PS2 Slim - disc loading problem

[Inzane]

Hey Guys,

My PS2 Slim developed a problem recently. It doesn't want to acknowledge/load any discs, whether games or DVDs. It defaults to the system config screen.

I've googled a bit and seen that there are a couple possible causes for that. One being a misaligned laser? Another being something to do with the lid mechanism.

What seems to work as a bandaid fix is I can press down on the lid when the disc first starts to spin and sometimes (not always) it will load the disc properly. However this has not proved to be very reliable and only seems to work a 1/3 of the time.

BTW, the only thing that changed recently is I bought a PS3 in december, so I disconnected my PS2 and put it on the floor where it stayed for a couple weeks before I moved it to a different TV in another room. Prior to that I had zero issues with it.

Has anyone else experienced this with their PS2? Is there a simple fix that doesn't require shelling out big bucks for electronics repair?

Thanks.

[Inzane]

How's this for a thread bump. I was going to start a new one, but then discovered I had posted previously.

I'd obviously forgotten about posting this way back when. And strangely the PS2 continued to work sporadically over the years. But recently my boys were taking an interest in some my old games such as the original Guitar Hero games. My PS3 consoles were all the later slim models which none had backwards compatibility with the PS2. So the PS2 console was the only means to play some of these games. However whatever the problem was with my PS2 was getting worse.

Anyhow, fast forward to recently, I started googling some troubleshooting and repair videos. And zeroed in on the laser unit itself being the likely cause.



Using videos such as this one as a guide, I ordered a replacement laser (about ~$25 USD) and did the surgery on the weekend. And voila, good as new. Tried several discs and the PS2 is back in business.

So if anyone else has a flaky PS2 kicking around that they were almost going to throw in the trash, give this a go and you might have the same luck.