PS1 whirring and laser noise

I was hoping to get some advice on whether my PS1 is behaving normally or whether it is on it's last legs. It's a fat scph-5552 that was working fully before I re-boxed and put it away. Now I have started using it again to test out the new PS1 soft-mod and have noticed that the laser sounds a bit loud and there is a continuous whirring noise coming from the disc tray. The same noise is heard whether a copied or retail game is used and the system is not chipped.

http://www28.zippyshare.com/v/mUfUhdAy/file.html
I have uploaded an audio recording of Valkyrie Profile being played. Ignore the knocks, that is just me knocking the audio recording device against the cabinet. I was holding the audio recorder directly over the top of the PS1 with the lid closed the whole time. Then I was deliberately going between rooms in-game to illustrate what the laser sounds like when the game needs to access data.

There are 4 types of sound:

1. The button being pressed.
2. The startup sound of the disc spinning.
3. Whirring sound
4. Laser read/tracking sound

There seems to be a lot of loud laser access sounds which I don't remember from when I was a kid. I should point out that there is no skipping or anything that would indicate that the game isn't playing properly. If there is some easy fix I can perform then I'd like to nip it in the bud rather than have this system fail on me as it's my last fat with parallel i/o. Thanks

 

You shouldn't worry about it, as I had the same problemwith my old adm before I got a new replacement one. The laser seems to sound normal, the whirring kind of sounds like how my old spindle did, as my last spindle cane off and would wobble. But I don't know, as I need to listen to my bam again. The noises you should be worrying about are these two in particular that I noticed.
1. That noise when the spindle hub spun up sounded like my last lens, as it was loose and I'd constantly lose one of those silver balls that kept the disc on.
2. Squeaking or screeching noises. I know of one ps1 in particular that I played and it would always have an awful screeching noise like nails on a chalkboard. Turns out, it made a light ring on the disc. And with my old ADM lens it would squeak when it was going back to the original point sometimes, and it still had loads of grease on.
So I don't think the lens is particularly dying, more of the spindle coming loose, but that IS a big problem.
Also, when your laser is whirring up like it's about to explode is another indicator that it is on it's way out.

 

Now that you mention it there are a couple of tabs missing from the spindle (not the ball bearings, but the black plastic bits on either side). I can see a red rubber type ring underneath. The spindle isn't loose at all and the disc fits securely on there. I have watched the disc spin with the lid open and the disc definitely is securely on the spindle all the time. The spindle seems to be at the appropriate elevation when I look at it from the side. I have pressed down on it and it doesn't go down any further (you get that rubber/bouncy feeling recoil from the feet the laser assembly sits on)

The whirring sound could be the air flowing past those gaps as the disc spins. I could have sworn ps1 was quiter at reading discs than that. I have no other fat to compare, only a psone which doesn't have parallel i/o for my desired purpose of testing unirom cdr booting.

I still have one of the black plastic tabs somewhere. Is it worth trying to stick back onto the spindle and if so with which type of glue?

 

First of all: Your PSX sounds normal for its age. The CD assembly is cheaply made and needs maintenance if you want it to run quiet(er).
Beware though that without experience, you can easily make it worse. That said, here goes:

- When one of the plastic tabs is broken off, it's best to carefully remove the other 2 as well.
Otherwise the CD will not spin evenly. This is the constant ratter in the background you hear.
- Both motors require lubrication. I use a silicon based fat that I apply via a syringe. I use very little and try to put it exactly onto the bearings, through the access holes in the motors. I don't know if that method will ever break anything but so far it works well.

 

hi ploder , you may want to try and Lube the rails with White Lithium Grease or Silicone Grease.

 

Are the rails responsible for the type of laser sounds I notice or are those sounds normal? I'm leaning towards not doing anything unnecessary especially as the ps1 is more fidly. I've successfully lubed (with light sewing machine oil) the corkscrew type rail the laser on a slim ps2 moves on to fix a grinding noise before, but as the sound is different in this case I wasn't sure it was the same thing. It's a bit difficult to know which pieces to lube as the pictures I find on the net don't label anything and tube tutorials tend to be dark and lack detail.

I accidentally ripped the ribbon cable (dead laser or motor) in my other fat ps1 because the white tab attaching it to the board seemed stuck. Once it had been removed it went in and out ok, but too late. That's the problem with these repairs. They seem simple until you actually try it on your own stuff and things go wrong.

 

Look for a few broken consoles ("won't read games") on Ebay and get some experience.
So far I've fixed quite a few of those cases. Almost always they just need lubrication and laser cleaning + recalibration to work fine again.