PS2 - Suikoden III, AAARGH, WHY WONT IT WORK.

[hezeuschrist]

Sorry, bit I'm at my wits end right now. I'm playing through, or rather trying to play through Suikoden III for PS2 right now, and I'm totally stuck. Not because I don't know what to do, or because I can't kill a boss, but because it freezes for no damn reason.

No spoilers, but on Thomas' subchapter, after he introduces himself to everyone in the castle, there is a scene in the bedroom with the butler. I saw this once, then it said "Now Loading" and the music started playing, and it froze.

Aargh I think, bunches of dialogue I've got to go through again, oh well. So I go through some more dialogue, save it at the chapter break, boot up Thomas again. Blah blah blah, he introduces himself... freeze before the bedroom scene. Three times in a row. If I never have to X through this scene again it'll be too soon, but it still freezes at that point every time.

The disc is flawless. I just cleaned my ps2 like 2 days ago, and now everything loads faster. I even opened the disc tray and blew inside :( I tried it standing up and laying down... have yet to try it upside down but that's next on the list. When it freezes, it sounds like it's infinitely trying to read the disc and just getting nowhere. It doesn't matter how long I let that go, the game is frozen and if I were to leave it on overnight, it'd still be clicking away when I woke up... or the system would be dead.

So, does this sound like hardware or software? The disc is used, but as I said it's absolutely flawless. I'm not getting Disc Read Errors, so I assume any of those fixes won't help... it read's the game disc just fine and in record time after using the cleaner. I know that cutscene on this disc is just fine, it played it once and then froze afterwards.

Anything would be really helpful, I'm starting to get sour on this damn machine... and I've still got waaay too many games to get through.

[spoon]

I saw something intereting that may help in a recent issue of EGM. If you take two pieces of tape about 2 inches long and place them both on the label side of the hole in the disc ,

(so it forms an H, kind like this IoI )

play the disc, it is supposed to help even out the disc so the lens can read it. I would check EGMs or some other places website. That way you can get it right. I know it has to be a more heavy duty type of tape. you could also try tweaking your lens, I saw that somewhere too. I think it was here, maybe EGM.

[SoulBlazer]

Strange, I know my copy of the game does'nt do that. Nor have I seen any reports with problems for Suikoden III. :hmm:

Do you have another PS2 that you can test the game on? A friend's, perhaps? That would rule out if it's a hardware or software problem right there.

[maxlords]

Sounds like the disc to me. See if you can get another one (borrow a friend's, etc) and try that out.

[hezeuschrist]

I don't have access right now to either another Suikoden disc or another PS2 :(

And if I put tape on the disc, will it come off?

What about that clicking noise it makes when it's trying to read the disc? Has anyone else had any game freeze and do that?

[SoulBlazer]

Without another PS2 to try it on, or another copy of the game, I'd have to guess it's your PS2 unit. We all know those drives have problems. :roll: I had to send mine back to Sony for repairs about a year ago.

[omnedon]

Your PS2 is likely in the early stages of DVD disc read error. If you've properly cleaned it, no tape trick will likely solve this problem.

You NEED to to test the game on another PS2. If it reads it fine, add your name to the very large list....

[Blackjax]

Clicking noise = VERY BAD SIGN

Time to start crying like the rest of us with Disc Read Error PS2s... and start saving those pennies to get a fresh $179... :(

Fucking Sony... I went through 2 PS1s, a PSOne, and a PS2 that all died because they make them fucking cheap. Yet my Atari 7800 still works. :angry:

[hezeuschrist]

Aaaargh, and I've backed sony up til now saying that if you take proper care the system will have a healthy life. Bullshit. I've never taken it anywhere without putting it back in the original packaging, never physically abused it (until last night), never left it on for super long periods of time... and to top it off I got a ticket this morning for being parked in a spot that has absolutely no signage to say that it's a ticketable spot without proper permit. Fucking nazis. (Sony + EMU = Fourth Reich)

Anyways, I'll try to get the disc over to a friends house before work tonight, or see if I can borrow his disc. Or both.

What really baffles me is that it doesn't freeze in the same spot. It got one cutscene past the regular freeze once, so that part of the disc can't be bad. I'd much rather chalk it up to a crappy disc than a crappy system though :(

[hezeuschrist]

Whee, turned out to be the disc and I got it exchanged even though I was WAY past the return date on the game at gamestop... but I still had my recipt, so the guy didn't even check the date. He even let me use the stores display PS2 to test it out.

No need for a new PS2... yet.

[omnedon]

Great News!! :D