What would cause a game to "freeze"?

[scorch56]

When it rains; it pours.

The other day I recieved an old PSX game in the mail (Tecmo's Deception) and I popped it into my PS2. Before I even started playing the game I decided to watch and see if a "demo" was going to run first (something I like to do); but the game froze during the "loading bar" sequence, so I ejected the disc and examined it but it was spotlless and scratchless. A few reloads later and it played fine.

Fast forward to the next day and I'm trying out my latest acquisition for my Xbox (DOA Volleyball) and I'll be damned if the same thing doesn't happen on it! (kind of..) During the opening CGI movie sequences the animation just freezes! Inspection of the disc likewise showed no flaws but I cleaned it anyway and popped it back in and it ran; but it still freezes most of the time (at the exact same point in the movie).

I really don't thinks it's the discs but I haven't had a chance to try out many others either yet (I.E. Games that have given me no problems previously). Any ideas what's going on here? And why in different consoles? Coincidence?

Only thing I can think of is that I'm a smoker and maybe the lenses are getting dirty/coated as both of these units suck in room air. How do you clean a laser lens aside from disassembling the case and using a Q-Tip and alcohol? Do ANY of those CD-type cleaners work or are they dangerous/damaging?

Thanks to all for your time & attention.

BTW.. when I say the games "freeze" I mean just that.. the picture just stops.. but the console still is running and I still see the picture on screen.. no "error" messages either.

[scorch56]

Geez.. anybody?

[Avatard]

It could be anything from dust collecting in the PSU building heat and causing it to freeze, to dusty lenses, to inhome power fluxuation problems. I would open it up and clean out all the dust, clean off the lenses, make sure your consoles are on a hard, flat, well ventilated surface and not closed up in an entertainment center. There are just so many possibilities. The least likely would be inhome power sags which would be solved by a UPS (uninterrupted power supply), not only will it filter out brownouts and power spikes but you can play your games for about 30 mins after a power outage But thats a highly unlikely issue considering it doesn't take much power to run a console, a little power sag shouldn't matter, its a more common problem working with computers.

I don't trust any cleaning apparatuses (go go butchering the english language!!!), I always open them up, remove dust, and carefully clean the lense myself. I have seen a hair get stuck right over the lense causing all kindsa funky problems, some things might not remove that.

[Vigilante]

I picked up a cd lense cleaner at radio shack. It's a cd rom with little tiny brushes on it. I've had some success at lense cleaning with stuff like that, and canned air. Try and remove any access ports, my ps2 has the hard drive bay and airholes accross the bottom, blow out as much dust as possible and hope for the best. It's a pain to fully tear them apart for a cleaning.

[Avatard]

Yes, depending on which model PS2 you have, its complete hell. Those stupid ribbons are too short and hard to plug back in once you disconnect the top. But its hard to get it truly clean by blowing the dust around on the inside. System dust inside smoker owned consoles is really nasty btw, ick.