[catten666]

Long story, but I will try to keep it brief.

It all started when I got San Andreas, nothing major just grating noises and the occasional freeze. However it started getting worse and worse and started to effect other games which required lots of data to be taken from the disc. I was utterly stupid though and used to "jar" the system to fix the error.

Anyway I did this numerous times over the past year but last week it finally gave up the ghost and won't load Ps2 games. Audio Cd's are fine though.

I bought a new laser arm and fitted that but still no loading. I assume my constant knocking as jarred the laser out of synch so it cannot read ps2 games.

This is where I am hitting a brick wall though, there are loads of guides to adjust a laser on the web but none seem to be correct for my version of Ps2, which is a version 9. Most guides say you need to adjust screws, however my Ps2 doesn't seem have these. The models which have these screws appear to also have a semi hidden white cog, again mine doesn't.

What it does have is are 2 smaller cogs in the same sort of posistion which the guide I got from my laser arm supplier says adjusts the laser. However moving them seems to have absolutley no effect on the height of the laser.

What does have an effect on the height is the screw which attaches the laser to the guide bar. Is this what i need to fiddle with to get the relevant height? or will not having this tight enough mean the laser will come unstuck?

I followed a guide to fix the laser arm and in the process had to take off the flimsy metal guard over the 2 cogs in order to get the laser off the guide rails. It went back on OK I thought, would this be why the cogs are not doing anything?

If anyone has any suggestions, or a link to a guide which shows how to adjust on a V9 it would be great.

Thanks a lot in advance

Cat

[DarkTrance]

I've had similar problems with the same model. I've not been able to find anyplace that lists info about the 50001 unit. Sorry I've not been much help.

[tweakmonkey]

I mentioned this to another user -- I have never worked with those other versions so I have little knowledge of how and why they fail. However, if you're willing to ship me the unit I will do my best to fix it, update the article with any knowledge I acquire, and send it back to you. If you are interested in this, please PM me.

[catten666]

Hi, thanks for the offer but I think I have sorted it.

It does seem I did everything right but the laser itself was dead. I assumed the laser was still fully functioning as it read audio and ps1 cds with no bother at all and just thought it was the alignment which I had messed up.

Anyways I took it to a small computer shop over the weekend and he had a look at it for me, put in a working laser and it worked, no issues.

However he was going to charge me £75 to fit a new one (the one he used was a known working test one) and for that price I thought I may as well buy a second hand unit off eBay with a few games thrown in.

Anyways before buyingI checked prices of lasers online and managed to pick up one for my model for £40, which is worth it.

So thanks for all your help, laser should arrive today so will let you know results.

[tweakmonkey]

Awesome, keep us posted.

[catten666]

Well I fitted it, and it didn't work. Then I noticed the main arm pole didn't slide properly. Bit of WD40 (lubricant) and it was sliding like a good un.

Put it all together and it works fine.

Man I am so happy

[tweakmonkey]

Congrats!

[catten666]

Although the game I am playing (Guitar Hero) is playing up a bit.

Firstly the disk is scratched due to the laser not reading and me smacking the ps2 about a bit (silly I know) but it loads it up fine.

Trouble is on quick play it won't load up anything bar the first 10 songs. Tried on career mode and it would load more but others wouldn't load.

Now I thougt this may be the disk but twiddled with the ps2 some more. Depedant on where the cogs are the disk would go from not loading, to part loading, to fully loading etc. This would lead to me assume the cogs control where on the CD the laser could read clearly so further twiddling would mean everything would load.

I tested this by loading up another game I had completed fully (Tony Hawk Underground 2) and loaded up each and every level. No issues so I'm guessings its the disk.

It is rather odd tho as the songs must be stored in a fixed place on the CD. For example Track 1 on easy is always going to be at that point on the CD regardless of if I access it from quick play, or from career but career works whereas quick play doesn't.

I think I am going to rent the game and see if the rental copy works as the CD does look badly damaged.(It's not a scratch. more of smudges, but still etched onto the disk) then go from there.

However if anyone has heard of this issue being a hardware thing can you let me know?

Thanks!

[D-Man]

This same problem is happening with my 50001. I can play normal ps1 games fine. If i have my ps2 turned off for an extended period of time, and turn it back on the ps2 games will load. But after about 5 mins of playing if i have to load somthing the ps2 fails to do so. Even if i reset the ps2 the game will not load again, until i turn it off for awhile.

I do not know if it is the laser, as it will load the ps2 games, just not for over 5 mins. Any ideas would be great, thanks.

P.S. - I have tried all of the tricks to get it to work. Except for the laser adjustment because there is no guide or it cant be done on a 50001.

[undergeround_2pro]

I have kind of the same problem with my 50002. i also hit mine simply in anger but that was because it clicked when i tryed to load games i have no idea why. but i get disk read errors when trying to load games if anyone could tell me why please do.