It has not been reading blue-ray discs for a while, but that was fine as GT4 almost never came out of the tray. But now I have no video displayed on the tv, whether with the RWY cable or the HDMI.
Does anybody know a highly competent electronics wizard that might be able to take it apart and fix it?
No... but I think I have a PS2 that I haven't touched in years I'd be willing to part with in a couple of weeks. At least I think it's a PS2 (I seriously haven't looked at it in years...).
I just did some rehab and upgrade work on ym old PS2 phat to include an internal drive to store games and read them as well as replacing the power supply to make it work, but I'm a bit confused, PS2s never read Blu-Ray, only DVD, nor had HDMI connections as far as I'm aware. I would say you meant a PS3 except GT4 was a PS2 game. Is it a backwards compatible PS3 that broke? Or was there an HDMI cable that you could get with a PS2 that I just wasn't aware of?
In reply to Sk1dmark (Forum Supporter) :
Great question.
There were three game (I think) that could play in 1080i, Gran Turismo 4 being one of them.
From what my local retro game store told me, there are two different laser readers in the drive. The only games that played in mine before the display went black, were the silver backed discs. Some of my other games, with a purplish-blue back, it couldn't read at all. I could have sworn he said Blu-ray, but maybe he said something else that was similar and my brain heard Blu-ray.
I'd really like to get mine up and running again, but that's probably gonna be a bit more than the $99 they want for the cleaned up PS2 they have. I'm at 99.2%, 68,xxx A-spec points, and 9,968 B-spec points, and it's bothering me that I might not be able to complete the game, even with the 15 year hiatus in between
I have a different brand than what this guy is using. It plugs into the regular port and the other end connects to an hdmi port on my tv. Most of the videos I found were still using component cables to hookup to the tv.
https://www.newegg.com/p/0NB-00EC-00001
This is the one I have. It's USB powered, and you need a HDMI cable.
Obviously without seeing it I can't know for sure but chances are it's a bad AV port. The good news is fixing it would likely cost you less than $100 if you did it yourself, but it is definitely about as involved as you can get on a PS2.
The other side to that coin is that if you're tearing it down to that level there's numerous upgrades you can do at the same time (hard drive mod, better cooling, replace the CMOS battery, etc.) that can freshen up the console and make it better than new, but that adds cost. Not significant cost, it could all be done for less than $200 in parts, but I digress.
If you have access to a $99 console that works, that's also a good deal. PS2s stored all their save data on memory cards so just using your memory card in the new console should let you pick up right where you dropped off without issue.
if you are interested in doing the work to freshen up the console or even just repair yours there's tons of guides online and videos on YouTube. I am not skilled at soldering so the AV port is 1 step above where I would feel super comfortable helping you out as I wouldn't want to break things further, but in reality it's supposed to be pretty simple, and I would feel comfortable giving it a go were it my own hardware. Every other repair you can do to these old consoles is very simple though and is mostly just replacing parts and clicking in connectors.
racerfink said:It has not been reading blue-ray discs for a while, but that was fine as GT4 almost never came out of the tray. But now I have no video displayed on the tv, whether with the RWY cable or the HDMI.
Does anybody know a highly competent electronics wizard that might be able to take it apart and fix it?
What you're talking about with the blue discs is not Blu-Ray but the blue PS2 discs that are CD-ROMs rather than DVD-ROMs like most PS2 games which are the silver discs. There are 7 categories of discs PS2s play:
PS1 games: These are all CD-ROMs and are black. A system can play all other categories of discs but won't play these if there is an issue with the laser.
Blue PS2 games: These are CD-ROMs and are blue. A system can play all other categories of discs but won't play these if there is an issue with the laser. Usually used Super Trucks Racing to test systems for this since it was cheap and common.
Silver PS2 single-layer discs: They are silver and DVD-ROM. A system can play all other categories of discs but won't play these or Dual-Layer DVD discs if there is an issue with the laser. We always used a Dual Layer DVD-ROM to test systems since if it can play Dual-Layer DVD it will do Single-Layer. There is a Wikipedia page listing all of the Dual-Layer DVD-ROM games. We used ATV Off-Road Fury 4 since it was cheap and common.
Silver PS2 Dual-Layer discs: DVD-ROMs. Hold twice as much data as Single-Layer discs. Harder to read than Single-Layer. Explained more in the Single-Layer section.
DVD movies: Usually worked if the Dual and Single-Layer games worked. Any movie works for testing.
Dual-Layer DVD movies: I don't know how many of these are out there. Should work if Dual-Layer games work.
Music CDs: Another category to test if this is important to you on a PS2.
About half the time cleaning the laser (not just the lens, remove the black top cover of the laser assembly and spray the entire laser assembly with your air compressor as well) made all types of discs work. Make sure there is nothing stuck to the spindle either. Plenty of tutorials online. The hardest categories to get working right are Dual-Layer DVD games and Blue PS2 CD-ROMs. There were quite a few times it would be only the Blue discs that would not work. If cleaning the laser didn't work a replacement laser usually did but not always. At that point you were looking at corrosion problems or a bad bridge chip or connection to the bridge chip which we only fixed very late in the life cycle of the business when used PS2s went from $30 at the bottom in 2010 when we started to $100 during COVID.
AV ports do wear out. Of course clean the connections first before committing to that near-full-teardown job of soldering in a replacement. We never did replace one since the system was too cheap most of the time to justify it and instead handed it back to the person. These days it seems like most retro systems are worth saving but for the longest time many weren't (such as ones that had multiple issues) except for someone doing it for fun. I don't fix video game systems anymore except for my own.
Another thing to check before you solder in a new connection is to try it on a tube TV. Some newer HDTVs will reject resolutions under 480p or custom resolutions like other retro systems have.
Found a privately owned cell phone repair shop that said they could work on it. Took it in last week, and they called Friday to tell me it needed a new board, which is still available. Waiting for that to come in so it can get back to work!
Which board? I'd indeed be shocked if the right motherboard was still available new, especially considering there were about 12 board revisions during production. I never changed a motherboard since it wasn't cost effective almost entire time I was doing it.
In reply to racerfink :
Have you looked at the used market and/or what this will cost versus a new ps5?
damn that is sad news
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