PSX stopped working

[Dire 51]

My PlayStation won't load games anymore. It'll get to either the SCE or PlayStation screens, and then stop. I've had it since late '97 and it was modded in early '98 (internal mod). This is the first time it's ever happened.

I hadn't played it in months, and when I hooked it up a couple nights ago it loaded several games fine, but it was making a loud grinding noise every time it was accessing the disc. On the fourth game it stopped, and won't load either U.S. or Japanese games anymore.

Any suggestions?

[omnedon]

My guess is the grinding noise was the gears that are internal to the laser assembly itself have worn out. Thay 'can' be replaced, but it's easier to just replace the laser altogether. It shouldn't be hard to find a same version PS1 and steal it's laser. Voila- modded PS1 works again.

[Dire 51]

So just replace the laser and it should work? How easy is this to do?

I know for sure that I definitely wouldn't send it to Sony to be replaced... I'd heard that they yank mod chips from any PS1 that they repair that has them, and also weld the parallel I/O port shut. While I haven't seen any proof of this, I say better safe than sorry.

[chadtower]

Yeah, sending back a console specifically modded to circumvent their security scheme would be a good idea. Really.

I was actually just playing with a old PS1 last night that has this issue. It loads, but on a low % of the time. I'd like to resurrect this one since it's one of the ones with real RCA outs on it... could there be other causes as well? I tested with some old discs as well as with a brand new copy of Tomb Raider.

[Dire 51]

Yeah, sending back a console specifically modded to circumvent their security scheme would be a good idea. Really.

...which is exactly why I won't send it to them.