I think my PS2 may be dying...........

[thx1138]

I first noticed problems when playing DVD's, and no I'm not talkig about the totally useless operating system for DVD's.  

More recently I'm often getting Disc Not Found messages. Sometimes it makes funny noises, sor t of jumping noises, almost as if the disc isn't quite sitting on the mechanism proreprly. A smart tap on the top of the unit over the disc area sometimes worked.

The problem got worse. I found that placing the PS2 on it's edge seemed to help improve things a bit, but I still get problems, and only a jolt or a slap seem to fix it. Once a game has loaded succesfully it works fine.

any ideas?

Can't afford a new, or even a second hand one right now, but I suspect that this is the only solution.

[Arrrhalomynn]

That's a very common problem. I don't think there's anything you can do to fix it yourself.

I had the same problem with the dreamcast and I was able to fix it myself. There's a little screw below the lens there. If you turn it up a bit, the laser gets stronger or something, and it reads cd's again. I don't think the ps2 has this though.

[Lord Nepenthean]

There is a fairly easy fix for this if you don't mind opening up your PS2.  I've never done it myself, but I think the problem is the laser is out of focus, so if you teghten the screw a little, it will move the laser closer to the disc so that it can focus correctly.  Let me look around for a tutorial.  There are some on the net.

[Lord Nepenthean]

http://www.network54.com/...&messageid=1047699519

Once again, I have never done this and don't know anybody who has.  I also don't know if that is the best guide on the net, or even accurate, so you may want to do some looking of your own.

Also, I just remembered that Sony is supposedly fixing the disc-read error problems for free, if you just pay the cost of shipping the system to them.  You should probably look into this before you try fixing it yourself or getting a new console.

[Antimind]

I've read somewhere - and I don't know if this would help your problem, that if you put two pieces of tape next to the hole on the disks (kinda like in an H shape with the hole being the middle line) it helps. It keeps the disks balanced or somethin. I dunno if that would add enough weight to it or not but it may be worth a shot.

[thx1138]

thanks for the info,

I am such a klutz with tools, that I would just bugger it up. I notice that fualty PS2's sell on eBay for £20 or more, I just bought a PS2 with games and accessories from someone with very good feedback indeed for £90 including postage, nad have put mine up for sale........

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

WHERE'S MY SHOTGUN?

[BadEnoughDude]

I used the "fix-if-yourself" method on mine. It did work, but it only delayed the inevitable death of the console.