Well, It Is Out Of Warranty

Well, It Is Out of Warranty

After years of dedicated service, my PS2 has decided to be persnickety about loading games. So what did I do? Opened the damn thing up and fixed it, of course!

When it died before the end section of "God of War" I was pissed, but figured it was the disc. Then, my Final Fantasy XII went tits up and at this point I ruled out coincidence. I mean, what's the odds of two discs being bad? Confirmation of the PS2 being the culprit came when I tested other discs in my collection.

After doing a quick search on Google, it turns out this is not an uncommon error. In fact, according to one site, it's not so much if the "disc read error" occurs, but when.

The error has to do with the vertical location of the lens relative to the disc (most of the time). There is a ratcheting cog in the drive assembly that will move the lens 1/32 of an inch at a time. Fortunately, it has a "reset" position that will drop the lens back to its lowest position if you need to start over.

The Culprit

You can see the cog in question on the left, here.

This turns out to be pretty time consuming. There were four different discs I needed to test with each new lens position (I did 1/8" at a time):

∙ Old PSOne discs
∙ DVDs (yeah, I have a progressive scan DVD player which is way better, but what the hell...)
∙ Blue PS2 discs (the older discs have a blue coating on the data side... at least I think it's only the older discs)
∙ Silver PS2 discs



Thanks to the fine people over at Arstechnia, I was able to get this thing going again. Took me about 30 minutes.

A note: Try, try as hard as you can not to pull out any ribbon cables by mistake. They are a huge pain in the ass to get re-inserted. Especially the drive eject button cable and the memory card/controller cable.

UPDATE: A friend just reminded me the difference between a normal person and a geek. When a warranty runs out, a normal person worries the device might break. A geek is just stoked that he* now gets to open the device.

* or she as the case may be.

Uh Oh. Jack Chewed Through The Restraints, Again.

I don't even play Grand Theft Auto and I want to kneecap this publicity whore.

A US judge has rejected attempts to ban videogame Bully in Florida, after complaints it was a "public nuisance".

Judge Ronald Friedman said that violence in the school-based game did not mean it was a nuisance.

The attempt to ban the title was made by lawyer Jack Thompson, a well-known campaigner against what he believes are violent video games.

This goofball is the biggest moron out there. His biggest complaint is that this game will spawn more "Columbines". The idea that a game influences copy-cat violence is... tenuous, at best. Usually, there's a lot more going on in the noggin of a murderer and perpetrator of a violent act than a replay of the last game level they played. What I find most disturbing about his arguments is the he appears to remove any semblance of personal responsibility in the commission of a violent acts. And parental responsibility from actually, you know, raising a child. It's all the games (and by extension the developer's) fault. He sees the game industry as this insidious puppet master influencing millions of innocent teens around the world.

It's mind control, I tell ya!

He seems to have a real hard-on for Rockstar Games (of the Grand Theft Auto infamy). Every time they come out with a game, out comes the lawyerin' hat.

Here's the wikipedia entry on him. Read it. Especially the litigation section. It's good for a laugh.

Here's a fun Jack Thompson fact (I forgot he was the one that did this):

Thompson gave Reno a letter at a campaign event requesting that she check a box to indicate whether she was homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Thompson said that Reno then put her hand on his shoulder and responded, “I’m only interested in virile men. That’s why I’m not attracted to you.” He filed a police report accusing her of battery for touching him. In response, Reno asked Florida governor Bob Martinez to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate. The special prosecutor rejected the charge and concluded that Thompson did it as “a political ploy.” Reno was ultimately re-elected with 69% of the vote. Thompson repeated allegations that Reno was a lesbian when she was nominated as U.S. Attorney General, leading one of her supporters, lieutenant governor Buddy MacKay, to dismiss him as a “kook.”

This guy is seriously insane, although I must admit I do enjoy watching him froth at the mouth. And arguing with 14 yr olds via email.

And losing.