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Thread: Perpetual?? PS2 repair thread

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) omnedon's Avatar
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    Default Perpetual?? PS2 repair thread

    Oh my. What a thing to start with. Seems to be the biggest demand issue I'm beginning to see with my little repair business. My success rate is only about 70% so far. I am NOT an expert, or a Sony tech. I am a self taught tinkerer. Those who have tips, improvements, or corrections to my advice, please post it. We can all benefit from a whole communities experience.

    EDUCATIONAL INFO ONLY FOLLOWS. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR PS2 CAUSED BY THESE TIPS. OPENING YOUR PS2 VOIDS ANY WARRANTY YOU HAVE. Most of these procedures require basic technical skill, and a willingness to risk the destruction of your non working PS2. Once the warranty is gone, you may have little to lose.

    Disconnect all power first.! When opening your Ps2, note where all long screws came from (important!), mark their holes if necessary.Make sure all screws are removed, and warranty seal sticker is cut. Beware the power/reset switch ribbon/wire cable. VERY FRAGILE. If you are going to do more than cleaning, it is a good idea to gently disengage this switch assembly from the PS2 top cover. Still be very careful with the now dangling power reset switch. If you rip this from the motherboard, and miraculously manage to not rip the cable in two, putting it back on requires a near TOTAL disassembly of your PS2. VERY involved, and best avoided at all costs.

    It seems that a number of factors can lead to Disc Read Error (DRE).

    Number One: Filth! The most common issue is a dirty lens. 50/50 alcohol/ distilled water mix, a Q-tip, compressed air.
    - Remove CD/DVD assembly cover plate. Number of small screws and location varies with version. Compress air the whole thing so no dust is going to blow back on to the cleaned lens. Gently clean lens with alcohol/water solution moistened Q-tip. Be gentle and thorough. Compress air the llens, but NOT DIRECTLY. Gentle is the theme here.

    Re assemble and test. If that does not help, try to clean it once more.

    Good luck. When I have more time I will address what I have learned in regards to other disc reading issues, such as spindle gripping -(slippage making a grinding noise that causes DRE with blue/black discs) and the deadly tedious, touchy, and risky CD/DVD laser POTS adjustment.

    Anyone else with tips, please post!
    ... for your gaming and iPod service needs http://www.oldschoolgamer.com/ For all your Video Game console and iPod upgrade/repair needs!

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) omnedon's Avatar
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    Number two DRE error - Disk slippage. Usually occurs with PS1 discs, and blue PS2 discs. Those discs are CD roms, and therefore spin faster than music CD's, DVD's and DVD roms. It is acompanied by a grinding noise.

    Least invasive fix - Go inside cd unit.(see above) Remove Cd unit cover. Gently sand down the white top CD gripper/spinner on the CD unit cover, and then blow out with air to remove all sanding particles. On the spindle motor, clean the back rubbery ring with strong tape, like a lint remover. Re -assemble and test. This "may" work. Keep your greasy fingers out of the center of your CD roms!


    More invasive fix - same as above, except after cleaning the black rubber ring, resurface it with something grippy. I used an X-Acto knife and high quality Duct tape. Yes..Duct tape. It must be perfectly level when you are finished. When you are done, duct tape should ONLY be on the black gripper of the spindle. Nothing overhanging, nothing overlapping. It should be a perfect looking little duct tape silver ring. I used this fix on mine after the above fix wasn't sufficient. So far, so good. Now the duct tape grips my CD's, and does not seem to slip anymore.

    I've tried soap and water and a toothbrush on the spindle gripper, and that only solved the problem temporarily, plus you have to be extremely careful, using very little water. I also tried a gentle Dremel buffing of the spindle gripper, and that did not improve things either. The Duct tape resurface seems to have done the trick once and for all.

    Anyone elses input is welcome!
    ... for your gaming and iPod service needs http://www.oldschoolgamer.com/ For all your Video Game console and iPod upgrade/repair needs!

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    Insert Coin (Level 0)
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    There are really only 2 ways of repairing a DRE error if its a true DRE error and not some dust on the lens. either by replacing the motor servo since its most common to be either damaged or destroyed when shorting old NEO 2.X chips when installing them (usually on the ROM reader memory) the cause of the damage is a burned coil that cant be replaced. only solution is to get a new servo (dvd-laser unit) sold at http://www.liksang.com or if youve managed not to burn it but only to unalign the reader grid (most common reason is people changing the settings on the Laser unit itself 2 small screws one for DVD and the other for CD) if you managed to do this follow the following link http://www.psxcare.com/ps2/playstati...alibration.asp (the link is in swedish... sorry) the main idea is to have an Oscilloscope that handles atleast 20Mhz less wont do! the pictures illustrates the Probe point and the gridpics at the end of the page shows how the probe picture should look like.. (the one on the left side) the top and bottom should not be cut like shown on the right picture.

    Btw if someone for some reason managed to get their PS2 to boot strange and enter a Language factory menu the error lies near the PAL / NTSC force pulldown chip.. most common is a short on the chip or a lose leg hanging with no connection.. (simple to fix.. use the brain)

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    I have successfully re-calibrated PS2 DVD and CD laser potentiometers "blindly" (no oscilloscope), but it is very time consuming, and occasionally fruitless.

    Great info and links extrude.

    Thanks!
    ... for your gaming and iPod service needs http://www.oldschoolgamer.com/ For all your Video Game console and iPod upgrade/repair needs!

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