OK, I will start by saying that I haven't ever had much to do with PS2 stuff, but I just got given a dead "Test" PS2 - it's a 220V PAL unit model number DTL-H30002, and my first guess was that the PSU was broken because not even the standby power LED came on when I plugged it in, but after swapping it with the one from a SCPH30002, it seems to be OK. At this point, I took the main board out of it ... and it has a modchip in it. It looks like one of the old Messiah chips with the Actel PLD. The question is, can anyone think of a plausible reason to install a modchip in a test PS2? I guess the other possibility is that only the case is from the test unit and the main board is just a modded retail one, so is there any way I can tell by looking at the main logic board if it was originally a test or retail unit?
Ah, OK, I didn't realize that the Test PS2 was picky about stuff like that - but I assume it will play originals from any region even if I take the chip out? (well, once I fix it, anyway...) I guess I wasn't very clear there - It's still not working, the bit that worked when I swapped it was the PSU - in fact, if I swap over the main board, the fault moves with it, so that appears to be the dead bit.
Ah alright. That's not a good sign. :/ (Someone else needs to advice you on what to do about that) As for determining the MECHACON on that board, I think that somewhere around the hole in the mainboard, there is a section that tells the robot at the factory which MECHACON to fit. There are the letters "J", "U", "E", "A" and one more letter there that I think represented a TEST/DEBUG region group, and the region of the MECHACON the board has should be indicated by the corresponding position being bridged (J bridged = Japan etc). I think that a test should have something obviously different there. And then we have the numbers on the MECHACON itself, although I don't know if anyone here can help you with interpreting the numbers. It's still worth a try though.
OK, I just took the board out again and looked at it - and the only ident link fitted is the one in the "J" position - which would seem to be correct for a Japanese retail unit, but not for a PAL test. I also pulled the board from a SCPH-30000, and they appear to be identical. So I think what I have is a Test case with a modded Japanese retail mainboard in it - probably largely functionally equivalent to a real test unit, but not as cool. Ah well - at least it didn't cost me anything.
AFAIK a TEST has the same mainboard as a retail, but has more RAM and a different MECHACON. You probably won't really find any obvious physical differences on the mainboard's design alone. So only the J is bridged? That's a bit surprising for me. :/ (But I'm no expert on this, so perhaps it's normal for a TEST?) Maybe you should really just try to get it fixed - then you can find out whether it's really a TEST unit or not by the easy way. If you can't do that, then maybe posting the MECHACON's numbers and providing us with high-quality photographs of the board would help!
Well, I've fixed it - the first thing I noticed was that the standby 3.3V was about 1.2V - when I lifted the output pin on the regulator and connected a bench supply it was taking way too much current and IC402 (appears to be a MCU that controls the power sequencing) was getting hot - so I swapped that with one from a dead board, and now it turns on. ... and it's a retail mainboard - apparently from a SCPH-30000 if the system information screen is accurate (which it probably is, since that matches up with the "J" indicator on the board).
Firstly, congratulations on getting it fixed! ... D: That's a bummer. We can check whether the mainboard was swapped by making a dump of it's NVRAM (using the PCSX2 dumper) and comparing the console ID against the serial number that is printed on the chassis. If you would like to do that, I won't mind helping you.
I wouldn't mind the details much. Region free is a MAJOR under-appreciated feature on PS2, gigantic library of games worldwide to pick from.
Could also be because the person who owned it before you was a noob (lol), and thought it was a retail unit, then installed a chip, but later found out its a test unit.
I'm now 99.9% sure it's a modded retail - I just took it apart again, and took some photos of the relevant parts of the board.
Mechacon MASK ROM revision: "-008R" That's indeed a retail SCPH-30000. And no, TEST units are identical to retail. Only MECHACON (maybe the DSP chip has a different ROM too) and BIOS will be different. Only the PS2 TOOL has more RAM.
So let's leave this as the reply for the question at the first post: "Because it's not a TEST but a retail into a TEST casing."
