Was *given* a PS2 today - condition unknown

[NoahsMyBro]

This morning I was working at a longtime client when one of the guys there gives me an old PS2. I've never had a PS2, but always thought I'd prefer the original thick model, given the choice. As luck would have it, the unit given to me was the original, thick model!

I asked the person giving it to me what was wrong with it, and he replied - 'I don't know, it doesn't work right'. I haven't had time to hook it up yet, and have no PS2 games with which to test it. I do have a few PS1 games I can try though.

No controllers were included, but I've got a Playstation (one) Dual-Shock that I think will work.

On the back of the system, the plate that has the ethernet jack has "hdd" engraved in it, in the Playstation logo font. This had me excited, thinking the hard drive attachment was included in the system. Disappointingly, when I removed the cover there was no hard drive present. The inside of the cover though has data and power connectors for an IDE hard drive, though. Did every PS2 include this cover? Or, is it likely that this came from the HDD kit, but the drive has been removed?

Assuming there was once a drive, and it's gone awol, could I just add any standard IDE drive to this? It looks like the drive would then be flopping in the air. Is there some sort of bracket I'm missing?

[skaar]

You can use any HDD... if you're going to mod the system. My DMS4 chip and HDD kit (and network card as a result) has a 200GB IDE drive inside my PS2. I dump my games onto the HD and play them from there. For LEGAL PS2 games I don't think you can use any drive though.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

First thing you'll need is an official PS2 Network Adapter if you don't already have one. When a HDD is attached to it, it slides into the PS2 with very minimal play, and it won't "flop around" as you'd expect.

If you can track down an official PS2 40 GB HDD, you'll be able to use it for BOTH official PS2 games that utilize the space as well as dumping full games onto it with a Boot Loader disc.

Otherwise, you can use most IDE drives. Maxtor IDE drives have a very high rate of compatability.

Older HDD Boot Loader discs will only read up to around 200 GB HDDs, and newer versions up to around 400 GB, however if "something is wrong" with the system, there's a possibility that you won't be able to get the system to read a disc, and if that's the case you won't be able to use the Boot Loader discs at all.

Check to see if the system can read discs. Then go from there.

[NoahsMyBro]

I (thought I) replied to this thread Tuesday night, but the reply never appeared. I clearly remember previewing the post, but I guess either I never hit Submit, or the button press didn't go through, or something.

Oh well. To try and sum up what I tried to write before - First, Thanks for the info. I've been out of town for work, but will defintely be hooking the system up tonight when I get home (I'm sitting in the Orlando airport right now, as a mater of fact!), or tomorrow night.

Concerning the hdd, and ethernet -
1) I assume I won't do any harm, to the system or the hdd, if I just plug in an IDE hdd to the connectors on the back and power the unit up, just to see what happens. Is that correct?

2) The back plate DOES have an RJ-45 ethernet port. Can I assume that this is the official PS2 Ethernet port that you mentioned, Frankie?

Of course I still have no PS2 games with which to test this beast out. I'll be looking for something cheap once I return home. Also, my best friend's brother was one of the game designers for Smuggler's Run, so I'll be picking that one up for sure.

I'll let you guys know how things work out. Thanks again.

[Oobgarm]

Yes, you have the network adapter.

Generally, large-bodied HDDs work well and sit comfortably in the expansion bay. They won't be perfectly snug, but good enough. The official PS2 HDD has metal supports and locks on the sides for a perfect fit.

Attaching any old HDD to the adapter and turning it on won't do a thing unless the HDD is formatted to the PS2's specs. The only way to do this on the PS2 itself(that I am aware of) is by using the official HDD Utility disc, which came with copies of the Final Fantasy XI HDD bundle. You can format the disc through a PC, check out this site for some good info.

As far as checking the system for functionality:

Grab a music CD and a DVD. If possible, get a single-layer(silver) and a dual-layer(gold) DVD for testing.

Upon booting with a disc in the drive, it should load the disc pretty quickly. In some cases, it will go to the menu screen for a brief second before loading. If it sits on the menu screen, it's having trouble reading the disc.

If it's having trouble, go into the browser screen from the main menu. From there, you can load discs and the machine will tell you if there's a disc read error(DRE). Chances are that if the person you got it from is saying it 'didn't work right', that's the issue it's having. Sometimes it'll read one type of disc and not the other, other times it just won't read anything at all.

There's a great tutorial on fixing the DRE right here. If you don't mind opening the system, that is. It's pretty easy to do-I did one for a co-worker this past weekend and it works like a charm now.

[Cornelius]

I've now had two of these with the disc read errors (DRE). Both times I fired up the guide that was linked to above and was all set to do that. However, on the first one I thought the lens looked pretty dusty, so after cleaning that off with a little alcohol on a q-tip, I tried it out without doing anything else, and it worked like a charm. Did the same thing on the second one, and again it worked great. Since odds are good that the problem is a DRE, just cleaning the lens is worth a shot.

[NoahsMyBro]

OK - I've just done some quick testing -

Playstation Games:
Medieval -- DRE
Rayman -- DRE

(No PS2 games yet.)

Music CD:
Songs from the Street - 35 Years of Music - Disc 2 --- DRE

DVD:
Single-Layer (?) -- Young Frankenstein -- DRE
Dual-Layer -- High Fidelity -- The PS2 read the disc, and then told me that Parental Controls prevented me from viewing the movie unless I knew the 4-digit password !!! That's a hoot! I assume I'll easily find a reset for that online.

SO, I'll have a look at that link you provided, Oob, and hopefully report back with positive results later.

A minor bummer is that for a long time I had a brand-new PS2 DVD remote, and a brand-new PS2 wireless controller, but no PS2. For what seemed like forever I dragged these things to every NAVA, trying to unload them, and could never get rid of them. WELL, whether at a NAVA or a garage sale I don't know, but somewhere I managed to dump them, because now that I've got the PS2 I don't seem to have those items anymore in my tradebox.

[SnowKitty]

OK - I've just done some quick testing -

Playstation Games:
Medieval -- DRE
Rayman -- DRE

(No PS2 games yet.)

Music CD:
Songs from the Street - 35 Years of Music - Disc 2 --- DRE

DVD:
Single-Layer (?) -- Young Frankenstein -- DRE
Dual-Layer -- High Fidelity -- The PS2 read the disc, and then told me that Parental Controls prevented me from viewing the movie unless I knew the 4-digit password !!! That's a hoot! I assume I'll easily find a reset for that online.

SO, I'll have a look at that link you provided, Oob, and hopefully report back with positive results later.

A minor bummer is that for a long time I had a brand-new PS2 DVD remote, and a brand-new PS2 wireless controller, but no PS2. For what seemed like forever I dragged these things to every NAVA, trying to unload them, and could never get rid of them. WELL, whether at a NAVA or a garage sale I don't know, but somewhere I managed to dump them, because now that I've got the PS2 I don't seem to have those items anymore in my tradebox.

iirc, the password reset code is 7444 i had to use it once

[NoahsMyBro]

Yep. I found instructions online regarding how to reset the Parental Control password, and also how to remove it entirely. 7444 took care of it.

[NoahsMyBro]

OK, I took the PS2 apart tonight, and proceeded to follow the instructions in the Ars Technica page describing how to adjust the lens. Adjusting the lens seemed to not help at all. Then I realized I'd never tried to simply *clean* the lens first.

SO, I dialed the lens back to where it started from, grabbed some Isopropyl Alcohol and Qtips, and cleaned the lens.

I then tested:
PS1: Castlevania:SOTN - worked perfectly.
Music CD: The Big CHill soundtrack - perfect.
DVDs: Sideways, Time Bandits, Young Frankenstein - all perfect.
(By the way, all of my DVDs are silver. I don't know how to tell what's single layer, and what's dual-layer.)
PS2: Rayman Raving Rabbids - Seems to work fine, but won't start with the Playstation 1 controller plugged in. Looks like I need to open the new wireless PS2 controller I bought this evening. Darn. Works Perfect.

Alright! Everything seems hunky dory. Now I can just put the thing back together, and I've got myself a PS2!!

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Cornelius]

OK, I took the PS2 apart tonight, and proceeded to follow the instructions in the Ars Technica page describing how to adjust the lens. Adjusting the lens seemed to not help at all. Then I realized I'd never tried to simply *clean* the lens first.

SO, I dialed the lens back to where it started from, grabbed some Isopropyl Alcohol and Qtips, and cleaned the lens.

I then tested:
PS1: Castlevania:SOTN - worked perfectly.
Music CD: The Big CHill soundtrack - perfect.
DVDs: Sideways, Time Bandits, Young Frankenstein - all perfect.
(By the way, all of my DVDs are silver. I don't know how to tell what's single layer, and what's dual-layer.)
PS2: Rayman Raving Rabbids - Seems to work fine, but won't start with the Playstation 1 controller plugged in. Looks like I need to open the new wireless PS2 controller I bought this evening. Darn. Works Perfect.

Alright! Everything seems hunky dory. Now I can just put the thing back together, and I've got myself a PS2!!

Thanks for the help everyone.

If only someone had suggested this before you started taking things apart!

[Lerxstnj]

So now I see why so many people bid on DRE PS2s on Ebay!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

OK, I took the PS2 apart tonight, and proceeded to follow the instructions in the Ars Technica page describing how to adjust the lens. Adjusting the lens seemed to not help at all. Then I realized I'd never tried to simply *clean* the lens first.

SO, I dialed the lens back to where it started from, grabbed some Isopropyl Alcohol and Qtips, and cleaned the lens.

I then tested:
PS1: Castlevania:SOTN - worked perfectly.
Music CD: The Big CHill soundtrack - perfect.
DVDs: Sideways, Time Bandits, Young Frankenstein - all perfect.
(By the way, all of my DVDs are silver. I don't know how to tell what's single layer, and what's dual-layer.)
PS2: Rayman Raving Rabbids - Seems to work fine, but won't start with the Playstation 1 controller plugged in. Looks like I need to open the new wireless PS2 controller I bought this evening. Darn. Works Perfect.

Alright! Everything seems hunky dory. Now I can just put the thing back together, and I've got myself a PS2!!

Thanks for the help everyone.

An easy analog check of what type of DVD you've got, throw the DVD into a DVD Rom Drive and look at the properties. If the data on it takes up more than 4.7 Gig, it HAS to be dual-layer. Technically anything less CAN be dual layer media that they didn't "fill up", but likely isn't.