Repair of modded US PS2 slim

Hello all,

I have a PS2 that has a problem reading discs, when powered on it makes a terrible ruckus and requires me to open the disc tray for the menu to load up and for the terrible noise to stop.

It's practically brand new as I bought it a few years ago and only played two games on it before modding it. After that I left it in the original box before moving. After moving I tried to play on it and found this issue.

When I had it modded I was abroad but I believe the modder was a skilled individual (I base this on previous experience with the modder when I lived abroad) he had warned me that if the unit was shaken something or other could come off as the mod chip was very delicate to install in the slim.

Is there anyone with experience of the insides of a PS2 slim who could take a look at my unit? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Edit: I made this thread in two areas since I wasn't sure which one was the right place for it. Hope that was alright.

 

What is its model, and did you leave a disc inside while the console boots up? Usually, the console will only spin the drive rotor if it detects a disc inside.

 

If it happens without disc: check switch on the end which tells console laser is on the edge. And check if laser moves correctly on spiral rail with motor.
If it happens with disc: check if mechanism which stops discs moves from disc correctly when you close tray (white squishy thing).

 

This may sound strange but it helped me, will the noise stop if the system is upside down horizontally?

 

You could also take it apart (not too hard to do really) and see if there are any loose modchip wires which will likely be the culprit. If you do decide to open it up then take some pictures so we can better diagnose the problem.

 

It could be a busted worm gear motor (the brass swirly gear)
Ive seen it happen a lot, usually the optical pickup gets jammed and that noise is the worm gear spinning but because the pickup can't move it makes the small white plastic teeth that lock into the worm gear slip making that noise..

adjust and lube the guide rails, there is a torx screw on the pickup for adjusting guide tension, adjust it a fraction looser so the pickup can move freely..

chances are that white plastic teeth (attached to the pickup that locks into the brass worm gear) has worn down now and also can't grip enough to make the pickup "seek" (move)

hope that helps

 

Thank you so much to all of you for your replies.

The direction of the unit (horizontal or vertical) doesn't seem to make a difference.

The unit is model is 90001. When I get home tonight I will try tricking the unit into believing the lid is closed to observe the moving lens.

I have tried to open the unit before but got stuck after removing the three soft pads. I'll have to youtube a video on how to open it up and will take pictures of the insides.

 

There are soft pads and hard ones that need to come out ( they just pop off) not all of them actually come off though..

 

I took this picture tonight but it was hard to get the flash to show off the parts clearly. I will try to get a better one in daylight tomorrow.



I think what LeHam mentionned seems to be the problem. The lens is not moving properly. Is the part that you recommended loosening on the other side of this board?

 

I've found that upon very close inspection. There is a ribbon cable that is detached. In the picture I uploaded (which needs mod approval apparently), if you look to the left of the brass gear and it's metal component there is a beige tip of a ribbon cable. Is that supossed to be detached on a modded unit? Tomorrow will try to take a better picture.

 

i don't think anything should be detached, mod chip or not

 

If any ribbon is detached it likely goes to the DVD drive, the larger one is for the laser, the smaller copper colored one controls the little motor that drives the laser to go up/down and the last ribbon is the DVD/CD Spindle. All of these should be connected.

 

Thanks to all of you. As Helder described them the one that was detached was the smaller copper one, so now that I've re attached it all is working well. Well except that Japanese games are not working and so I guess the modder didn't do the installation right. :/

The PS2 is now running again. Thanks to all of you for the help.

By the way somehow the picture and message that accompanied it was never posted. I guess when they say it needs mod approval this is a longer process than I would have imagined.

 

It's whenever a moderator notices it in the queue