[colman77]

Ouch, 12Heineken!!

My 2 cents....
1. Call Sony. Give them all the right answers. THey're listed somewhere in this thread. They fix it for you. yay! Even if your warrantee is expired, call them, get really angry, and talk about how there is research (this is key!!) that proves this is a widespread problem that should be fixed for free. I've heard about people who did this, and Sony did fix it at no cost, even though their warrantee was up!
2. Make sure your disks are clean!
3. If all else fails, follow This Guide (www.arstechnica.com)...warning...make sure you've got a tiny screw driver!! some of the screws are very hard to get off if you don't (although I managed with some needlenose pliers)

[12heineken]

Hey, Coleman, I sent SONY an e-mail today that more-or-less conveyed my feelings on such a shoddy product made by such a great company. I expect their tear-soaked appology letter soon. Right.... Anyway, I just wanted to post in this forum, to fearless, careful individuals, that the lens you see when you pop off the drive-lid is not the "laser lens" like you have in a CD player. The whole assembly is an unsealed, focusing periscope with a laser at the back end firing horizontally, and that there are 8 optical surfaces that can be dirty, the most obvious being the one you see. The focusing lens (the one you see on top) is "floating" and is modulated by magnets and electromagnets. One screw secures it to the main assembly. If that screw is removed, then the white lens/electromagnetic module can be carefully lifted up and back to provide better access to the lenses/prizm via the bottom of the main assembly, once the "circuit board" screw is removed. With the focusing lens uprooted, its bottom surface and the top surface of the static magnifying lens can be cleaned. One screw holds the "circuit " board in place. Remove the screw, gently pull up the circuit board (which will come away farther when the focus lens is freed) and the optical surfaces will be accessable to a very thin (medical type) cotton swab. I tried to get a Q-tip in there and ripped the circuit-ribbon going to the laser Those surfaces were dirty. Imagine using a telescope that wasn't sealed. Imagine it being hooked up to a cooling fan, constantly blowing in dirt/smoke/whatever. Imagine thinking that cleaning just one of the many lenses/mirrors will make it work when you can't see through it. If I hadn't ripped the laser ribbon, I'd be jackin' agents inside the matrix right now. If the laser unit's optical pathway were sealed from end-to-end, this wouldn't be a problem. This is why a PS2 works for a little while after the focusing lens is cleaned, but only for a little while.

[colman77]

interesting, explains a lot. Why so complicated??
well, for right now i'll feign ignorance, because it works, and chances are i'd do more harm than good if I fooled around any more than I have in there.

[darkcloudguy]

what email address do u send sony e-mails @ cuz im real pist
i think i might actually find one of these studies and read them...

and what lesson have we learned from this???? xbox all the way
unless ur a rpg gamer only

[cwb]

Well I sent my ps2 in last week to the sony repair shop they suggested...... it cost me $8 shipping, and I got it back in 6 days.... and it's like brand new! The alignment was all out of whack, so they replaced some parts for free even tho my warrantee had been up for 3 years. No more Disc Read Errors.... phew!

[ho-chi-ming]

i can remember the game that my ps2 first showed signs of fatigue on. that would be street fighter ex 3. ever since then, one after another, my games fell victim to what u all refer to as D.R.E. i like that, has a nice ring to it. any how, my system was bought during the summer of 2001, i'd say around august. worked great for about a year and then it all started. i can vouche for some of the methods that i've come into contact with because i have tried them and succeeded myself. the white gear works, increased my systems life-span an additional 4-6 months. of course some games took more fiddling with than others but still...... using tape to complete the balance of weight only worked on the only blue back game i had. no success on any other dvd rom. increasing the voltage, well... i think that actually spelled death for my system as i'm sitting here and it isnt even spinning anymore. i even had a mod chip installed which did bring it back to life for about another 2-3 months. but i guess with the ps2, when its time is up, its up. i hope everyone understands that these methods (even sending it sony because i watched 2 of my close friends send their systems away and recieve them only to have the same problem happen in the future) are all temporary. i agree with alot of people, buying another system is foolish cause it will happen to those to. i guess u just have to keep brining your ps2 "back to life", each time getting harder to do, until it ends up like mine...... ruble. i'm sure there are other methods out there and i intend to find them. i read every single post on this site and i'm glad to see that i'm not the only trying to solve this problem. thank u.

[cmpopin]

I just wanted to say to the guy who said to put some scotch tape on the disks, YOU ARE AWESOME!!! It worked the second I put the stupid blue disk back in the Playstation 2. I spent $75.00 to get it fixed and the guy couldn't do anything and I put a couple pieces of tape on it and it never made this noise again. I suggest to all that they try this before they send it to sony for repair!!
Chris

[cwb]

Hmm I tried the scotch tape on the blue discs.... didn't work for me unfortunately.

[DavidSVT]

Can any Body tell me how to strengthen the lasers voltage,because i've tried turnig the little wheel 1/8 of a turn but it does'nt work.my PS2 only plays DVD's and certain gold/clear bottom disc's.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO FIX THAT!

[dude189]

here is (TechTV) X-play's guide to fixing disc read errors, very easy to understand, photos of each step.

[DavidSVT]

how can if fix my ps2, it only reads one game and all my DVD's
i already opend it and move the gear but still wont read other games.


CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!

[gameboysmom]

Many thanks to xgamz. We did exactly as he said and our PS2 games all work again.

[cheryld]

We have been fighting with this since Christmas day! I'll begin by saying this is our third playstation 2! After much web research, we took it apart and moved that little white gear. It actually got worse before getting better. (nothing would play!) Anyway I cleaned it out and started adjusting! Long story short I finally tried actually cleaning the lens (and not a extremely gentle cleaning!) I took a q-tip with a good bit (not dripping) bit of rubbing alcohol and rubbed the thing in both a circular and back and forth motion. We had tried a cd lens cleaner (9.95!) it did nothing. After cleaning, I again adjusted our well- adjusted wheel back to the recomended 1/8 clockwise position and tried a game one more time! It loaded right away! But I had been here before so I tried another game and by golly it loaded too! The big test- The new- as yet- non-working Grand theft auto-Vice City! It loaded right away! Put it back together and my 22 and 18 year old sons are very happy and impressed with their mother!! (They said I should pass all this on!)

[scarecat]

hi i bought codebreaker version 7.my playstation2 does not read.i was wondering do any one have a problem with this.anyone tell me how to fix it.

[McTimson]

scarecat, did you even bother to read this thread? The information you need is probably somewhere in here...