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I was traded a "dead" PS2 that didn't read disks for reloading my roomate's friend's box tonight.

He was suprised I wanted it in trade since he sent it to Sony and they sent it back saying it was unrepairable, and none of the repair places here in town could find the problem.

Fixed and reloaded the box in about an hour.

Fixed the PS2 in about 15 minutes using 99% rubbing alcohol and a q-tip.

I'm in absolutely disgusted awe at Sony's incompetence in even basic troubleshooting. The problem was a dirty lens and dried up grease on the slide rails for the read head. it runs perfectly now.

As the title says: Thanks for the free PS2 Sony!

Now to buy some games for this thing, which I can't afford at the moment.


Has anyone else had similar experiences with Sony, or another company's abysmal service like this? I'm really amazed at this, happy, but amazed a big company's repair center would be that inept.

PS2s are notorious for such problems; Sonys 'we don't give a shit' attitude just makes it worse. I've had to reseat my drive... erm... slidey bit many a time.

The disc read error is the scourge of many a PS2. Thankfully mine has yet to experience it.

I've never had a problem with my ps2, ever... and i've dropped it a few times

I need to clean the lense of t XBox. The PS2 has never given me problems

I heard PS2s like to break right after their warrenty runs out ^_^. It's all about the GC..

Well, I keep hearing about these problems but I've never seen one for myself on a PS2. Lets hope that my friends new PS2..um 2 doesn't have these problems. Smallest PS2 ever.

That is an amazing story. While I will not argue with you over the matter I will say this. My brother's PS2 was giving a 'read disc error' and making grinding noises when opening and closing the tray. Likely one of the gears was out of alignment which in the first batches was problematic. However, I called Sony, they hooked me right up, I sent it off. About two weeks later I got it back in perfect condition at no charge. The lady on the phone was very polite, and very helpful. Not only that she stayed on the phone for a few minutes answering several questions I had.

It's actually common to have run of the mill assholes and shits that don't know what thier doing and/or don't want to help you. I get that all the time at work having to call manufacturers, and then sometimes you'll run into very friendly helpful folks. Oh well, you've got a PS2 now. so sweet!

That small PS2 is cool. I like how they're shrinking a lot of the tech now. I wonder if there were any upgrades done to that version.


The tray on mine stuck a few times and did the grinding gear noise when ejecting, but I think I fixed it by yanking on the tray. It was probably the same issue as a few CD drives I've worked on, the tray eject gears get off by like 1 tooth or something, when you yank it out beyond it's normal eject distance it hits the stop and jumps back in place. Only works sometimes, most of the time it's stripped gears or junk in the track.

And yes, very sweet, I've wanted one of these systems since they came out. FFX here I come!

Since we are talking about "Read disc" errors. This started happening with my Xbox recentely. I called them up, and they said they could repair it for a mere $79 fucking dollars. But, from this thread it seems like this problem could be fixed easily. I'd really appreciate if anyone could tell me how this might be fixed? Thanks.

I'n not too sure of XBoxes, but my guess is the odds of a dirty lens are really high.

Do a Google search for how to take apart an X-box. You will need some very specific tools though.

Btw, the XBox uses a standard DVD-rom drive from a computer, as well as a standard 8GB hard drive. Makes it really easy to repair/replace the component causing the trouble.

To clean a CD drive, you need to take the casings off (eject the tray, remove the faceplate if it has one, remove the 4 phillips head screws on the bottom of the drive, remove the plate, then remove the internal "guts" of the drive) being careful with the guts of the drive, flip it over, make sure you can see the lens (shiny, faintly metallic blue piece <1/4" diameter) on the read head, which is located attached to a set of round metal rails.

You will need these tools to fix the drive itself (not opening the X-box, which requires a torx screwdriver, which I forgot the size of):

Phillips screwdriver, probably a #1 (could be a #2, or a smaller type, depends on the drive maker)
Clean Q-tips
99% isopropyl "rubbing" alcohol. *THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, DO *NOT* USE ANYTHING LESS PURE!!!*
Can of compressed air to blow the dust out of the drive.

To clean the lens you need to *APPLY NO PRESSURE* to is, if you do, you will destroy it. Run the Q-tip with alcohol around the lens a couple times, then let the alcohol evaporate. (If you use anything less pure than 99%, it will leave a film which will cause a lot of problems for the drive reading disks.) Do not push on the top of the read head, you can smash the magnetic focusing component, rendering the drive even more useless than before.

Done right, you can fix just about any CD/DVD drive problem in about 20 minutes. This includes burners.

In some cases you will need to clean the grease off of the rails the head travels on, again, use the alcohol, but make sure you have electronics grease around or the rails will be damaged after a while of use. You can use normal kleenex or even TP for cleaning the rails since you're not worried about scratching an optical surface here. (Sometimes you have to remove a screw or two and pull out the rail to clean/regrease it, be careful of the read head if you do.) You can also grease/oil the gears, sometimes those need cleaning too, but that's a long process unless you have the nerve to take the gearing apart.

Hyperion, Thanks so much for the detailed information. I'm going to do this after school tomorrow.. I also have an extra DVD drive that I could pop in there if the cleaning of the lens doesn't work. Hopefully this works and I'll let you know tomorrow if it worked out.

Cool. Good luck on it.

I think i'm stating the obvious,but it deffinitly sounds like Sony claimed it was unrepairable so the owner would buy a new one.