Hi all, Picked up a DTL-H10000 TEST unit yesterday (NTSC/J but 220V PSU. Neat ) but I'm slightly confused since I've only ever seen the PAL released consoles. What is the PCMCIA slot on the back (in place of the expansion bay) for, and was it on the earliest Japanese retail consoles? Can I actually use it for anything, or is it just a curio? It'd be very cool to be able to add a PC card for networking/HDD or something. Lastly, it seems to have slight problems with reading scuffed discs - it'll focus on CD-audio discs just fine but PS2-DVD games refuse to run (red screen) and the CDROM game I tried was erroneously detected as a PSX game and so didn't work...assuming that calibrating the laser doesn't work, is replacing the whole laser assembly my best bet? What kind should I buy? Cheers Stone
PCMCIA slot was on the early Japanese models as well. It's used for HDD/Ethernet add-on but no idea if it will work with a debug unit. Original Japanese games should work fine but other region games will give you the symptoms you mentioned(ROD and PSX disc). "Backups" will need to be patched as master discs(I wrote in a thread somewhere in here about how to do it).
Make sure you are using the right region discs.. If not those early models seem to have really bad lasers / they detoriate really quickly. So its your call whether you play with and clean the drive till it works or replace it.
I thought the whole point of all TEST units was that they were supposed to work on all regions of disc, including retail ones? I think that's what the previous owner was using it for, anyway... Stone
Are you sure this is a TEST and not a Debug? I've only ever seen Debug versions of the 10000 series models (the ones with the PCMCIA slot -- they're based off the original Japanese hardware) and the JPN Debug units will only run original PS2 discs that are JPN coded. They'll run master discs from anywhere, but retail discs must be from JPN. -hl718
No. I've stuck up a [reasonably big!] pic here: http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~nb104/images/test.jpg so you can have a look. Arse. So I'd have to either copy+patch all my discs or get a different unit? Stone
...Thats why when you traded "he said 'Yeah, ok' without even missing a beat", 'cos he knew that a chipped PS2 could be more 'useful' than a TEST
I still have both the PS2s though, so I win either way If it's not actually useful for playing retail stuff I can just return it. Failing that I'm sure at least one person here's trying to collect the full set of dev PS2s or something Stone
Although it will only play PS2 games from Japan, you'll find it does run any region PSone game (PAL ones will be displayed halfway up the screen though). Some games let you adjust the screen settings so all is not lost. Attached is a picture of The HDD that goes with your type of console if you're interested to know.
Plus - if you get hold of FFX International (NTSC J) you can install this game onto your HDD so it loads super fast and change the language to English! Plus the voices are already English and it comes with a bonus DVD. Shame the game isn't as good as FF7 and FF8.
Tch - good luck with that one dude. Do you know of any chips that fit a DTL-H10000? Just flog it on Ebay if you don't want it - I got 158GBP for my DTL-H10000S (and the S series doesn't even have the fancy TEST logo that buyers often crave for). That one also did not play EUR or USA games, but JPN PS2 games and any region PSone game worked a treat.
Apparently the Mars II MA-303 will work in Rev0 (SCPH-10000) consoles so that'd probably be the best bet. Shame I can't find the full version of the installation manual to see if the board is the same :angry I know there are some slight differences (even the rev0 Jap retail console is a newer revision than this one!) but hopefully it won't be too bad to figure out. Failing that there's always eBay and the marketplace, I guess... Stone
Dear god man, don't chip a TEST/Debug. That's just wrong. If you really want a chipped system, put the debug up for trade in the marketplace. I'm sure *someone* on here would happily swap you a chipped system for the debug. -hl718
What about using a slide tool and boot dics. That way you can play all your games on it and if you then want to sell it on (or trade it on) it will have it's warranty sticker in tact and may be more "appealing" to the hardcore PS2 collectors/dev collectors
