So I’m playing some Madden 2001 on my Playstation yesterday and I notice my tv screen is caked w dust. I wipe it off with my hand (hey, I’m a slob) while holding the controller with my other hand. I wipe my hand off on my jeans (yes, yes, slob, thank you) and then put that hand back on the controller…
…and shock the snot out of myself. Not like grabbing an electric fence but a pretty good jolt. No lasting damage to me, however, so I go to play.
But the controller doesn’t respond, which has never happened before. I plug in the other controller…nothin. I reset. Nothin. I turned it off, back on, unplugged it, nothin. The game starts up just fine, be it Madden, Mortal Kombat, whatever…they just act like noone is touching the controllers.
I don’t think it can be the controllers b/c the other one wasn’t even plugged in and the swapout was unsuccessful. Am I screwed or is there an easy fix?
You’ll have to send it in to Sony to get it fixed. It’s hard to tell if this falls under the “User error,” “Wear and Tear,” or “System malfunction” area.
In any case, lie to sony and say it just “magically” shorted out your controller port and they’ll fix it for free (you pay S&H, though).
You may not necessarily have to send it off. I would imagine that, based on your location, there is a repair shop certified by Sony that you could go to. You might want to call some game stores to see if there is someone locally who can do repairs. Otherwise, pack 'er up and ship it to Sony’s repair center.
Hmm. There may be a fuse connected to the controller ports. I seem to recall that being the case for some other consoles, but I don’t know about the PS2.
That’s what is known as an “ESD” event - electrostatic discharge. Electronic circuits can be sensitive to static zaps - while it feels like not a lot to you (because it’s low current), that zap can actually be in the thousands of volts during the brief time that you touched it, and can cause permanent damage to a circuit.
From the sounds of it, the circuit damaged is in the controller port, which is why the game still runs and displays on your TV. If you are lucky, there is a low cost fuse in the circuit as Mikahw suggests. I don’t know enough about the PS2 specifically to tell you if that’s the case, but most appliances that have fuses have them blocking the power supply rather than specific circuits like the controller ports. So I would guess that it’s not likely.
Oops - sorry to make this a second post, but I meant to add something. Most fuses won’t blow under an ESD event - the current isn’t high enough and there long enough to raise the temperature to melt the fuse. They’re usually designed for voltage surges that last a few milliseconds longer than an ESD zap.
I should have mentioned this in my OP, but its a PS I. In speaking with a couple friends, they mentioned that it probably wouldn;t even be worth it to take the thing to a repair shop.
Happily, I mentioned this devastating event to my wife and said I may just take my birthday money and finally buy the PS II I’ve been wanting forever and she gave me the “you better not b/c it would screw my Christmas plans for you” face. So I’ve got THAT going for me…which is nice.