Current mood:	annoyed
Current music:	Nobou Uematsu - Final Fantasy VIII - The Castle
Entry tags:	gah, ps2

A Request to the Technically-Minded
The PS2 is still not working.

The issue is that it won't play discs. Everything else seems to work perfectly. I'm not getting Disc Read Errors, but I did around half a year ago, when my brother and I used an online guide to fix it through adjusting the tilt wheel. It was harrowing and arduous, but it started playing games again, until I left for uni again, and my brother then never used it...so when I brought it down here, it flickered between not reading discs and reading them with only occasional long pauses on the loading. The problems never lasted longer than a day, however.

On Monday this week, we came back to find it wasn't reading CDs. Okay, fine. On Tuesday, it did the same, until I changed the CD and changed it back again, and then I was able to play games and the like well into the evening. However, on Wednesday morning it was back to not working, and has been doing so ever since.

Upon turning on, or loading the CD (any CD), it will do one of three things. Most often, it will start making a low rumbling noise, and will refuse to acknowlege there is a CD in the driver. The 'Browser' screen will just read 'Reading Disc' without end. The second possibility is that it goes to the 'Playstation 2' screen and then stops, without making any funny noises, and never actually reaching the game. The third, which sometimes follows the first, is that it goes to the 'Please insert format disc' screen, and thus thinks the PS2 CD in the drive is not a PS2 CD...

So, as far as I see it, we have four options:


a) Attempt to manually repair it. This would, of course, depend on what the problem is. I’ve read three different solutions, being, namely, lubing the tracker, whatever that is, cleaning the lens with alcohol, and adjusting the tilt wheel thing. We did the latter back in March, and it worked, but the error then was different…we’re not getting ‘Disc Read Errors’ now, but rather ‘Please Insert PS2 Format Disc’, or, more regularly, nothing but whirring or grinding noises…

b) Send it to a professional. This is, of course, costly, as Sony have no soul. It might also not work. I don’t know of anyone else I could send it too, however…

c) Pack it in, and buy a new one. This would be worthwhile, as I still have a stack of unplayed games, and it would mean I could still play KH2 and FFXII at their respective release dates, but this is a costly option, especially given how, in order to avoid getting a similarly-afflicted PS2 in return, we’d need to get them first-hand at around £95!

d) Pack it in, sell everything, and use the money for other things. It would be a shame, given the effort required, and how the unplayed games would sell for less than I bought them for, but it would allow us to use something else. It’s a while before the Wii comes out, however, and I’ve little desire to get an X-Box of anysort, let alone a PS3!

Any advice would be most appreciated!

I don't need anyone telling me 'PS2 CD-drives are rubbish', by the way: I already know! >_