing Flashback FM). He decided to go the USB way (he only really likes a few games so this worked OK for him)

Some instructions on slim disassembly, and laser unit removal - ignore 3rd pic and everything past the laser part:
http://www.modchip.ca/install/ps2/gener ... tv1011.php

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

the laser had scratched rings into a few games when trying to refocus the beam.

This is caused by either an improperly seated disc on the spindle or your motor being bent or sat out of alignment.

The laser itself can't move anywhere remotely high enough to touch the disc on it's own.

[jinn]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18427

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13267

[Anapan]

Good post! I ended up buying the TDP-082W with the rails and assembly for my SCPH-75001.

I'm not one to argue, but I'm sure the laser was the culprit. Looking the same problem up on Google yields a lot of the same results, and even a stop-gap felt ring to keep it at-bay. I've seen a fat PS2 do the same damage after being re-calibrated. I told my friend not to adjust it, but he did anyway since he wanted his PS2 to keep working without taking apart any more and some bad advice off the internet said to do it. Upon adjusting the laser's height potentiometer 2 clicks in the wrong direction his PS2 gouged the same marks into discs. He tried to reverse it but now he has a HD-Loader only model (He made sure of that after adjusting the rest of the laser unit's screws that were lock-tite fixed. It's laser will never read a disc again). I think that when the laser gets too weak it cannot focus it's beam well, and it over-adjusts the laser's vertical level to compensate. We actually watched it do this to a disc with the cover removed. The PS2 struggled to focus the beam on a disc (we could actually see the laser's beam widen and converge on the disc from over-top while it was reading). Upon failing, the motor sped up and it started making contact with the disc flailing to get a reading of the data at the center. The slim lasers are apparently more prone to this behavior as they were the most talked-about on Google's results for my symptoms. I bought my Slim new, and have never dropped it, mishandled it's spindle or otherwise mistreated it (aside from installing a clone of a Matrix Infinity). It's only been moved a coupe of times. I semi-regularly blow all my consoles out with compressed air. The main reason it failed I believe is I have a mod-chip in it and even the best brand of DVD-Rs are hard for a PS2 to read compared to a properly pressed one thus making the laser put more power into it's laser unit to read the discs. It was working well for 2.5 years before an extra long session of Mana Khemia did it in. It died shortly before a trip to the Old Schoolhouse's closed-off area while I passed out with it on. The next battle I did hung up/crashed the battle screen while the PS2's laser had gouged a large ring into the discs surface trying to load Flay's special attack animation/voice data. Wondering what happened and being unable to load the game up any longer, I stuck a couple real discs in to test out if it would read them. It destroyed my Shadow of the Colossus disc (NOOO!!) and did some minor damage to Killzone (Meh - not a big loss...).

[alienjesus]

I gave the PS2 some blasts of compressed air and the laser a good clean today, but no luck. I also tried playing it standing vertically just in case, but again no joy. I guess I need to open this thing up? How? what screwdriver do I need?

[Anapan]

Phillips.

You were right Mod_Man_Extreme. It was the ribbon that was scratching the discs. When I removed the laser unit to re-seat the ribbons and check for other problems I pulled the laser head ribbon a bit too much from the metal it was glued on which, when the laser was in the right position, allowed it to loop up high enough to make contact with the discs. I hope the double-sided tape fixed it.

[Xeogred]

Hope it's okay to give this topic a bump, I just randomly decided to hook up my PS2 again and low and behold I'm getting disc read errors. But I don't think this was mentioned earlier, but I'm also getting some weird muttering noises as if the system is trying it's hardest or hitting something when attempting to read the discs, then I get the error. I tried moving the system around, checked to see how dirty it was at a glance and it's not that bad.

Could it still be the lens or something? I've barely even touched this PS2 to be honest, that's the sad part, but it is a few years old already...

What I really love is having my PS3 right next to this that works flawlessly (topped off with HDMI output making PS1 games look 10x better than PS1/PS2 output through the component cables), but too bad PS2 games aren't compatible! Damn you Sony...

[bentendo64]

I reciently got a ps2 slim, and the disk wont spin, and the laser doesn't move.... I've tried everything I could think of, cleaning it out, 'reseating' the ribbon cables, trying different power supplies, and checking every fuze on the board, but it still won't do anything.