SCPH-10000 drive problem

The problem is it is taking about 45 seconds to recognize a DVD-ROM or DVD-Video. I did some investigating and it seems the drive is attempting to read DVD discs with the CD Laser 6 times before switching to the DVD laser after which it runs reliably, it works fine with CD-ROMS of all formats. I have already ruled out a bad laser by testing with a known good laser from my SCPH-30001, that one fails the same way in the SCPH-10000. Any ideas?

 

any ideas?

 

Several things can cause these problems.

Mechanical misalignment (did you replace the optical pickup ? did you take it out from the console then put it back ?), changes on the pots at the bottom of the optical pickup (if the CD pot is set at a too low value, the photodiodes will detect the infra red laser from CD reflect into a DVD disc, causing it to try to focus the wrong type of media)...

Test reducing the power on the CD laser and if there's no improvement, post agan so we can try other ideas ...

 

The mechanical alignment is correct, checked both tilt adjustments. I'd tend to agree that it is failing on the reflect test, I have found that these drives attempt a brute force recognition of 6 CD read attempts followed by a somewhat larger number of DVD read attempts, once it does the brute check it catches the DVD on the first DVD read Attempt. Still not working though.

 

The mechacon is programmed to attempt a set of default values (from it's internal ROM) after it retries a set number of times.
Also, it falls back to that default if the CRC on the eeprom data is broken.

The data in the mechacon eeprom might not be correct for the optical pickup you're using.

And finally, early mechacon chips do not support laser pickups with the newer laser diodes (pickups with yellow ring on the lens), the newer photo diodes have a smaller silicon die, their RF amplifier circuit is different, they require the newer RF/analog frontend processor(TI chip) to operate properly, which early consoles do not have. The TI RF Frontend processor only exists on boards of type GH-002 or newer.

 

This is happening with both the KHS-400A that came with it and the known good KHS-400B laser from my working v3 system. As far as I know the yellow ring was only on some B lasers, either way I never personally seen a yellow ringed laser since I tend to avoid v4 systems where they are common.

Edit: I can rule out the drive cable, seems the connector is the same as on the v3, just a different pinout and shape, both are good.

 

On early units (A-Chassis) it's common that the flatcable breaks and it usually results on a ruined laser diode (blown). Since yours still read discs obviously the flex cable is still ok.

But anyway, your unit won't run correctly with an different laser than it's original or with an laser which has it's characteristics very close to the one that was originally installed on it.

The only (and proper) way of solving it is open the console, hook it up in a PC with a RS232C port and use the leaked SONY tools to update and adjust the mechacon eeprom.

Firstly, using the software, you setup the mechacon with it's default settings then you adjust the parallax and tilt using the PC tool to issue commands to the drive (the PS2 will be on TESTMODE since it will be connected to a PINJIG for this service). After the mechanical adjust is done and everything is within the tolerance, a second program is used to reset the mechacon eeprom to default values.

Back to the first program, you run a suite where the PS2 probes the laser, loads the reference values (considering all the previously made mechanical adjusts) and save it all on the mechacon eeprom.

After that is done, you finish the adjust, set the date/time (the console receives the date/time from the service PC) and you remove the pinjig.

At that point, the console should work correctly and be as good as when it was first taken of the box, when it was new.


For these adjusts you need the industry standard adjustment discs, such as the YEDS18 for adjusting the CD mode, for example. There's even an adjust to setup the detection of dual layer discs.

Since I had none of these expensive glass test discs (imagine you drop and break a 300 bucks service disc lol) I just used some early (and high quality) game or music discs.

 

Is that why the laser ribbon cable is white on this unit instead of orange like every other one?

Correct, BTW having fixed many PS2s over the years this is the only one that didn't respond to a simple laser swap, hence why I even posted this problem here.

Great, just one problem, I gave up looking for those tools. I couldn't find them, so that is a problem.

At least I have some game discs that are scratch free ^.^

 

Well, the problem is that the PS2 you're currently repairing has been on a SONY service center already at least once within it's life.

It probably has the updated EEPROM already, which means not only it has been fine tuned for the laser it was using (original factory settings usually are less tight because the laser is fresh and SONY keeps in mind that people might try to replace the laser themselves so the adjusts are intentionally within a wider tolerance range)...

You probably notice the PS2 you're working with has the tray moving faster than PS2s that never been sent to SONY for repair as the value that controls the speed of the tray motor is one of the things they updated, it was to diminish the tray jamming issue that is common to the A-CHASSIS type drive tray when it ages.

They stopped using the white ribbon cable when they developed the B-Chassis (the original SCPH-30000 which were sold in the U.S. in late 2000) and by that time the B-Chassis was also using the 2nd generation GS/EE/IOP chipset. I can't remember well but I think the 18000 with GH-008 board (AB-CHASSIS) already uses the newer copper flat cable.

 

I'm not too sure about that, as I had to fix that too, it was jamming shut when vertical.

 

The belt that moves the gear which pulls the tray has to bear with a higher weight when it has to move the mechanism up and down.

When the console is being used upright, the mechanical power required to separate the spindle hub from the mechanism assembly is higher since there's no gravity pushing the mechanism assembly downwards. I repaired that fault on one of my 10ks by replacing the belt. Also cleaning the whole mechanism and putting lithium grease helped greatly.

 

Would it help him if I provided a dump of my 10K's MECACON EEPROM? I have a tool for flashing the NVM onto consoles.

I have the EEPROM of my old v1.01 10K, but I still haven't dumped the EEPROM of my new v1.00 unit.

 

Probably not unless I can get an exploit running. If someone could explain how to set one up that works on this model.

 

Why not just install FMCB v1.8C? If you go to PSX-scene and look for the "Unofficial FMCB v1.8C installer", you can use that and any other Playstation 2 that can run homebrew software to do it. Only multi-installations are cross-model and cross-regional.

But it's got one bug right now: It doesn't support the first SCPH-10000 properly. I got a nasty shock when I found that it wouldn't boot on my new console when I used a blank memory card... lol. I meant to fix that, but a workaround now would be to copy (Do not rename nor delete) osdmain.elf as osdsys.elf in mcX:/BIEXEC-SYSTEM.

As l_Oliveira would explain: It's because the v1.00 boot ROM looks for updates as only mcX:/BIEXEC-SYSTEM/osdsys.elf. Unfortunately, my old SCPH-10000 had v1.01 and it does what the SCPH-15000 does as well, making the v1.00 boot ROM the only one that looks for only osdsys.elf. D:
So yea, this lack of support for the v1.00 boot ROM was caused because I used that v1.01 10K unit as a basis for testing compatibility with the old Japanese consoles. And it had, unfortunately, passed the tests I set... which doesn't cover support for the v1.00 boot ROM.

In the Sony system update, osdsys.elf will patch the kernel before launching osd130.elf (Or was it osd110.elf?). osd110.elf and osd130.elf are exactly the same in content.

 

osd110.elf ...

It's been almost two years region free patched KELFs have been floating around. And the new FMCB KELF on "Unofficial FMCB v1.8C installer" has flags for all regions, too so it works on any console.

If you have another working Japanese PS2 (model doesn't matter), just run the DVD utility disc 1.00 or 1.01 and install the DVD driver. It will install the correct system driver.

Backup osdsys.elf, install FMCB, rename osd file from fmcb as osd110.elf
put osdsys.elf back and you're ready to go.

 

I do not have the DVD Utility disc, just PSBBN 0.20 and HDD Utility 1.00, BTW I have 3 PS2s, SCPH-10000, SCPH-30001, DTL-H30101, I have a title.db exploited card that runs on both the DTL-H30101 and SCPH-30001, I also have a CFW CECHA01 PS3 with a memory card adapter. How can I exploit my 10000 with what I have?
Edit: I also don't have the missing bios modules in a homebrew usable form.

 

You can use the SCPH30001 to install the exploit to the memory card:


1- Run whatever method you have that allows you to run homebrewn (on the SCPH-30001) and install FMCB to a memory card using SP193's package. Do not turn on the option that makes cross linked files (if there's any)...

After it's installed, make the following directories using uLE and copy/rename files this way(case sensitive):


BIEXEC-SYSTEM (create this directory)

Copy from BAEXEC-SYSTEM:
icon.sys, system.ico (or whatever files the FMCB installer created. I dislike them so I use SONY's files from original Japanese "System Driver" directory)

whatever elf file is inside, you will want to make multiple copies of them and rename each copy on the following way:

osdsys.elf (if possible, take the original osdsys installed by PSBBN as this file has updates for the kernel and it will call osd110.elf after it's done updating the PS2 kernel)
osd110.elf (for 10k and 15k)
osd130.elf (for 18k)
osdmain.sys (for all other PS2s up to 79000)

Since the KELFs are region free you could also repeat the process and make an euro directory (BEEXEC-SYSTEM)...

osd120.elf
osdmain.elf
are all you need for Europe, Russia and Oceania. Chinese consoles (NTSC-J) surprisingly read BAEXEC-SYSTEM and so do Mexico/Brazil (not so surprisingly since these are NTSC-U/C) consoles.

 

Neither are working, Let me fix my BB Unit, then I'll try again. Be back in an hour or so...
BTW I did get it working on my SCPH-30001.
Edit:ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My god, the SCPH-10000 IS SO STUPID, it seems to think it is the 45th day of the 25th month of the year 2157.
That normally is a sign that the clock battery died, only v0 units seem to freak out like this not that this is handled any better until at least V3
I can get the FMCB splash screen to come up but it then falls back to the normal bios OSD, using the files made by PSBBN just boots PSBBN of the HDD.

 

That confirms why it's not working properly: The EEPROM is indeed corrupted. D:

FMCB does not give the consoles with the Protokernel (SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000) the hacked OSD (But just the normal Sony OSD). Just hold R1 while FMCB boots to launch uLaunchELF.

The clock showing bogus values might go away if you use the browse v2.00 update or the PSBBN. The SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000 have an older OSDSYS, which lacks certain checks (And a number of things are done differently).

First, you have to ensure that the console can store data reliably in the EEPROM. If you cannot set the clock right because the battery is dead, you know that you have to replace the battery.

 

The clock only does that after I boot PSBBN, while in PSBBN it asks me to set the time, after resetting it changes to a nonsense date/time, and loses other basic settings such as the language options, With HDDOSD it does the same. It would make sense that the eeprom is corrupt or failed. Where is the eeprom located, and if the IC has failed could one be pulled from a more common model and have the data rebuilt? How can I dump the existing data. You mentioned 2 subversions of the SCPH-10000, mine is the V1.01 version assuming that l_oliveira's post on psx-scene 9 years ago is correct.
It is almost 2AM and I need to go to the swap meet in 6 hours. I'll continue this project tomorrow.