PS2 Optical Drive questions

I have a PS2 fat that I originally bought in 2000-01 from retail and it has worked fine this whole time. In recent months (maybe past year or so) I've noticed that it can't read all pressed movie DVDs. Either it will take it a long time to read the disc, or it will eventually say Disc Read Error in the Browser screen. It has become unreliable for me to watch DVDs on it.

So I would imagine that something with the drive might be wearing out? It reads music CDs, CD based PS2 games (and PS1 games) and DVD based PS2 games just fine. The problem is only with retail DVD movies including ones that had previously worked in it. And these DVDs do work in the PS3 or on a computer for example.

Do these symptoms indicate the drive will need to be replaced soon or can an adjustment be made?

If it matters, I no longer use the vertical stand for the PS2 unlike the picture I had chosen for the thread. If you think the orientation of the console might matter, I can try finding where I put that.

 

Laser diodes are dying. Ridiculously common and adjusting the laser won't do much beyond waste your time and/or extend the life by a few weeks. Your best best is to slap on FreeMCBoot and run games off the HDD.

 

I can play games fine. What I can't do is watch DVD movies.

 

Hate to sound like a jerk, but if you want to watch films, you can spend less than $20 a get a DVD player.

+1 for this. Not only does it save the laser, games boot up quicker and in some cases (like GTA), you actually get to see more scenery as it can load the textures quicker.

 

Agreed, it's much cheaper to replace a standalone DVD player than a console DVD drive (well, unless you buy a broken console from ebay, that has a fully working DVD for you to put in your console), plus a standalone DVD often has better file compatibility (i.e. it might play .mp3/.wma/.avi/.mpg/etc files too) than a games console.

A PS2 running McBoot (so you can boot from the memory card or hard drive) and Open PS2 Loader (to load games from a hard drive or USB stick) is fantastic! Plus it saves wear and tear on your DVD drive since you don't need to use the drive at all. You can also use Winhiip to transfer games directly from your PC to the PS2's hard drive, or USBUtil 2.0 to put games on to a USB stick. If you're interested, have a look at

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?45953-Playing-PS2-games-from-HDD

http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...me-advice-installing-an-hard-drive-to-fat-ps2

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?45953-Playing-PS2-games-from-HDD

or google for

fmcboot

open ps2 loader

winhiip

USBUtil 2.0 Full

 

Don't forget to add in the Sony HDD OSD (use a cracked copy if it's a non-Sony disk), FHDB and HDLGameInstaller, for a Sony-like experience. Your games can be booted from the OSD/browser, as if they were installed from the PSBBN/PSN.

Once you start playing your games of the HDD, you won't want to go back to using discs... except for maybe the experience of playing games from a disc.

 

Since there's a discussion about this, i'll ask for some info. I have a Fat PS2 30001R + 80GB IDE HDD (full).

Can't really remember the last time i updated the homebrew apps. I think still use ulaunchELF 4.12, HDLoader 0.8a, and used HDLdump / HDLdumb for the game installs. All of them run directly from the HDD through Dev.2 mode on MatrixInfinity modchip. There's nothing on the memory card, which is something i prefer.

Plus the HDD shows up on the PS2 browser as i formated it and installed the Browser 2.0 with the Sony HDD Utility Manager 1.10 and since the modchip has ATAD Patching. The Browser 2.0 allowed me to make backups of PS1 and PS2 saves.

Anyway, it's being a long time since i stopped folowing the homebrew developments for PS2. I heard about FMCBoot and Open PS2 Loader but they were on their early days. Wasn't something worth updating at that time.

My question: Is it worth updating the ulaunchELF to the latest one and start using OpenPS2Loader for running games from a USB HDD / Pendrive? I wonder how if it's fast / decent enough? My biggest worry though is the compatibility. Expanding the HDD solution, with a USB device, would be nice if it's good enough.

Also there's any reason to start using FMCBoot or others like FHDB and HDLGameInstaller? My IDE HDD is already full and i don't plan on removing any of those already installed. I'm used to booting ulaunchELF and running everything from it.

 

Even with PS2ESDL, which was tuned for USB device support, it only got to approximately the same level as OPL's SMB support. It'll never achieve the same level of performance that you get from playing your games from the original media, as USB 1.0 was never as fast. Storing and booting your games from the PS2 HDD unit is the best you can get. Game compatibility for USB-device loaders is slightly worse because of bugs/design issues in some games, but whether you notice it or not depends on your collection of games.

Personally, I've totally dropped USB-device loading because I wanted to enjoy the videos and cutscenes in my games properly. Yes, videos in a lot of games will suffer from the lower bandwidth offered by the USB interface.

As for uLaunchELF, updating your copy is best as the older versions may have bugs. You could view it in the same way as BIOS updates for PCs: they are not strictly required, although they do address problems that the old versions have.

Since you already have a modchip that has DEV2 booting functionality and automatic ATAD-patching, I suppose that FHDB and FMCB aren't going to be of too much use to you. But I can say that (at least some) those modchips out there are known to have broken OSD configuration loading for their DEV2 booting functionality, which will cause your region settings to be incorrect (e.g. Some multi-region games/software will default to Japanese on a US set). Using FMCB to start your homebrew/games instead will cause this problem to be avoided.

There is one thing that FHDB will allow you to do, which even modchips won't: you can boot directly into the HDD OSD without a memory card, with only the HDD unit connected. This is like a regular HDD OSD/Browser v2.0 installation on a Sony PS2 disk.

HDLGameInstaller is a game management facility, allowing you to install games onto your HDD. The games can be started directly from the Sony HDD OSD (Browser v2.00), as if they were downloaded from the PSBBN/PSN. You can even change the icon of the game installation.

FHDB doesn't require any additional space on the disk, as it installs itself into the __system and __mbr partitions, which should be there.

 

Thanks for the reply and info.

I'll update next time i use my PS2 then.

Never noticed or experienced something like that. Will pay more attention in the future.

I understand that, but it's possible to "update" my current installs? The 80GB HDD is full already and it would be very annoying to remove and install everything again. Also, how's the HDL mode selection while booting through Sony's Browser 2.0 OSD? Some games require me to select MDMA modes while booting HDLoader itself.

HDLGameInstaller is better than HDLDump / HDLDumb on transfer speed? Does it support network installs like them?

As for FHDB, i'll check it for some more info.


PS: Is it worth messing around with GSM selector, making everything run (forced) at 480p or higher?

 

As of right now, it is not possible to make an existing game installation bootable with HDLGameInstaller.

It does support installations over the network, although it's speed isn't very outstanding. It's because unlike HDLDump, it purely uses TCP instead of both UDP and TCP. Despite that, it can give about 2.7MB/s.

As for setting up and reconfiguring the compatibility settings, it's all done with HDLGameInstaller.

 

Thanks again for the info.

Since it can't update current installs, for now, i'll just update ulaunchELF then. Maybe i'll try OpenPS2 Loader as well, just out of curiosity.

Still wondering about GS Mode Selector. If it forces 480p on all games with no issues, i might use it.

 

And I guess I should look into getting a PS2 hard drive!

 

As for GSM, it's just not perfect and probably never will be. Most games out there weren't designed to work with the operating conditions of the 480p mode. Some of these games will either not work or have undesirable behaviour like running at double speed.

There is also a problem with deinterlacing - a handful of games use interlacing to get double the screen height, but there's currently no way to combine the two sets of scan lines together in each frame.

I would say that it works quite well for most games out there, but you should try it for yourself to know what I'm saying.

 

Are there any cheat discs that can be used with FMcBoot/Open PS2 Loader and games loaded from hard drive? I'd love a cheat to be able to add augs at any time in Deus Ex, if such a cheat exists.

Thanks for any answers.

 

I googled a similar problem once and found I could fix it myself by opening it up, taking out the drive and tweaking a screw that raises the laser to be closer to the discs. After doing this I was able to play anything I got a can't read prompt with.

 

I've got more network adapters sitting around than I know what to do with.

For some issues this can help but it is far from a universal solution. Problem is people keep passing around advice they read despite having absolutely no idea what the problem's cause is or why the solution works or why the solution may/may not be a good idea. In any case PS2 lasers are garbage and there really is little reason to not start using a HDD.

 

Using a HDD looks even better now with the HDDOSD software.. No more having to remember which button I need to hold down when I turn on my PS2!

I'm actually kind of amazed someone was still using a PS2 as a DVD player

 

It's also pretty much not worth the effort if your LCD upscaler/deinterlacer is any good. Everyone should be running with a component cable as you can run homebrew in 720p/1080i. I can never tell the difference with games running in progressive vs interlace on my TV.

 

FMCB supports autoboot, which I use for OPL.

 

I bought it primarily because, at the time, it was the cheapest DVD player on the market. That should give a hint to its age. I've watched DVDs on it for over 10 years now up until just recently. There's definately been a lot of use to the system.