Hokeyboy

Quick question, my brethren, but it begins with a short recap...

The day after I bought Grand Theft Auto 3, and with the inevitable addiction at hand, my PS2 died. "Error Reading Disc". Some quick experimentation with my PS2 alongside a friend's and with other PS2 games did in fact reveal that my PS2 was not reading neither PS2 games nor DVDs.

However, it had no problem reading PS1 games at all. Playing a lot of MGS lately...

Anyways, the machine died exactly 4 days after the 90 day warranty expired. I didn't purchase an extended warranty (never have, and never needed one -- until now), and I paid cash for the system, which means I don't have the usual "double-manufacturer's-warranty" service my credit card provides.

*sigh*

Anyways, I spoke with Sony and they want me to box it up and ship it to their service location in Pennsylvania, with repairs costing $127, plus postage of course. Repairs will take about a month to do, give or take...

That's almost half the cost of a brand new system!!

So my question... questions, really... are these:

1) Are there any "unauthorized" PS2 repair stations out there that do quality work for considerably less jack, especially if they are located in the South Florida area?

2) Is this a common problem with PS2's, or is Loki pissing on my forehead?

This tragic situation is worse than flipping the proverbial bacon-trampoline. All advice is welcome. I'm so depressed...

darkside

It is common among people I know. The DVD drive failing has happened in at least three separate cases I know of.

Two of my friends did a switcheroo to get new systems. They refused to pay that much to repair systems that were only 5 or 6 months old.

ClarkKentKY

I've been reading about the disk error over at the IGN boards. It's really starting to scare me.

Dr. D

Find someone with an AMEX Blue card and you can get a new one for $210 plus tax. I'd rather pay a little more for a totally new machine than pay $127 plus $10 or so shipping just to get one you know has a faulty history fixed. You could probably even EBAY off the semi-broken one for a few bucks to make up the difference (since the controller itself is worth $30 or so)

Mattalos

That's pretty weird ... I've had my PS2 since launch and have been playing it like a madman at home and I've not once had a problem. That really sucks, man.

Applejack

Even though it isn't exactly ethical, you could try to package it up in the box and take it back to Wal-Mart to exchange it for a new one.

I don't know if the serial number will show it didn't come from there, or that you bought it over ninety days ago. But if they do it, they will get to return it to sony and get their money back anyway. No harm, no foul.

It may or may not work, but I hate to see people spend $100 if they don't have to.

lordzeppelin

I agree with the box it up and return it theory. Not "ethical" but not illegal or really wrong. I've seen worse things happen.

Nefarious

There are also some sites that sell PS2 parts.

darkside

That is what my friends did. The serial number sticker peels right off and they switched them. Again not really ethical, but neither is building a game system with a DVD drive that only lasts six months. This problem with the DVD drives failing is as wide spread as I've ever seen for any system. I know many people have had their system since launch without problems, but the number of times I have seen someone have this problem on the internet and among people I know is way too high. This fail rate for PS2s is as high as I've seen on any console. The original PSX also had problems with early units, so maybe this is something that will stop with newer PS2 units.

Trigger

yeah - not "ethical", but I was also going to suggest that you buy a new one and then box up your broken one and take it back to the store - they'll send it off to sony and get their money back or something.

ClarkKentKY

"It's a write off for them. These big companies, they just write it off, Jerry..."
"You don't even know what a write off is do you?"




But, yeah i'd do that too.