Modchipped PS1 has a variety of problems.

Hi, about a year ago I bought a modchipped PS1 off of my dads friend, but I've barely been able to get any games to work properly. Some won't be read, some glitch out at the PS1 logo (as seen here: http://a.pomf.se/dadwwz.jpg), some stop loading at the PS1 logo, and more recently, some will load, but freeze at a certain point. I'm wondering, is this a problem with the lens, the chip, or the CDs? I don't think that the lens has ever been changed, since the guy had it in storage for at least a decade before I got it, so it could be a broken lens. I've used 4 different types of CDs. Memorex, Sony, Kodak, and a no-name, pure white CD. I can't get pics of the chip, because I don't trust myself with taking apart a console. Any help is appreciated.

 

well sounds like simple enough solution.
get the mod chip off and your PSX probably will work just fine then

 

seems more cd drive problem :\

 

I would vote for a CD drive problem, too.

That corrupted boot logo is one of the things you can get when the drive is extremely marginal - if it's an early SCPH-1002 unit, try playing it upside down and see if it improves - if it does' it's a badly worn drive.

If you can get hold of an original disc, try booting that - if that gives you problems, then you have a bad drive. Note that this doesn't work the other way - a machine can boot originals OK, but still have a weak drive (the signal level from a PSX CD is about 30% higher than the one from a CD-R).

 

you could try cleaning the lens with Isopropyl Alcohol , i also had a PS1 where it had the same problems as yours i ' realigned the laser ' and its runs like magic now.

 

The model is SCPH-5502, if that helps. I did try playing the disc that caused that logo with the upside down/sideways trick to no avail.

I had an original disc, and that booted fine, although it would take about 30 seconds - 1 minute to get past the Playstation logo, but I'm pretty sure that's what happens with most original CDs.

How would I do that? Dab some on a Q-Tip?

How would I go about doing this?

I should mention, I only got that glitchy screen when I burnt a disc at 2x last night. Before that, burning a game at 2x either made it hang at the PS1 logo, or it would work. It probably depends on the disc drive, since the glitch logo was on a disc burnt in a disc drive that I hadn't used before. Using a Crash Team Racing ISO, the other discs I burnt in that drive were able to get to the overworld hub, but would freeze when loading a race.

I'll try with different CD's, but first thing first, I need to get more CD-R's. Are TDK's good?

 

That's normally a PU-18 board. They don't tend to suffer from the serious wear problems that the older machines did, but even when new they were a bit more sensitive to media quality.

I just tried with the SCPH-5501 I have here, and that has the following boot timings:

0s: Power on
5s: White Sony logo screen
15s: Black sony logo screen
22s: Black screen clears (boot file loaded)

On this machine (which has a good optical pickup), the timing is pretty much identical between pressed discs and CD-Rs. The length of the last section (black boot screen) varies depending on how big the boot file is, but is typically 22-30s.

If it's taking a minute even with a pressed disc, it's a strong indication that your optical pickup is bad.

 

Well, the timing I gave is not entirely accurate, since I lost the pressed disc I had. If I can get one sometime soon, then I'll post the timings, but as of now I don't have access to a pressed disc.

 

Ok, I have tried the CTR discs I made on ePSXe, and it crashes at the same point that my PS1 does, so it's either crappy discs or a crappy ISO. Sadly, I can't find any PAL ISO's for CTR that work in my PS1. Crash Message for those that are curious. http://a.pomf.se/kmkntx.JPG

 

Well if you have a modchip, why you only looking for PAL dumps?

 

this is a lens cleaning guide for PS2 but also works on PS1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGk3UltJ0s0


to ' realign the laser ' you have to open up the PS1 and remove the cover on the Laser mechanism im not sure if you want to try this but if you do i will elaborate more on how to do it.


if you want great CD-R's get Taiyo Yuden and dont get them from ebay they most likely will be fakes , get them from Rima or SuperMediaStore


btw use Nero for burning PS1 games , IMGburn causes more C1/C2 errors resulting in worse burn quality


with a Modchip you can burn games from any region the PS1 is now region free

 

When playing NTSC games my PS1 outputs in Black and White. I think it's because I'm using the standard AV cables.

 

Yeah - you either have to use a RGB SCART cable or do a color mod to the console if you want color in NTSC mode.

 

I use standard AV cables with my PSone and NTSC games are still in colour.

 

Yeah, but you have a later console - the PAL models from the PU-20 onwards generate NTSC4.43 in NTSC mode, and a lot of TVs can handle this. Even if you have a TV that can't then there is a simple mod that makes them output PAL60, and that should be displayable.

The models up to and including the PU-18 generate a strange broken non-standard signal in NTSC mode, and that won't display unless you either mod the console or use a RGB cable.

For the people with NTSC consoles, the situation is worse, because the majority of the US domestic market TVs can't handle 50Hz at all, and the few that can will normally only recognize regular PAL signals and not the strange hybrid PAL with a 3.58Mhz colorburst that a NTSC PSX in PAL mode generates.

Maybe I should have made it clearer I was talking about his specific (PU-18) machine, and not PlayStations in general

 

Why anyone in an NTSC region would want to play PAL games is beyond me though.

 

There were a few PAL only releases, but all the ones I can think of were not very good. There were also some titles that had NTSC:J and PAL versions but never came out in NTSC:U/C format, so people that don't understand any Japanese might prefer 50Hz and English to 60Hz but in Japanese.

I remember in the late '90s testing every TV my friends had trying to find one that could handle 50Hz - and not one of them could lock onto a PAL signal. We ended up having to get PVMs and a couple of Panasonic professional monitors (they were available in larger screen sizes than the PVMs were) in order to display the 50Hz stuff.

 

Right, like Vib Ribbon.

 

Implying that everyone is in America/Canada/Japan.

 

I'm not. PAL sucks, simple as that.