[Sad PS2 Junkie]

To make a long story short...

I bought my very 1st PS2 a couple months ago from a guy of criagslist. It's the most common of the older models. The guys said his dad got it as a gift, tried it out for a month or two, then decided it wasn't his thing and stuck it on a shelf for a year or so - I knew it was old, but it supposedly hadn't seen much use.

Tuesday night it seemed to freeze up in Browser Config mode - it wasn't responding to buttons. I hit the Reset button, and suddenly the blue light and attendent disc tray weren't working.

Over the next hour and a half, the blue light and accompaniying tray worked intermittantly but finally settled on "not at all", but the fan and reset button light were always working, and last night I finally had time to track down some sites like this one.

Since I essentially bought it with a "negative warranty", I had nothing to lose and I opened it up. To my surprise, I found no noticeable amounts of hair, dust, bugs, grime or etc., and the laser isn't lgihting up, the disc in the center that obviously turns the disc isn't spinning, and the tray still won't eject. i.e. strong signs of NO POWER!

Keeping in mind my Amazaing Success thus far and the utterly non-existant risk, I then unscrewed every screw I could see and dissembled it as much as I could without risking breaking or disconnecting anything.

I think I found the power supply - brown circuit board connected to the on off switch by a pair of cords, black and white, connects to the restof the system by a set of 4 needle-like prongs, yes? - and it doesn't have any visible defects, and the filiment in the glass cylinder thingie that looks like a fuse is still intact and undeformed.

But my bottom line is - the fact is on a independent cicuit from the main drive, and will work when the rest of the system isn't getting power.

I am really depressed - the truth is I haven't gotten a PS2 until now because I couldn't afford one, and I'm in-between jobs to boot - basically, if it ain't something I can find lying around in the street, I can't afford it right now - and I could really use my games to cheer me up.

Just my luck - HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people have PS2 problems they can solve with a 2 screwdrivers, some rubbing alcohol, and a frigging Q-Tip, but my broke @$$ just has to have the problem I need to uy a part and call MacGyver to fix...

But again - just because the fan and light works don't mean the power's fine. Mine clearly has issues, and still lights up and blows...

[mullet1]

must have missed this when it was posted because i just saw it.

you're probably right about the power and similarly i have no visual defects on my board... or at least didn't until 2 days ago.

tore the unit apart in an attempt to see how much power it was drawing by using a digital multi-meter, switching to the amps meter, and connecting the probes to the first positive and negative on the power board while it was running... i haven't seen a spark that bright since someone forgot to tell me they were going to start welding on sheetmetal. i was trying to measure how much current was going into my machine and i guess i measured however much was going through the circuit, house, or power grid? either way it instantly desoldered the connections and melted the plastic plug that connects from the main breaker on the back to the board.

wish somebody knew exactly what was wrong...

[mullet1]

is it possible that this is the problem?

doesn't account for your intermittent drive problems unless the fuse just barely burnt and the was sometimes enough current flowing to jump the gap created by a broken link.