ClarkKentKY

I went to play GTA:SA tonight and my PS2 made this grinding noise when i first turned it on. I turned it off and tried again and managed to get about 10-15 minutes of gameplay but it started again and said "Cannot read disc" after about 30 seconds of grinding. It sounds like someone holding there hand in a ceiling fan. Like a quick: clack clack clack clack.

I haven't played any in the past 3 weeks. It hasn't been jarred, or hit in any way. There haven't been any power outages or electrical storms. There's no one else in my house that could have done anything to it. I never would have expected this.

Am i boned?

nodoubt

believe it or not, the same thing happened to me. i was playing GTA:SA as well, and i heard the grinding noise. i waited a while and put the game in, and i got the same "cannot read disc" error. the dvd was spotless so i opened up the ps2 and wiped the laser with something (which u shouldn't do but i was desperate). then made it work and i went on my merry way for a day or two. then im guessing the laser died on me since now it just sits at the browser/config screen even though there's a game in it.

short answer- yes i think ur ps2 is dead. RIP

Tigger

Same with me on GTA:SA... grinding noise.. then clicking of the laser hitting the disc. My GTA disc now has scratch marks on the outer edges. I attempted a few more times and the machine began making a noise from the disc drive that progressively got louder and sounded as if the disc was being spun faster...

this'll be the second time I sent my PS2 back to Sony.

wlj

mine died too....same thing... grinding noise...then couldn't read disc.

I am just going to sell my broke PS2 on ebay probably....people are buying them left and right...I guess they know how to fix them.

I am not going to buy a replacement PS2. Now have dedicated my gaming life to Xbox. I hate not being able to buy devil may cry 3 though.


wlj

Jtnguyen12

I rather wait for PS3 instead pickup new PS2

fujishig

So has this only happened with people playing GTA:SA? New slim PS2s or older ones?

I get the disc read error for cd games, but no grinding...

PixyJunket

If it's only happening with GTA:SA it *could* be a problem with the systems being able to read dual layer DVDs (it IS a dual layer game, right?).. but that doesn't make too much sense in that you'd have probably heard more of an uproar about problems with DVD movies since most are dual layer. On the other hand, movies are read in a linear fashion and generally only change layers once.. whereas the game could be forcing the laser mechanism all over the place with constant reading and streaming of various differing areas of the disc.

Sherbz

Despite all the talk about barely being able to fit the game on a dual layer before release, I'm pretty certain it actually was only a single layer DVD.

Fandango

I'm pretty sure the problems have something to do with the streaming of the game. I had a friend that could not get this game to work although other games worked just fine.

nodoubt

Yup sherbz's right. SA was on a single layer disc. my ps2 was i think 30001 version 7.

ClarkKentKY

Mine is the old PS2. It started grinding today while trying to play Sly Cooper. Didn't even get through the opening screens.

fujishig

Planned obsolescence? I've heard many complaints about the PS2 breaking down, but never a grinding complaint... ClarkKentKY, did you ever play San Andreas?

ClarkKentKY

GTA:SA was the game where i first noticed the problem (see first post) However i just played again for about a half hour and everything was fine. EXCEPT: when changing from an interior to an exterior location it grinded for about a half second. When i was done playing and held down the reset button i hear a KER-CHUNCK as the light goes red.

It's on its last legs. Here's hoping the PS3 is backwards compatible at E3.

namja

Same thing happened to my friend's X-Box. She hadn't played in a month--she was working 100 hour weeks in December due to end of year crap, plus she was travelling for the Holidays. Anyway, first week of January she turned on the X-Box and the exact same symptoms that ClarkKentKY described.

Are they easily fixable? Do they fix X-Boxes anywhere for cheap? She's gonna give the broken one to me if I can fix it.

She makes enough (a.k.a. tons of) money that she just went out and bought another one. She had to have her X-Box since she's a Halo2 addict.

sniper308

Forget the X-box, marry that girl

namja

Her brother married my cousin. Makes it kinda weird. Plus she's not "my type" ...

spinbo

MOD NOTE: Post removed. Self-advertising not allowed.

namja
Moderator, DVD Talk Forums

darkside

Sony will many times fix out of warranty PS2s for free not to mention places like EB Games usually give 80 bucks for a broken PS2.

$20

Fok

Where is the best place to take a broken PS2 to get fixed? I've got an old one and don't want to upgrade to a new one.....don't think my multitap will work on the new models?

ClarkKentKY

Well, after (ignorantly) opening my PS2 to see if i could spot the problem (cause i'm a laser genius in my own mind apparently) I couldn't get it to work. I didn't figure a sticker being broken would matter after 4 years of owning the damn thing. So i call Sony, they said send it in, we'll wave the fee. I explained i opened it after it finally stopped even trying to play, and that the warranty sticker was broken, and they said it didn't matter, but if the repair place saw evidence of tampering or modification they'd charge me. So i sent it. I don't know. They may fix it, they may try to hold me hostage. I have no idea. I'll try to get it back if they don't so i can dump it at EB or on ebay for a few bucks.

If they don't fix it i'll wait until PS3. Sucks cause i was in the middle of a few games, but i'm not spending 150 bucks on something i've already bought once and it'll be obsolete in 10 months. I'll just loan all my games to a friend of mine that just got his for christmas.

bloody-duck

Hi all. Joined just to say this. Not sure how sad that is but it's nice to know the problem is not me treating my PS2 badly.

The problem started about a week after getting GTA:SA, so I'm gussing as there is a common element that game is not helping. Personally as I believe I know the answer, the constant streaming wasn't a function that the PS2 was built to cope with at such extreme uses.

Any way onto the explination.

Being a bit of an idiot myself and having my PS2 for a while I decided to crack the baby open. After a few electric shocks and replacing the ribbons when they fell out of there grips I discovered the plastic arm that connects the lens placement to the worm-gear , the one conected to the motor that makes the lens move in and out, was jumping. After scratching a few cd's I found that occasionally this plastic arm rasies sightly, comming un-attached from the worm-gear, the moter still tries to move the lens and the resulting battle between the arm and the gear creates the grinding noise.

I'm gussing that the constant use of un-consecutive reading, not like off dvds (there in a nice strait line from inside to outside and back in again on a spiral on the disc), GTA:SA causes the lens to have to be moved all over the places. This places more strain than usual.

IMHO the game was probably worth it but I hope it's a problem that will be sorted out and probably should be brought to attention to someone. The technology of constanly reading helps with loading times. A great ease to bordem.

Cheap materials. Well any way hope I didn't bore anyone and hope I stopped people touching lenses.

OmahaStylee

WOW....I found this thread by doing a search on google for ps2 broken laser. I am surprised because this is the exact same problem I am having. I have only had my Ps2 for 13 months. I usually never play DVDs on it cause I had heard of problems this may cause. I bought GTA:SA the day that it came out, and have put somewhere between 50-70 hrs on the game. About a week ago I went to take out a DVD that a friend was watching, and the ps2 was working just fine......but to my surprise and horror it made a grinding noise..ahh!!!! Is it possible that GTA:SA might have contributed to this problem.....I am so angry cause I take great care of my ps2, I want to get it fixed but don't want to spend a ton of money. I can't think of any other games that use constant streaming of data like GTA:SA does.. So is the laser F'ed now???? Thanks

ClarkKentKY

Don't open it. Call Sony, describe your problem (you described it here the same way i described mine) They may fix it for free.

1-800-345-SONY

bloody-duck

I agree with ClarkKentyKY. Don't open the PS2. There realy is nothing you can do. I'm experimenting with some staples and super glue methods currently but if it's in warrenty or maybe even out of it if you can try and prove it's faulty materials.

SONY is your best guess.

OmahaStylee

oops....well I opened my ps2 right after I wrote cause my warrenty was up and I was desperate. I did load GTA:SA but I didn't want to play it yet. I think will still call Sony and see what they say. Thanks for the help guys!!