Is the PS2 original model worth it?

[eatenbygrues]

I have recently come across a few ps2 originals that are in need of repair (for cheap) and I was wondering if it's worth fixing these things or not? Most seem to have various levels of DRE problems. I have seen a few guides online on how to realign the laser and it looks pretty straight forward.

My main reason for getting one up and running is because the original ps2s are far easier to mod to play imports. I have a ps2 slim that I use swap discs on at the moment but it would be a lot nicer if I could just stick in a jp game and have it work. Plus there is the benefit of having the hard drive support for the few titles that can use it.

So how reliable are these things? I have always heard horror stories about them and I don't want to spend the time to refurbish/mod one to have it stop reading disks a year later.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Well I've heard various stories so I wont comment on reliability, perhaps I have been lucky, I have never had issues with original PS2's. Still have a PS2 that works fine, I have had a hard drive in it with HDloader which allowed it to work with pretty much all the games, definitely improved load times, it has a fliptop lid with HDloader and SwapMagic and I have had about 98% compatibility from my experience. Recently got a slim PS2 with Crystal chip and that boot just about everything (PS2/PS1) but I probably wont bother with a hard drive for that.

[alec006]

I say yes,the one I have is built like a tank,not to mention it survived my ex-girlfriend. The drive stutters when coming out but still operates properly,although it can't get past track 20 when playing most audio CD's,but my PS2 is a gaming machine,not a CD player,and all my games work flawlessly with it. The only thing I hate about my model is I have no IR port,so no DVD remote to turn the unit on with out plugging in a controller. And the Hard Drive space is a great edition if you want to copy your save your games to it or copy games to it and reduce load times.

[crazzywolfie]

as far as repairing these go it is simple. usually all you have to do is clean the real lens and they will work. i found 2 for free and all i had to do was cleen the real lens and they started to work again.

[eatenbygrues]

Well I picked one up and got it working no problem (just had to reset the little gear that raises the tray).

As for modifying it for imports I thought there was a solder-less mod for older systems (just for region changing, not backups) but I can't seem to find anything about that, I'm starting to think I just imagined it. Oh well still got a cheap ps2.