Stupid PS2! Why won't you work?

Cafe Society
1

I think this goes here, but if not, move away!

Okay. My PS2 is stupid. It won’t play PS1 games about 75% of the time. Fine, I have no PS1 games.

But today, I go to put in The Sims. A blue disk, but in perfect condition. A PS2 game, yes it is, you stupid piece of machinery. When I put it in, it makes a nasty “electronic scraping” (to use The Cody’s words) noise. “Disk Read Error.” Or “Please insert a PS or PS2 format disk.” I have played Sims many times before, just not in the past month or so. Worked before, works in my roomie’s PS2.

So, I put in Primal, a silver disk with a few scratches on it (got it used). That works fine.

Try Sims again. No go.

Roomie gives me a CD/DVD player cleaner disk thing. I try it. Still, no go.

I think, well, maybe it’s tired. The Cody and Roomie were playing Dynasty Warriors 4 for about 6 hours, Cody played by himself for several hours before that, and we watched two movies before I fell asleep. So, I turn it off for about 2 hours.

I try again, and IT’S THE SAME NOISE.

Why does my PS2 hate blue disks?

Can I fix this?

How much longer do I have until it completely conks out?

PS: We bought it new March 2003.

2

God, these make me nervous. We had a thread along the same lines for Final Fantasy X-2.

3

The blue discs are normal, run-of-the-mill CD roms. Silver discs are DVD’s. It sounds like the voltage for the laser needs to be adjusted or the laser needs to be cleaned. First contact Sony and talk to them about a warantee repair. If they don’t want to help (or if someone reading this has a machine that’s out of warantee) then the machine can be taken apart.

Here’s a link that tells you how: http://faqs.ign.com/articles/390/390535p1.html

Disclaimer: I haven’t tried taking my PS2 apart, and it looks somewhat difficult.

4

Uh oh. That’s one of the next games I want to buy.

Now I attempt to do a search.

5

All of my PS2 games are silver, except for the GameShark and Sims. Gamesharks loads just fine. Sims, nope.

Oh, and all of my CD Rom games are silver, too. The only blue disk I have ia burnt music disk, but it’s a different shade of blue.

6

You may want to talk to Sony about a warranty repair as well. Probably more useful than the type I mentioned.

However, under further research, the warranty period is only 90 days on a PS2.

Here’s how to contact Sony for service:
http://www.us.playstation.com/support.aspx?id=HowtoObtainService/default.html

7

We have The Sims, it’s a blue disc and works fine. But, I have to chime in with a PS2 sucks comment, because we’re getting the grinding noice and ever increasing disc read errors, ect. It’s getting to the point where I have to give the machine a good whack to make it read the disc properly. I’m beginning to wonder if the PS2 is a piece of crap.

I’ve had a Gamecube longer than the PS2 and I can leave a disc spinning in there for weeks at a time and it still plays just fine without a reset or turning it off & on again.

8

Ruh roh. Our PS2 has started clunking/grinding some too. God, I hope it doesn’t break.

9

So, I should try a nice hard thwack? Hehe.

I’m running a lazer cleaner right now. Yup.

Hmmmm. I don’t like the idea of mailing my PS2 to someone.

10

I started getting a disc read error about a year and a half ago, at first with DVDs, then a few games, then everything but Madden 2001. Got an X-box and outside of two or three games, haven’t looked back…

11

But . . . but . . . I like the PS2 games . . .

12

I had the same problem with mine. I have read that you can send them into Sony for free repairs but I’m impatient so I didn’t look into that. I found a link similar to the one Nekosoft provided about how to open them up and clean the lens. It was really pretty simple and it’s worked fine ever since.

13

Ahem.

Apparently the Blue Disk Read Error happens, oh, most of the time or soemthing. Really common.

So, for the good of all, I shall post the results of my sarch for future generations to admire.

To fix the Blue Disk of Death, you will need:

Blue Disk of Death
Masking tape
Ruler

Measure out two 1" strips of tape.

Place them on either side of the hole. ||O|| Make sure they lay flat and are opposite each other, and are equal lengths.

And huzzah! No more grinding noises, tape doesn’t interfere with the game play (even tho it goes a little past the clear round part and onto the disk).

Took me an hour and a half to find that info.

Best part, I didn’t have to take my PS2 apart! Or pay anyone.

14

http://www.techtv.com/xplay/features/story/0,24330,3516150,00.html

I haven’t done this one myself since my PS2 is still going strong after three years of heavy use. I have, however, used their instructions to open mine up to clean out the cat fur buildup that plauges anything with a fan in my house.

The one suggestion I would have would be to pay attention to the ribbon cable that goes to the controller ports. On reassembly, mine was slightly out of whack and the player 1 connector didn’t work, and I had to take it apart again to re-seat the ribbon. Now it works fine.

I would avoid most laser cleaner products, IMHO they either do more harm than good, or don’t do anything at all.

There’s no magical cure to prevent hardware from wearing out, I expect Xboxes and Gamecubes to break down at similar rates as they get older.

15

Apparently, Sony is now fixing DRE problems for free, even if they’re out of warrenty. You do have to pay for shipping to the service center, though.

More info can be found in the first post here

16

I read that DRE errors involving Blue Disks of Doom aren’t covered. I’m not having DRE problems on Silver Disks.

17

Sony repaired my PS2 for this exact problem – all the disks worked fine except for the blue ones – for free. It was about three years old at that point, but I guess they consider this a manufacturing defect or something. I thought they handled things professionally, and I’m something of a crotchety customer.

I was a little luckier than most – I live across Philly from the service center, so I didn’t have to pay shipping.

Good luck.

18

This is true - my stepfather is having problems with his and they said they would fix it for free if he shipped it to them.

19

I worked tech support for PS2’s for a while. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT, FOLLOW ANY INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN ON HOW TO REPAIR THIS YOURSELF

First, it will void your warranty. Second they will repair your PS2 for FREE on disc read errors, except for shipping, if you call. If you take the PS2 apart the service center WILL NOT repair the console. EVER.

Call Sony tech support.

Slee
Well, the tape on the disc thing won’t void the warranty.

20

Yes, this happened to me as well with a launch PS2. Call Sony as stated and they will repair it free as long as you pay for shipping.