I feel like I am DEFINITELY getting more into consoles day by day at my own pace. Anyway, this is a more “unusual post” as I call it.
So I have a used PS2 Slim I got off of Amazon about a year ago. From what I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be anything physically wrong with it internally, but I’m not so sure given that my experience with consoles is somewhat limited… But I have tried to play a PS2 game in it (Via the disc.) & it is unable to read it. As for whether that’s due to a faulty sensor or damage to the disc itself, I don’t know either. (I tried cleaning the sensor last night with a cue tip & a touch of rubbing alcohol, but I don’t think that really helped. Just today, I also tried taking some of the game discs I have to be repaired/cleaned, but there were just some scratches/marks that couldn’t be undone. Thankfully, it’s not in horrible condition though.) I also noticed when I tried putting the disc in, I didn’t even hear it spin up. At least it powers on & outputs to a display just fine which is a good thing. With that being said though, do I have any options I can try at all? I’d be very interested to find out!
Like always, if you have ANY questions for me or need more details, please ask away & I’ll reply back. Thanks in advance to anyone whom can help!
If it doesn’t even spin up then it might be that the motor for the drive is burnt out (I believe that’s one of the options).
If you can, I’d try testing with a known good disk. PS2 can even play normal DVDs and I believe music CDs so if you have on of those that can give you some idea of the functionality of the disc drive.
Worst case, if the disc drive is completely dead, you could always put something like OpenPS2Loader on it and that would let you boot games off of USB or SMB devices.
CD-based PS2 games are starting to reach the lower limits of their lifespans, depending on whether they’ve been stored properly, so it could just be that.
I ripped a load of games at some point last year, and a couple of the CD ones took a few tries before I got a complete ISO.
I do have a different PS2 game (Forget what it’s called.) that came with the PS2 I ordered, but it’s not 1 that I have played yet nor am interested in. (Might end up pawning it off later.) But the 1 that I HAVE tried just can’t be read & yet the scratches on it aren’t that bad. BTW, yes I meant CD-based discs since I’m not aware of any others the PS2 can take.
Some games are CDs, and some are DVDs. IIRC, all(?) PS2 CD disks are blue, as opposed to normal CD/DVD silver.
If it is a CD, it could be that the laser has lost enough of its efficiency to not be reading it properly, as CDs have to spin at a higher rpm to read the same amount of data.
Yeah, I suspected that a faulty sensor might be the factor at hand here, but I don’t really know given my limited experience I’ve had with consoles over the years. I tried having it open with the disc in, but it said like No Data or something. So I couldn’t really tell if the sensor was functioning properly. However, IF the sensor is the culprit, how much hassle would it be to replace it if that’s an option? Do you know?
Yeah, but I don’t really know if the motor is the factor at hand or even if it’s the sensor. It does make some noise when I have the disc in, but tbh, I 'm not sure if that’s considered to be “normal” or not…
I don’t know offhand how much of a hassle a laser replacement would be.
IIRC, it should spin some regardless of the sensor state if you leave the lid of a slim open as long as you properly set off the sensors that detect that the door is closed.
Hm. Well, I’d appreciate some proper opinions, guys. Like, how can I tell if it’s an issue with the motor or the sensor? Bring it to an electronics repair shop for them to check it out? No offense, but I’d like to try & determine what the issue is so I can go from there. (I sure hope there won’t be much cost involved though…)
That is a proper opinion, find the sensor and depress it, it should be on the front right hand side. Push back the brake it should be on the back right. I think that’s all of it, then check if the disk spins when you turn the console on.
A general electronics store will most likely not be able to do anything because they generally don’t know how to repair old consoles. You’d need to go to a 2nd hand game store and see if they do repairs.
Oh, okay. Now I understand. Well, I don’t think anything is wrong there cause when I close the lid, it clicks like it’s supposed to. With regards to what I said earlier in my post, I was talking about the sensor that it uses to read the discs. Not sure if you misunderstood me or not, but I just wanted to put that out there…
No, you are failing to understand me and use the context of your comment immediately before mine to help fill in the blanks.
You talked about trying the disk in the drive while the lid was open and that it wasn’t spinning.
I followed with that it should spin if you are manually triggering the lid close sensor and the brake. That should trick the console into thinking the lid is closed when it’s not and let the disc spin (only do this with a disc in place).
If it fails to spin at all that could be the motor. If you hear it making spinning noises and not just the laser head moving back and forth then the laser reader is likely broken.
OK. Sorry if I misunderstood you there. Anyway, I tried it with the disc in & I used a wireclip I found to hold the sensor down. No spinning activity period. I guess I might have a burned out motor. Of course IF that’s the case, what I’m wondering is “Is it easily replaceable & if so, will it cost much to do so?”
I can’t be 100% sure in the current market (I’m unfamiliar with the price of PS2s at the moment) but the old wisdom was generally that it wasn’t worth the effort since a PS2 could be found for $20 and fixing the drive was like $10 (for parts).
Your best bet would be to go/call retro game stores and ask if they do repairs.
Yeah, I think that might be the route I’ll take here in this case. Hopefully, they should be able to confirm my suspicions & get me straightened out. BTW, what should I type in a search engine in order to get results for repair places? Something like “game console repairs”, or etc?
I’d be very interested to find out!
Thanks in advance to anyone whom can help!
Anyway, I tried it with the disc in & I used a wireclip I found to hold the sensor down. No spinning activity period. I guess I might have a burned out motor. Of course IF that’s the case, what I’m wondering is “Is it easily replaceable & if so, will it cost much to do so?”