PS2 surgery

[Josquius]

My PS2 is throwing up disk read errors like hell, getting a game to run takes me forever, it just chooses when to start or not randomly.
I think the time has come that this cannot go on. I really must open up my PS2 and try and fix things.

I'm wondering though....
Has anyone here ever opened up a PS2?

I've seen a bunch of guides for fixing PS2s on the net and one recurring thing they say is its very easy to totally mess up and snap a cable or something inside the PS2. I'm very paranoid about this.....

[DontSayBanana]

Depends on which type you've got.  Original box or slimline?  The original boxes aren't that difficult to open up; I've had mine open to clear dust, debris (and I've had to tighten the lens motor as well), and it hasn't been too much of a headache.

You should note the lens motor surgery is a stopgap measure at best; you can only jimmy it once or twice before you break something, so you should be considering a newer slimline (less moving parts made the design a lot more stable and cut down on a lot of strain on the lens motor) or saving up for a PS3 with backward capability (40GB+, IIRC).

Oh, before I forget, there's something else: there's four colors for the sides of PS2 discs; there's gold, silver, blue, and black.  If you're only getting the read errors on "blue/black" discs, go ahead, but if you're getting the read errors on "gold/silver" discs as well, you may not want to bother- the lens motor hack just changes the depth slightly to make it easier for the PS2 to read the darker pits and won't help at all on the lighter ones.

[Josquius]

Its an old one, I've had it for 7 years and it was second hand then so its even a old model of the old ones...

Replacing it isn't really an option right now, I've got no money. Also my PS2 is chipped, half my games are imports so...I'd like to keep it ideally.

The way its not working doesn't seem to match up with the way they don't work on those how to fix sites too. My PS2 always detects there is a disk in the machine, it just often can't play it. Usually takes me to the broswer and the disk is there and then when I try and run it I get the can't detect DVD screen or it goes straight to there. It seems pretty random when it does decide to work, sometimes I can be turning it every way and resetting it for half an hour, other times it works right off.

First things first I'm going to see if I can buy one of those lens cleaner CDs in town and if that fails do the surgery.

[DontSayBanana]

Its an old one, I've had it for 7 years and it was second hand then so its even a old model of the old ones...

Replacing it isn't really an option right now, I've got no money. Also my PS2 is chipped, half my games are imports so...I'd like to keep it ideally.

The way its not working doesn't seem to match up with the way they don't work on those how to fix sites too. My PS2 always detects there is a disk in the machine, it just often can't play it. Usually takes me to the broswer and the disk is there and then when I try and run it I get the can't detect DVD screen or it goes straight to there. It seems pretty random when it does decide to work, sometimes I can be turning it every way and resetting it for half an hour, other times it works right off.

First things first I'm going to see if I can buy one of those lens cleaner CDs in town and if that fails do the surgery.

If there's no pattern to the dyes the lens is rejecting, a lens cleaner is probably your best option at the moment.  Also, when you say "chipped," is it soldered or a USB?  And is it mostly for imported games or for imported DVDs?  If DVDs, if you can get your hands on an Action Replay Max disk, it has additional function as a regionless DVD tool (it also lets you use PGen on your PS2 without going to the hassle of forcing a buffer overrun and installing PS2-Linux, but YMMV).

[sbr]

I did this to my old PS2 a few years ago, with a decent guide I found on-line it was pretty easy.  There is one delicate part, but if you are aware and paying attention there shouldn't really be any risk of damaging anything.  Some cotton swabs, isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and a can of compressed air and an hour or two should be all you need.

This isn't the one I used but looks reasonable

http://www.ehow.com/how_2241525_clean-playstation-2-lens.html

[Josquius]

If there's no pattern to the dyes the lens is rejecting, a lens cleaner is probably your best option at the moment.  Also, when you say "chipped," is it soldered or a USB?  And is it mostly for imported games or for imported DVDs?  If DVDs, if you can get your hands on an Action Replay Max disk, it has additional function as a regionless DVD tool (it also lets you use PGen on your PS2 without going to the hassle of forcing a buffer overrun and installing PS2-Linux, but YMMV).

PS2 linux? Interesting, I've never heard of such a thing.

My chip is just a standard mod chip, soldered in somewhere (I didn't do it, it was done before I got it). Its imported games that its for, for foreign DVDs as you say I need to use a action replay thing.

Just got to hope I can find a lens cleaner, they're not the most common things in the world for some odd reason and the shops around here suck.

[Grey Fox]

You = fuck.

[Duque de Bragança]

Its an old one, I've had it for 7 years and it was second hand then so its even a old model of the old ones...

7 year old second  hand Ps2 ?
You were pretty lucky to had it working for so long...

[Josquius]

I didn't do it.
I bought a cd lens cleaner and ran it a tonne and it seems to be loading within 3 or 4 resets now...Which is great.

[derspiess]

I opened up my old original Playstation in my wild & crazy days to modchip it.  I did the sloppiest job ever soldering the chip but it still worked somehow.  I still have that thing somewhere. 

Only thing I've done with my (non-slim) PS2 was to install an internal hard drive.