PS2 and DRE questions

[Spekkio]

i have multiple questions since i have 2 PS2s with very different problems.

first PS2 is one i got from a buddy (fat, forget model number) and it won't read disks anymore of any kind. drop a disk in from the browser screen and it says "reading disk" for a quarter second and then goes back to nothing, like if i'd closed the tray of a working PS2 with no disk in it. is this fixable or should i just can it? it's a refurb model, so sony won't touch it i'm sure.

second PS2 is my own PS2. think it's a 3000 model (fat model for sure though) and it's not reading blue disks. reads PS2 DVDs and normal DVDs fine, so i'm guessing it's just the blue backs it doesn't like since they spin faster. makes that awful grinding sound too. i read about the tape trick (placing a set of four 1 inch pieces of tape around the central spindle to increase the weight/thickness/grip of the disk) but i'm skittish that the tape will come off of the CD inside the drive or will tear off the ink on the top and render the disk unreadable. i figure i can mitigate the risk by using 4 pieces of tape and leaving them together in a ring fashion where every piece overlaps the next one. i only need to run the disk for a couple of minutes to reformat the FFXI HDD kit that i got from my afforementioned buddy so the fix doesn't have to hold long, but i'd like to hear from others who have tried it how reliable the fix is. i've done a lot of searching online but i just can't find any testimonials as to how safe this process is.

does anyone have any input on the problem? is sony still willing to fisk DRE problems at their expense after the debacles they've been having or has that offer expired? i'm not afraid to tear these things open if i have to, but my friend's i'm worried is broken beyond repair and mine only has trouble reading blues to my knowledge which quite frankly isn't enough justification for me to tear it apart and risk destroying it. do you think a new laser kit from an online store would be enough to get my friend's PS2 to work again? how much would that run me? are they hard to install? are there any suggested, reputable sources? thanks in advance for the help.

[Hiryo]

http://www.cyber-mag.com/station/laserPS2.htm (only the first half of the page about adjusting the lens, dont pay attention to the rest of the page about cd-pots and crap)

Link i posted is how to clean the lens and adjust it's targetting on the (fat)PS2s. You have to open it and get to the lens and you'll see a tiny white cogwheel inside of it. Over time your ps2's lens will lose its targetting and turning the cogwheel adjusts it. You should turn that a few times until it looks comepletely "blue" (meaning its at 90degrees). After that you can take a cloth with some alcohol or another clean astringent, put it on your best papertowel or cotton swap, and gently dab the lens. Don't even want to press against it, just let gravity apply the pressure on the lens. After THAT you can take a dad of WD-40 and oil the lens racks(obviously you'll have to clean off the old grease thats on it). It's not 100% necessary to do it but sometimes its a good idea so your ps2 isnt struggling any more to move the lens(you'll notice it when your ps2 is obscenely louder than your buddy's).

After doing all that your ps2 will be good as new and should read everything you want it to. It is a scary thing to do but it almost always works, as that lens adjustment is something almost every ps2 goes through. If you arent sure how to get the ps2's case off (its around 8 screws iirc) then there are TONS of videos on youtube with people pointing out all the screw positions. Be gentle with it though (-'.'). The 2 things that you could break beyond repair is the ribbon thats inside and obviously the lens. Be careful of those and you'll be perfectly fine.

I actually need to do it again soon....Ps2 isnt reading my HDloader and its annoying me ;_;



Edit: found a much better tutorial for it http://arstechnica.com/articles/paed...ware/ps2.ars/1

[Omniyoji]

You can check out this post on another forum I made. The dial, changing voltage, cleaning lens, and buying a new laser see here are the only things you can do. You can find instructions for the laser installation on google. If not PM me I'll see if I can dig it up.

Goodluck

EDIT*

Oh one more thing I forgot. If you don't have alcohol to clean the lens you can use nail polish remover.... don't use cologne >_>;;;;

[Spekkio]

i'm willing to tear apart my friend's PS2 since that thing's toast and i doubt if i could get more than 10 bucks from gamestop for a broken PS2, but not my own since it's not significantly broken, still playing the PS2 dvd media that i need it to. do you think that cleaning/adjusting the lens will correct my friend's PS2? i thought that most of the DRE that the laser adjustments fixed involved the PS2 actually putting out a "disk read error" or at least making more of an effort to read the disk than appeared. am i wrong about that?

[Hiryo]

I think it would help, but i could be the one thats wrong . But hey, worth a try.

[Spekkio]

well, let me ask another question: is there any way to transfer an FFXI hdd from 1 PS2 to another w/o reinstalling from the blue backed disk which my PS2 won't play? my primary goal is to just get either one of the PS2's up and running FFXI for when i go out fishing since it's supposed to be much easier on the PS2 than PC.

[Hiryo]

Personnally i have an IDE->USB cable that i do stuff like that with my computer. You need a program called WinHIIP in order to do that, which basically identifies the ps2 HD for what it is.

http://www.sksapps.com/images/winhiip/select_drive.png

Other than that, i personally dont know any other specific way to do it.

[Spekkio]

i don't need to transfer the image. i physically transfered the HDD and NA to my PS2, but it does not work properly. some google searches indicated that if you move an FFXI HDD from one PS2 to another, you have to reformat the drive from scratch in that PS2 or it won't work. this is supported by my own experiments as the drive works fine on my friend's PS2, i just can't install ToAU on it which is obviously problematic. no WoTG disk, but meh, like i care if i can't take my PS2 to the past. ^^

hooking the HDD up to a PC is no problem if i can solve the problem from there, i'm just not sure how that would either let me format it to work with my PS2 or let me install ToAU and continue to use it in my friend's PC.