Repairing and Rebuilding a PS2 Disc Drive: It just keeps getting worse!
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- This was the biggest basket case of a disc drive I've ever seen. Every screw undone uncovered more carnage and many questions on what happened. What started as a simple disc drive cleaning video turned into a whole odyssey. Come along and see what I uncovered and how I fixed it! This video is the longest I've done so feel free to use the chapters :)
00:00 Intro
01:18 Disassembly of the PS2 and checking the damage
06:02 Disassembling the Disc Drive
16:07 Washing the parts
17:06 Cleaning and lubing the optical drive assembly
22:40 When I find out it may be beyond saving
26:49 Reassembly attempt number 2
31:38 Checking my work!
31:53 Testing the laser
32:22 Replacing the laser
34:10 Final test
34:56 Outro
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There's a program called lenschanger you can run with free mcboot that reprograms the PS2's EEPROM so you can use any PS2 laser model. I mention this as the KHS-400C is typically cheaper and more common over the 400R.
Thanks for the tip 👍 I've heard of that before but I have yet to try it though but I definitely will be and probably make a video about it too. Luckily the 400R wasn't too bad. It cost me 9.50 on AliExpress plus like 5 bucks in shipping but a few weeks to ship in lol. I did buy two because I didn't have much faith in AliExpress lasers but the first one I put in worked just fine.
@@titanrepairs You should take note that the guy before you that screwed up the threads is what you are doing too..... Always when inserting / driving screws back in plastic without metal inserts first drive counter clockwise until you feel the beginning of the thread and then drive clockwise and don't apply too much force. This is to preserve the threads in the plastic as it will be super brittle/fragile.. So next time don't point a finger cuz two fingers are pointing back to you ;)
@@NurdRage777 Absolutely. I always do that. It's not always shown on video due to trimming video (figure people don't want to see me going backwards and forwards with 50 screws lol) or it's hard to see with camera angles and whatnot or speeding up the video. Look closely in my videos, you'll probably see it. It's subtle but there. I've also mentioned it in my older videos to always go backwards until you feel it click in then forwards to prevent stripping out the plastic threads. I probably should start mentioning the little things again. I forget not everyone is a regular viewer.
But to add to what you said, even if it's a metal thread you'll still want to go backwards and forwards to avoid cross threading.
Anywho, thanks for the comment and feedback. I do appreciate it ☺️
Nice job, Always nice to see another "Phatty" given a new lease of life !
Where was this when I was tearing down my disk drive
Very entertaining video! 😂 Better still, when watching reassembly noticed what I was doing wrong with the rubber washers and was finally able to get my drive back together successfully. Thanks very much!
I'm glad it helped you!
Great video! Looking at the two lasers side-by-side it looks like the person who was in there adjusted the pots. Id be willing to bet if you reset the pots, that old laser is prob still good after all the fixes you did. Cheers.
I never thought about that. Next time maybe I'll fiddle around and see what happens. I just never had good luck with adjusting pots lol.
What a great sequence, really clear and helpful - thank you!
Thank you! 🙏
My advice is....NEVER QUIT!
Good videos. Thanks for the informative work you do.
And thank you for the continued support!
I felt this even before I watched the video, just from the title. I recently had a WORKING PS2 I wanted to clean up. Now the disc drive is making a grinding noise and won’t read discs. I’m sure I can fix it, it is just so frustrating to break something that isn’t broken trying to clean it!
I've been there before. Believe me! I have a couple consoles in a box that are there because I had good intentions lol. Also I think you can save yours. That grinding noise I'm guessing is the plastic on the laser that sits in the worm gear. Do the disc drive magnet trick I talk about in the video and see what it's doing. If it is that, you can bend the plastic down a bit (don't go nuts lol) and it may seat back in the gear. If not you can just replace it.
Need More content like this really Enjoyed it
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it 😊 I definitely have more stuff coming!
Video helped my fix my disc drive. Thank you.
You're welcome. I'm so glad it helped 😊
Plumbers tape is not to take up any slack in the hole. It's to lubricate it so you can drive the thread in more
In a way I suppose but it's more to help make a water tight seal around the threads for pipes. I use it regularly for work but for it's actual purpose lol. I had no faith it was actually gonna work here but I was just trying anything I had lying around my house to just try and get that screw to stay. I think it was cut from the video (for brevity sake) but I also tried rubber cement and pieces of plastic that fell out of the disc drive to wedge the screw in. Epoxy would have definitely worked but like I said I didn't want the screw in permanently in case someone needed to service it in the future. I kept the tape part in because it was the most ridiculous idea I tried and the most entertaining lol.
Enjoyed your vid! New sub!!
Thank you! 🤘 I really appreciate the support and the kind words 😊
I wish there were more people like you outside United States mate...
Hello, love your video!
Quick question: I'm having an issue with my disc drive, the laser isn't moving back and forth but it lights up.
I don't think the ribbon form the ribbon laser got disconnected cause it was working fine a couple of days ago... Before I started tampering with the potentiometer to try to make the laser read cds... Without a multimeter (yeah I know...)
So my question is: if the laser is dead will it still travel back and forth on the worm motor or not?
Because I ordered a new laser, but if the issue does not come from the laser but from the worm motor or the ribbon... Let's just say I'm not comfortable enough to take apart all the unit to get to the motherboard... I'm hoping for an easy fix?
Hi there! Sorry for the late response and I hope I can still help. Life has been chaotic lately and haven't been able to get on CZcams to keep up. What probably happened is you put too much power through the laser and burned it out. Those potentiometers are finicky and it's easy to ruin the laser. Even with a multimeter. Though if you're at the point of messing with them, there's already an issue lol. I honestly just don't mess with them anymore. At least until I get an oscilloscope to properly calibrate them. The lasers are cheap enough that its just quicker and easier to replace it. I've spent hours unsuccessfully diddling with the pots with no success.
To answer your question, I kinda remember one time working on a PS2 where the laser was completely dead and it didn't travel back and forth. But the new laser did. IIRC, how they work is they recognize a disc is there (even if it's weak) and will move to try and read it. Because the laser is weak it can't read the data. A dead laser won't even get to that initial point.
Great video, much more in depth than most! I recently took my ps2 apart to clean and fix a disk drive issue. The tray would slow down significantly at the last 30% of its out travel, but ran smooth and fast the rest of the time. Sometimes it would stop completely and pull the tray back in before it reached the full out position. I went through the same diagnosing and troubleshooting that you did on this one. I cleaned everything up very well and inspected the entire mechanism and drive and found no damage, and everything ran smooth during test fitting. Put it all back together and it still has the same issue, but maybe a little bit smoother. Any ideas on what it could be? I thought maybe the motor is going out or the belt needs replaced. Other than that I’m stumped
Thanks for the kind words! I do try to be as thorough as possible and keep it interesting as well. I've noticed a lot of videos actually leave out crucial steps.
Did you clean the white plastic guide that has the gear teeth and channels that goes into the laser mechanism? That's usually overlooked and usually isn't cleaned but I've noticed grime gets accumulated in there over time of it all sliding together. Even a little bit can cause friction slowing the disc tray down. Also clean the nubs that go into it. As for the drive belt, it probably is stretched too. I've never had to fully replace one. Usually boiling for 15 minutes gets it back into shape and shrinks it enough. Those are the two big things I focus on when repairing a stuck drive tray and it usually solves the slow tray problem.
@@titanrepairs Thanks for the reply! I did clean the white guide piece very well. I did however use a little bit of lithium grease inside the channels that the pegs travel on, I don’t know if the grease adds too much resistance. I also used a tiny amount of grease on the guide rod for the tray. I cleaned every nook and cranny of the mechanism parts and only greased those two parts. Nothing was broken, and all the teeth look perfect. I will definitely try boiling the belt, but I’m still not sure it’ll help.
@@marcusleonardi9382 I would think it depends on how much grease. If you put too much possibly it'd be too much to move effectively. But a light coating I wouldn't imagine doing much. I mean, I personally don't grease anything in the disk drives that wasn't greased from the factory (that guide rail and the laser rails and worm drive are the only things I really grease. And maybe the spindles the gears sit on). I used to grease PS2 disk drives until I started working more on OG Xboxes. They greased everything and there was always caked in dust and grime in the grease. It's actually tough to clean them without washing the grease off with soap and water lol. So it may work well at first but years down the line after use, I'd imagine they'd get really grimy. Possibly accelerating the need to clean again. I mean I do still grease Xbox drives but that's because Microsoft's supplier designed it and greased it for a reason is my rationale :) So basically, greased from the factory? Grease it. If not greased? I wouldn't worry about it.
It sounds like you were thorough. But maybe that drive belt is the last cog in the wheel that needs to be addressed. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose. Also wouldn't hurt to just double check everything that you put it together ok while you're back in there. Let me know if boiling the belt helps. I may have one more idea if all else fails.
@@titanrepairs I used IPA and a toothbrush followed by Q tips to clean everything. I’ll try boiling the belt and clean everything again. I was pretty conservative with the grease but I will let you know what happens. Thanks again!
The bar under your disc tray has dust on one side where you screw the bar in
Keep up the good work save as many as you can lol
Thanks! I certainly intend to!
Nice
朋友，ps2光驱安装，主板没有cpu那面的金属盖板先不要安装，插好光驱线后再把金属盖板装上会方便些。
I replaced the arm for the fat ps2. the long arm rotor is still making the noise when it hits the center of the ps2 dvd player. Is it a bad motor or what do I need to do?
Sorry! I'm just catching up with comments. Check the plastic piece that connects the laser to the worm gear. Over time it can bend up and may need to be bent down slightly. I've fixed a few disc drives that way. Just bend it slightly because too much and it can break. You can also take the white plastic disc off the lid and place it on the disc and see what the drive is doing when reading the disc. It's magnetic and attaches to the spindle when the disc spins. I show how to do it in some of my videos.
Hello again. You video inspired me to take my PS2 apart and take a look at the disk drive. I just got one and to me it seemed like it did not open very fast, it seemed off. I got it apart and cleaned it all up, kind of dirty with fuzz and stuff. After cleaning it all up, it seemed to open and close pretty good. I put some white grease on it and the to me it seem like that bogged it down again. I left the grease on, put it back together and left it like that. I am now on the fence to take it apart again and take the grease back off. I was careful not to glob it on. Do you think it really needs grease on it? Also I had a really hard time figuring out how to get the tray that the CD goes on back into the drive but I got it, YAY. I guess the biggest thing that seem to bog down to me was the long rod that is attacked to the CD disk tray itself. Thanks!
I'm glad to hear that my videos inspired you to crack it open 😁 To answer your question, no I generally don't grease PS2 drives except for the rails. My philosophy is if it wasn't greased from the factory then it doesn't need grease. When I first started I greased but I noticed sometimes the drives would bog down. Plus I thought over time the grease will accumulate dust gumming things up. After experimenting I found stripping it completely down and washing all the plastic in soap and water does the best job in getting them working. Now, that's not to say I don't ever grease. The last PS2 I did a video on I did grease under the disc tray because it was slightly binding. It needed it to get over the hump. Sometimes it's unavoidable but generally I don't. You gotta just use your discretion at that point.
Did you boil the belt? After 20 years it stretches and becomes a tear drop shape. Boiling helps shrink it back and reshape it.
Haha. Yeah those trays are tricky to put on if you aren't used to it. Took me a couple drives to finally figure out how to put it on. I found if you push the plastic slide over slightly to the right it'll go in the groove on the tray. If not it can end up in the wrong spot. It takes practice but you'll get it 😊
Hello, I only tore it down to the point of taking the cover off of the DVD drive and taking the CD tray out. I did not take out the belt. When you say the rails, are you talking about the plastic things that move the laser back and forth? The metal rod inside of the cd tray that ejects out I greased and then it seem to bog out. I greases the plastic gears that move the laser back and forth, but after doing so everything seemed to bog down after wards compared to after cleaning it and not greasing it. I think I will go back into it now and remove all of the grease. I did not take the time to tear it down as far as you did. I just got it so wanted to play it., plus I need to build up the courage to tear it down that far, hehe. Please let me know which rails you are talking about. And thank you for responding to my posts. It is so hard posting msg's because most of the people don't ever respond to questions that I post and that really sucks. :)@@titanrepairs
@@wesleygriffin9071 Sorry for being a couple days late on this. CZcams Studio will tell me when I get a comment but not a reply. Silly Google lol. The rails I'm talking about are the two metal rails that hold the laser. Those I clean and grease but that wouldn't bog down a drive. That metal rail under the tray is greased from the factory as well. You just want to make sure you clean the old grease off first. I use a rag and alcohol. The other thing that could be contributing to bogging it down is that white piece of plastic that moves the laser assembly up and down when the tray opens and closes. I've noticed in experimentation that it accumulates debris over time.
I can understand being nervous about tearing it down. I've been there before. First one I tore down was a fumbling mess. I forgot where things went and was disorganized. But like anything practice makes perfect and it gets easier each time ☺️
I'm glad to help! I'm still a small potatoes CZcamsr so it's easier to keep up with comments ☺️
Haha, no worries. It sounds like for the most part I did grease the right things then. It just seems that the tray ejects fast then when it almost out, it goes slower. I do not remember from decades ago if that is normal or not. Aye, I will get there for tearing it all down completely. I have been modding consoles now. I have taken the GameCube all the way down on everything and have no problems doing so and very comfortable doing so. I was very intimidated at first with it, was my first console to operate on, but found it was no big deal. I am sure I will have other questions for you in the future if thats ok with you. Also if so, would you rather do a comment or keep replying on this string? Thanks again.@@titanrepairs
@@wesleygriffin9071 Oh I see that all the time! It'll come out fast and slow down a bit. That's normal. My personal PS2 goes really slow at the end but it's never had a servicing done except replacing the laser during COVID lockdown so eventually I'll have to do a video on it (it's a launch model PS2. They're a bit different).
Whatever you want. I'd more likely see it with a new comment. I wish CZcams studio sent notifications for replies but it's dumb lol.
I tried this but when I went to test my drive no laser light :( which ribbon cable is responsible for the laser light?
It's the orangish ribbon cable coming from the motherboard. It can be a bit fiddly putting it in. It may have even come loose on the board. I'd check those connections first. The rest of the ribbon cables work the power switch, sled motor, spindle motor and disc drive so shouldn't have anything to do with seeing the laser light up or not.
I have a perfectly functional PS2 but all it needs now is a disc drive refurb/rebuild and preferably some new rubber feet. Using this video as somewhat of a reference to sorting out that console to make sure its futureproofed.
A question for if you read this: Does the drive belt dictate the operation of the tray ejection? The tray coming out, while functional, is extremely sluggish and noisy. I assume this is because of a weak stretched belt but I am not sure if it is actually a rail or motor that needs relubing. Thanks
Hello! I hope it's helping you ☺️ Yeah. The drive belt helps to move pretty much everything inside the drive like the tray and laser sled. As it ages, it stretches and gets misshapen which slows down the works. I have a pretty much 100% success rate by boiling it for 15 minutes. Gets the gunk out of the belt and reshapes and shrinks it. If you have Rubber Renue you can use that on top of boiling it but it's not necessary.
Also, in my experience, the belt is only part of the problem. The white plastic piece the tray rides along and that is also connected to the sled is overlooked. It gets gunk and worn plastic in it in the grooves that the laser sled fits in which slows it down too. Take that out and clean it really good with soap and water and a toothbrush.
The four things that are lubed from the factory are the two metal rails the laser rides on, the worm gear and the metal rail under the disc drive. Those are the only things I lube generally. But there have been extreme exceptions. Hope this all helps 😁
The disk drive belt is used initially to demagnetise the white disc from the Spindel. After that it slides the tray out.
Dust and debris dictates the speed of the ejection.
Complete failure of and ejection is caused by the drive belt not having enough torque (to demagnetise). If this happens there are two options:
Drive belt replacement or adding electrical tape on the underside of the white disc (to create less magnetism between the white disc and the spindle.
Your welcome, and you owe me a pizza
@@playstationportal4131 flex seal is my go to for the underside of the white disc. Just because it looks cleaner :) But yeah tape is a good easy way to fix it :)
@@titanrepairs Seal is a lot better I agree (for us who do this professionally). I was just suggesting for the people who need the “one shot fix” with household stuff. 😅
@@titanrepairs oh and hey! I watched your video on power boards for PS2, extremely informative thanks. 🤜💥🤛
Hey is there any idea what’s wrong with my dvd drive it starts to read the disk spins for like half a second and stops immediately?
Haven’t seen much online is it a laser issue?
That would be where I go to first. Before it reads the disc it checks what kind of disc it is. If the laser is totally dead it won't do that check and think there's no disc in it. Test the drive with the lid off. Close the tray and if you see no light from the lens when the tray goes all the way in, there's no power to the laser. If there is light, pop the disc drive magnet out of the lid (I've shown this trick in a few videos) and put a game in and see what the laser does and the disc drive as a whole. But just because you see light doesn't mean the laser has the power to read the games, keep that in mind. Also check the ribbon cable. I've had them pop out before. If you feel brave you can try the parts cannon and throw a new laser in and see if that fixes the problem. But if you do that make sure you get it on Amazon so you have a no hassle return 🙂 Otherwise you can pull up a schematic (the factory service manuals are all over the internet and easy to find) and trace the circuit from the laser back checking traces, cables, ICs, fuses etc on the laser circuit. So, the TLDR, probably the laser lol. Especially if you have a 30 or 39000 model.
@@titanrepairs hmm before cleaning I’ve just turned the console on and popped in game the disk tray barely moved but was ok and then when it went in with the game the laser did read it and was spinning best it could but there was all sorts of weird laser reading noises ik the laser makes noises when reading but they didn’t sound like proper noises it should be making but it did boot the game up but then it was making all sorts of noises and I think there were grinding noises too so I got scared and turned off the console immediately before anything got damaged and didn’t turn it back on.
It was sitting in my friends attic for who knows how long and then sitting in my room for a long time as I couldn’t test it it was first time I’ve turned it on in years probably.
Anyway I started cleaning it and took apart the disk tray and everything else then I dabbed a bit of isopropyl alcohol 99.9% strength on the laser itself to give it a bit of a clean with Q tip and put everything back together the disk tray worked much better but I have the problem that I wrote to you above now could it have been the alcohol I put on it?
I did test the disk without the lid that’s how I found out that it didn’t wanna spin anymore.
When I press on browse on ps2 menu pop disk in it says reading disk for bit and spins disk for half second and stops saying reading disk.
But I think it does same thing without the disk so it could be that it’s not detecting the disk anymore as you said.
My ps2 model is the 3003 model fat I didn’t think to look at the laser itself so I might do that when I’m not lazy to take it apart again.
@@osvaldaspaslauskas5040 if you put too much alcohol on and booted it up immediately it may not have had enough time to dry and shorted out. Also possible too much pressure. Those suckers though tough can also be delicate. I've had a laser totally die on me like that before. It's frustrating for sure. But since you have a 30000 series that laser was on borrowed time anyway and was probably on it's last legs especially if the model number of the laser is 400B which I'd bet it is. Those were infamous for failing. I have a launch model 30001 myself and it wouldn't read anything after like 3 years of ownership. It actually was a display piece in my home for like 15 years until I replaced the laser like 2-3 years ago. It works perfectly now!
@@titanrepairs I could’ve put to much indeed although I take ages putting it together and turning it on so not sure, wish I could remember which laser model it was but it probably is 400b.
I guess one last question is the circular piece on the laser that you clean is that supposed to spin in circles or is it supposed to stay in place?
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day/ night your help given me few ideas and things to check and way to move forward with it when I have the time and money to do so.
I wish you all the best.
Your laser is dying.
Hey! Great video!
I have a PS3 where the HDMI works perfectly, but after using multiple av cords I’ve realized that my AV port is messed up. Can you fix it? 😳
Never done one but I've done them on PS2s. They're essentially the same process lol. I'd just stick with the HDMI if you can. Huge downgrade if you use AV.
@@titanrepairs It’s for my RetroTink 5x. The component cables work on my PS2 (1440P and HDR on The Bouncer is incredible!), but I can’t use it on my PS3. If you’re able/willing to work on it, I’d be willing to move forward with the procedure…😳
@@GooseDaPlaymaker Unfortunately I'm not taking viewer submissions just yet. Not that I'm opposed to it but I have other backend stuff I need to get in order first. I'm hoping after my wedding to be able to focus more on getting more set up with the channel in terms of how I can be contacted, website and whatnot.
The blue tabs on my PS2 broke off from the adhesive failing.
Oh, and the ZIF clip on the mediagate bit broke, along with a fuse on the motherboard. That was a BITCH.
I stripped one of these right down just to change the CMOS battery - what a pain
Some of the PS2 versions the CMOS battery is right on the disc drive. I believe it's the earlier ones? I dunno why they changed that. The later fat models are a real pain to service simple things like battery and belt replacements.
To my knowledge, I think the later models actually have it next to the drive. The earlier ones had it right on the board; to be honest, I think the earlier models are actually harder to repair, with that and the volatile laser.
Ho il carrello che continua ad entrare ed uscire. Premi per farlo entrare ma subito esce e resta fuori. Cosa potrebbe essere?
Facile che sia il sensore che non sente che il carrello è rientrato del tutto e quindi pensa ci sia qualcosa che lo blocca.
For English speakers: he asked about the disk tray going out right after inserting a disk and closing the try.
I suggested it might be the tray sensor that cannot sense the tray , so it pulls it out thinking there's something jamming it.
Ho provato e il sensore funziona 😢
@@ShinryuZensen domani ti faccio un video
What temperature is needed for the rubber strip?
*disk drive belt
Sorry. I'm confused. What rubber strip are you referencing?
The dry belt
I confused myself
Also, the battery that has the PS trademark is on the side of the disk drive.
@@slowedpulse530 Ohhh. Ok. I understand you now ☺️ I don't worry about temperature when I boil drive belts. I just heat up the water until it boils then toss the belt in for 15 minutes. It won't melt or anything. At least I've never had a catastrophe lol.
Hello, do you accept people sending in their PS2 to you to repair/fix?
Unfortunately not yet. Things are in the pipeline though.
ok, ill try to keep watch, thanks@@titanrepairs
Don't you need to realign the laser height and rotation after the entire assembly has been detached? I was rather looking forward to seeing how it can be done without proper gear as I very foolishly unscrewed too many rails in my DVD player 😢
Not always. If the laser has issues I'll try adjusting the height but if everything goes back how it was it should be ok. Earlier drives have a gear at the top that adjusts the height. But it shouldn't need to be touched. The only other thing that needs to be adjusted is the black torx screw on the left side of the laser. But usually if you just put it back relatively how you found it it should be fine.
If that wasn't fun enough try doing a Japanese ps2. Holy crap.
Don't tempt me!
That is not a good test at all. You need to watch my videos. The tilt screw has to be set where it was and be adjusted right and has to load in game rumble checked ect.
I'll check them out when I get a chance 👍 But I do additional testing off camera before I list them. I didn't show that in this video for brevity sake. Especially this one where the main subject wasn't the laser but rebuilding the disc drive as a whole. I have other videos more dedicated to lasers where I touch up on the tilt screw and whatnot.
4:25 how funny you had to blame your fault for the ribbon cable damage on someone "that was in here before" when you damn well know that other end has a clamp but will not admit your mistake.
There isn't a clamp on that connector. There are no clamps on any of the disc drive connectors. They're held in with that blue thing. Nice try though 😁
I have never seen someone so hap hand idly disassemble a PS2, pulling on ribbon cables without releasing the clips, manually pulling the laser assembly rather than spinning the worm gear, and then gluing the drive tray front on after you have assembled the console! Anybody watching this. Do not copy this guys method!!!
Not sure what you're going on about. All ribbon cables attached with clips were released (laser, controller ports). The rest just pull out as there are no clips. I release clips with my thumb nail right before pulling in one swoop. My hand blocks it on camera. As for the worm drive I put light pressure when I move it. It won't harm anything unless you hulk it. I don't touch the worm gear because it's greased and if you touch the laser or the assembly you risk getting grease on it causing more issues. As for the bezel, you have any other ideas? It was broke by the previous owner. There were no clips left on it. Gluing it on is the only way to keep it still. When you glue it on doesn't matter. I do it in the end.