My PS2 is randomly crashing

[mkenyon2]

So, I've had some time to play on my PS2 (recently bought used) and am getting nervous. Last night, I played Gran Turismo 2 for an our or so... and just before saving and turning it off, the screen went black. No response. I rebooted, and things seemed normal (except for some lost data that hadn't gotten saved). Today I swapped out the RCA connectors for Component cables (SO MUCH BETTER!) and things seemed to be good. Popped in Gran Turismo 2 to make sure PS 1 games would work (which it seemed to) but it crashed when I went to start a race. My TV said 'No Signal'.

I'm guessing it's pretty dusty inside and could use a cleaning, which I will be doing. But what else could be causing this?

[hamburglar]

I don't know about the saving problem, when the screen goes blank does the power light change?

I've had a few PS1 and PS2s get a bad connection at the video multiout, applying some alcohol with a Q-tip and reinserting the cable fixed the problem.

[segasonicfan]

Issues like this are normally caused by a bad laser or overheating. In my experience PS2s get gunked up with a remarkable amount of dust and debris. I highly recommend opening it and cleaning out any dust bunnies clogging up the fan intake.