Test PS2 game burning question?

Found a game that works well! Memorex DVD-Rs seem to work okay for now. But it does make a lot of "CHK CHK CHK" and "PSSH" noises when loading. Is that normal, or am I killing the new laser?

 

From experience, it means the laser has trouble reading. Also from experience, you have a 50/50 chance of improving it with pot tuning. 50% it'll work a bit better, 50% you'll really kill it ;p
If you want to try tuning, please never use metal screw drivers, especially if the metal has contact to your fingers. Static electricity can easily damage the unit and you wouldn't even realize it. It just never reads really well again.

 

You're killing the laser.

There are a few possibilities:
1. Burned disc is bad (causing jitter), either because the disc is cheap or because of the burn process.
2. CD/DVD drive not calibrated for the laser. Adjusting the pots isn't actually the right way to adjust gain... but yeah, most unofficial technicians have to live with that.
3. Unsupported type of Optical Block or lens.
4. Console was configured to use a different optical block or lens.

If the lens/optical block type is wrong, I think that you'll likely observe reading problems for even pressed PS2 discs. If the symptoms are only for your burned discs, then it should be an issue with the burned discs.
Increasing current flow with the pots will only shorten the lifespan of the laser, BTW. So naturally I don't think that it's really a great idea to do that just to get a console to read discs that it wasn't meant to...

 

Could be, but I was told that the loud noise was just the seek motor on the drive after showing people the video. All the games seem to read and run fast that I have working.

 

You can tell by the sound if the laser is happy or not.

 

We're talking about the CHK CHK CHK sound that you were mentioning. It's caused by the lens moving up and down, failing to get a focus on the disc.

 

In slim consoles, this also tends to permanently mark my disks. The lens meeting the disk surface. I really hate what Sony has built there :/

 

I got that after I took my SCPH-77006 apart for cleaning, before its RDRAM failed. But it wasn't caused by a focusing problem.

The circular rings in my case, was caused by me tugging on the optical block assembly, causing the flat cable that is attached to the optical block to be detached from its plastic tab. When the sled is at the HOME position (closest to the spindle motor), the flat cable touches the discs's surface and causes damage.

 

Exactly! Sony relies on just the glue for the ribbon cable to hold it down in the perfect position.
Should a bit of it come loose (from moving the assembly a bit), it will touch the disk surface.
This whole design is relying on precision, yet it's built so flimsy.

 

Crap! Looks like it is Taiyo Yudens for me. Damn Memorex and their terribad DVDs at ripoff prices.

 

Tried using Sony media, same sound as before. This is when loading voice clips in a cutscene. Put right on top of DVD drive. Normal or ?

 

That sounds healthy
It's the sled moving around and since there are no laser noises, it appears to be loading files just fine.

 

Ah, cool! Thanks Rama!

 

I'm sorry buddy, but that happens on any kind of DVD player and it's due to the fact that the focal distance for the lens have a wide range (due to how the DVD works) and they are obligated to give it more travel range. So they likely thought "why not?" and made it that way on purpose (all DVD drives, not just the SONY ones).

That didn't happen with the CD back in 1982 though.

XBOX360 spins the discs a lot faster and if you jam or bump the console while it's reading a disc it WILL scratch the disc. Same with the Wii (but the Wii spins the disc slower and so the scratches will be mild)...

 

No matter how you look at it, touching the surface should not have been included in the design specs.
There should have been some prevention of that, even for multi disk capable drives that need to figure out if it's a CD or DVD.

 

Huh, thanks for this. DiscPatcher3 wasn't working with certain games so I'll give this a go!

 

Dear l_oliveira,
Could I use the DiscPatcher3 to patch the uLauncher ISO & burn a CD? Does it is a Master Disc for TEST PS2? I would like to run this utility (uLauncher) to install the FMCB via USB.

 

Yes, you can.

 

I've been trying to follow this, but these instructions seem like a simple way to get it done with a DVD game (iso), and I haven't been able to figure out how to do it with a CD game (bin+cue) successfully. Any tips?

 

On DVDs the recorder generate ECC data and that never leaves the disc. On CDs you have the option of dumping the ECC data. To be able to patch the disc you need to strip ECC from the BIN/CUE which will leave you with a 2048bytes per sector image. Patch it and then return it to original format.

The tool you need for that is a program called "CDmage". http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Images-Utils/CD-Mage.shtml