PS2 - Resetting internal settings?

Hi all.

Well, every time I turn on my ps2 it shows the PS1 logo, after the PS2 logo, and asks to set up the language and time zone options, It was as if it were the first time he was turned on after being manufactured.

Is a PS2 Slim and model no. SCPH-90010

What can be the problem?

Thanks!

 

That sounds like a dying coin battery, a 2032 battery should be a suitable replacement.

Hope this helps,
HaloSlayer255

 

i have no experience with 9xxxx, but on older fat models at least the battery only maintains the clock, wether the "first time setup" thing will show or not is determined by a flag in the eeprom. so maybe there is somethng wrong with that?

again, they might have changed things in 9xxxx. you should def start with replacing the battery!

 

I thought I was forgetting about something kungmidas, thank you for helping me remember it! The part with the eeprom setting a flag on first system boot.

Good luck to the OP on this issue,
HaloSlayer255

 

The only time I have seen a dead battery on a PS2 is with my SCPH-10000, all others have had live batteries, I doubt there are any SCPH-900xx units that have dead batteries due to normal means, however water damage CAN cause that and probably destroy the traces near it. On old units that flag was on a serial eeprom. I was told that those settings were moved to the Mechacon in either the SCPH-500xx or 700xx series. In short the only units that should boot to the setup menu after the first boot are those that have a PCMCIA slot on the back AND lack a built in DVD Player AND even then only once when booting the HDDOSD.

 

The MECHACON of all consoles have a NVRAM storage, which stores everything from the drive calibration to the console's IDs and the OSD configuration. Only the SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000 lack the "OSDInit" bit, which determines whether the OSD configuration has been set up.

All other consoles will show the OSD setup screen if that bit is somehow cleared (either by software or in the case of the NVRAM getting erased, like when the battery runs dry).

 

I think you are right about 9xxxx should not have a dead battery yet, but would like to note that I have seen one or two SCPH-3xxxx units with very bad batteries, but it's not obvious, if I remember correctly, the only noticable effect was that *only* the clock was reset (or running very slow) and *only* if power was unplugged.

On 3xxxx-7xxxx, replacing the battery completely does *not* make the setup screen appear (I have done this myself on these models and I have yet to see a setup screen )

 

Alright, but clearing the OSDInit bit will certainly do it!

This probably also means that (at least) the older consoles have a real EEPROM to store the OSD settings + drive calibration. I do remember that there was one Sony service manual that remarked that the battery cannot be removed on at least one mainboard... but I don't remember which one (Probably a SCPH-50000 series..).

 

I am not saying you are wrong (I have never seen this to be an issue yet). But you can change batteries in machines/devices quick enough to not lose settings. Are you sure its not just that you have swapped them pretty quickly?

 

Not obvious? You probably haven't seen the epic freakout that the American launch units have if their battery dies, it'll speed through a century in about 10 seconds or sit there at an invalid date until the clock is reset, either way the blue balls will give it away on many early units.
Edit: I have also taken the battery out for hours on many units, it is JUST a clock battery, most models will continue the clock where it left off or randomly select a date, often an invalid one that shows a lack of any sanity checking. It will also cause some games that use the clock to spaz out, the PlayOnline Viewer will crash if the clock setting is invalid.

 

oh, no, i've never had that happening, usually its just set still at 2000-01-01 00:00:00 or something like that until a new one is set. maybe they fixed it in the european models

 

You guys started with V3, the V1/2 boards are the only ones that freak out like that.

 

I've done this with 3rd party N64 memory cards as well without losing a save. Hell I've had to wait 30 minutes for the BIOS settings to get wiped on PC mobos before.

 

That happens when a frigging modchip shorts the mechacon bus during eeprom writes. The eeprom is probably corrupted now. You can try removing the modchip and see if it cures the problem. If not, only SONY can help it (And they certainly won't if it has been tampered with).

Edit: people should stop suggesting about removing batteries as the PS2 has no *volatile* settings memory. That battery serves only the calendar/RTC chip which has no RAM at all (or if it has any RAM the PS2 uses nothing of it).

 

The 'default' proper behavior is be stuck at 2000 00 00. The Ricoh real time clock chip used on the PS2 has a feature where it doesn't start to run until it's "ticked" once through the action of date/time set up. That causes it to start running. So you get the seconds pointer of the PS2 OSD (the electrons swirl) stuck at the center of the screen until you "tick" it once and it starts running. Because of that you need to do it twice.

The serial cable program used on the service center has tools to set up the clock and to fix corrupted EEPROMs. The corrupted EEPROM one is a tad more "strict" as it can deal with console serial number and region changing so it requires a connection to the mothership in Japan to work.

No credentials, no working tool.