Ping: PS2 owners

[Kodos]

Have you had any problems with your PS2? Was it defective when you got it? Yes or no. Just want to see the percentage at FOFC who have had problems. Thanks.

By the way. My answer is no with my launch PS2.

[Vince]

I got a PS2 a few months after launch, and I have had no problems with it whatsoever.

[korme]

Great timing.

My PS2, more or less, is finished.

I have.. let me count.. 12 games, all bought in the past year and a 1/2. I sell all my old games. Anyways, only GTA: Vice City will run, and it will only run if I hit X before the intro or it will freeze.

Madden 2003, The Getaway, Ncaa Football 2003, Hitman 2, Smackdown JBI, Tony Hawk 4, Ncaa College Basketball 2k3, NBA 2k3, High Heat 2003, High Heat 2004, and SOCOM: US Navy Seals all DO NOT LOAD. Disc errors.

Can I do anything about this, or do I have to shell out another $150? :(

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Im having some problem with my PS2 as it doesnt play the older games anymore ,ie the blue disk'ed ones .

[Kodos]

I believe you can ship them to Sony and they will fix it for free.

Ship it to Sony; get it fixed for free. (http://boards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=38504037&replies=47)

[Kodos]

Technical Support
1-800-345-SONY (1-800-345-7669)

Reps Available:
Monday-Friday 7AM-6PM Pacific Standard Time.

[Neuqua]

I got my PS2 at launch, and it still works fine.

Neuqua

[Balldog]

I've got a launch Ps2 and its junk.

[Marmel]

I got one, I guess 6-8 months ago and I had a game freeze on me exactly 1 time.

[McSweeny]

i got mine almost a year ago and it works fine

[Nyarlahotep]

Got mine at launch and have never had a problem with it.

[Calis]

Have had mine for about a year and half, after about 3 months or so it became completely unplayable. It would get disc read errors on ANYTHING I put in it.

I checked around and this was apparently due to some cheap ass parts that it used, so a buddy and I tore into it, and wound up tweaking the potentiometer, and I haven't had any problems since.

[thesloppy]

My PS2 is the equivalent of an old van, sitting on bricks, with saran-wrap windows, and a rag hanging out of the gas tank. I got it aobut 6 months after launch with about 30 games, and it worked pretty well for the first sixth months, and then it stopped reading the non-DVD discs (the blue ones). I wasn't too bothered that it wasn't reading the blue discs, since those tended to be the games I was bored with, but then it stopped reading the DVDs too. This did not make me happy.

I let it sit out of frustration for a couple months, and then did a bunch of research and figured I could pop it open and try to re-calibrate the lasers myself. I did this about three dozen times, re-adjusting the pots, and then putting it back together to test it, and let's just say that it's a real test of patience, and I managed to lose a screw every time I did it, until the PS2 innards were all held together by just a prayer, and everything would fall apart as soon as I opened it. Through pure will, I eventually got the little bastard to read the CDR discs, but no luck with the DVD discs, after attempting to calibrate the DVD pot one more time, I actually just unscrewed it completely, and it flew somewhere out in to the ether....I guess I won't have to worry about that anymore.

Frustrated, I again stuck the PS2 in the corner, not wanting to only play the old, stank, CDR games. But one day it came to my attention that most PS2 'backup' (AKA illegally copied) discs are actually ripped from DVDs onto CDR. So, out of pure curiosity, I bought a $10 USB mod-chip, and a couple of backups of DVD games I knew and loved, to see if I had found my PS2 workaround. Praise the Lord, it actually worked, and I now am back to regularly using my PS2, even though after all of the stress, it only reads CDRs, squeaks HORRENDOUSLY, will ONLY work if standing on it's side, and is held together by 3 screws...but it works goddamnit.

The upshot of all this, is that I may be the only person in the country who does use backup discs of software I actually own. Despite the fact that mine works now, after all the research I did, it became painfully obvious that SONY released the PS2 with a real tendancy towards breaking down quickly, and although it sounds like they're more receptive now, originally they would charge you $80 to fix it, not counting shipping. Color me unimpressed.

[HeavyReign]

I got one about a month after launch. Within 3 days something stopped working and the video output was scrambled. I had to send it to Sony because the store didn't have any more. The eventually sent me a brand new one about 2 months later because they couldn't fix the original.

[MizzouRah]

I've had mine about 6 months after launch, about 3 months ago, MVP baseball wouldn't load. Opened it up, cleaned the lens, and since then everything works fine.


Todd

[Franklinnoble]

I've had one for over a year now... works fine. Never had a problem with it.

[Maple Leafs]

Had one over a year, no problems at all.

[nilodor]

The only problem I had was when I got it january after launch it used to sit on carpet. This however is very bad and the fan sucked in alot of dirt. So the machine crapped out in a couple of month. Now its been sitting on a table and has had no problems what so ever.

[markprior22]

had one for about a year and a half...no probs

[cthomer5000]

why is it that whenever Kodos has a legit post that screams for a poll, he doesn't give us one? :confused:

[sterlingice]

I have 4 friends with PS2's, 2 from launch, and the only one who has any trouble is the guy who's apartment is in shambles. I don't have one, tho, so I can't speak directly to them.

What do you people do with your PS2s: throw bricks at them and put PB&J in the tray? Or are they really that fragile?

SI

[Radii]

Mine still works great. I was one of the ones that had NCAA 200x (2003 right?) lock up all the time but I didn't much care I was more into Madden anyway and have never had problems with any other games.

[korme]

Originally posted by sterlingice
I have 4 friends with PS2's, 2 from launch, and the only one who has any trouble is the guy who's apartment is in shambles. I don't have one, tho, so I can't speak directly to them.

What do you people do with your PS2s: throw bricks at them and put PB&J in the tray? Or are they really that fragile?

SI

Just started crapping up one afternoon..

[illinifan999]

Got mine the X-mas of the launch. Only had 1 freeze the entire time. (knock on wood).

[Airhog]

mine had problems playing a rental game, but I went out and bought the game, and it hasnt messed up since...

[AccardoOutfit29]

Got mine a year after launch or so and starting in about November of last year it started having disc read errors. Only NCAA Football still works with absolutely no problems.

[Anthony]

i don't remember. it's been a while, i haven't played mine since Christmas of 2002. that's when my wife got me Two Towers. up until then i've probably had one freeze up or two...but i haven't had a great reason to buy any PS2 games. i don't feel like shelling out for the 4 way controller adaptor, when my friends come over to play we play with my XBox cuz of it out of the box 4 person capabilitiy. and plus it doesn't hurt to goof off on XBox Live, we all take turns using the headset.

i'm tempted to get the network adaptor just to play with my friend up in Boston.

[CamEdwards]

I've never had a problem, and I've owned mine for about a year and a half. Of course, that hasn't stopped me from wanting an X-Box.

[Hammer755]

Originally posted by Vince
I got a PS2 a few months after launch, and I have had no problems with it whatsoever.

Ditto

[MJ4H]

Ive had a PS2 for about 2 years and never had a single problem.

[SegRat]

I have had my PS2 since launch with no problems.

[JeeberD]

I've had my X-Box for over a year now with no issues at all...

Oh, crap, wrong thread, sorry....

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally posted by thesloppy
My PS2 is the equivalent of an old van, sitting on bricks, with saran-wrap windows, and a rag hanging out of the gas tank. I got it aobut 6 months after launch with about 30 games, and it worked pretty well for the first sixth months, and then it stopped reading the non-DVD discs (the blue ones). I wasn't too bothered that it wasn't reading the blue discs, since those tended to be the games I was bored with, but then it stopped reading the DVDs too. This did not make me happy.

I let it sit out of frustration for a couple months, and then did a bunch of research and figured I could pop it open and try to re-calibrate the lasers myself. I did this about three dozen times, re-adjusting the pots, and then putting it back together to test it, and let's just say that it's a real test of patience, and I managed to lose a screw every time I did it, until the PS2 innards were all held together by just a prayer, and everything would fall apart as soon as I opened it. Through pure will, I eventually got the little bastard to read the CDR discs, but no luck with the DVD discs, after attempting to calibrate the DVD pot one more time, I actually just unscrewed it completely, and it flew somewhere out in to the ether....I guess I won't have to worry about that anymore.

Frustrated, I again stuck the PS2 in the corner, not wanting to only play the old, stank, CDR games. But one day it came to my attention that most PS2 'backup' (AKA illegally copied) discs are actually ripped from DVDs onto CDR. So, out of pure curiosity, I bought a $10 USB mod-chip, and a couple of backups of DVD games I knew and loved, to see if I had found my PS2 workaround. Praise the Lord, it actually worked, and I now am back to regularly using my PS2, even though after all of the stress, it only reads CDRs, squeaks HORRENDOUSLY, will ONLY work if standing on it's side, and is held together by 3 screws...but it works goddamnit.

The upshot of all this, is that I may be the only person in the country who does use backup discs of software I actually own. Despite the fact that mine works now, after all the research I did, it became painfully obvious that SONY released the PS2 with a real tendancy towards breaking down quickly, and although it sounds like they're more receptive now, originally they would charge you $80 to fix it, not counting shipping. Color me unimpressed.

This cracked me up! Well said. Are you Mr. Bean, by any chance? Reading this reminded me of him. Not sure why.

Anyway, I have two PS2's, both of which work fine. One I got about 6 months after launch. The other is a Japanese PS2 I got last summer. I haven't used either of them all that much though.

[thesloppy]

Originally posted by Godzilla Blitz
Are you Mr. Bean, by any chance?

No, but I have been nominated for Mr. Beano several times.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Never had any problems with mine. Got it back in August 2002.

[Rich1033]

I have owned two PS2s. The first I had since launch and the only reason I had problems with it was because it sat on the floor in a dirty smoke filled room for over a year. It just got too dirty and became very tempermental. I didnt feel like sending it to Sony so I just packed it up and bought a new one. At the moment the original is being loaned to a friend who took it apart, cleaned it, and has it working much better. I have the second one, and although I dont use it as much as I used to, it has worked perfectly.

[Arles]

I bought mine at Best Buy a couple years ago and luckily bought the $25 2-year in-store warranty. It worked great for about 15 months and then wouldn't play certain games at all. So, I brought it back and got a new one, where I once again sprung for the 2-year plan.

If you do buy one and the store has a 2 to 3 year service plan for under $50, I say buy it. At the minimum, it gives you peace of mind.

Arlie

[Butter]

I read that both the launch versions of PS2 and XBox tend to have more problems than later ones. Don't know why it would kill these game makers to put some actual quality parts in the thing. Cheap parts=more prone to break down=more pissed off consumers. Haven't they ever heard of Toyota? Not particularly great cars, but super-reliable. That's why they sell so well. If either one had a super-clean track record, I probably would've gone with that console. As it is, I'm just hoping that my later iteration has been cleaned up a bit.

[Bearcat729]

I bought my PS2 a few months after launch. It is acting up now, but then I have been playing it a lot more recently.

I think the laser is getting weak as games don't load as quickly and I had a week or two of problems with lockups while playing EQOA.

[Fritz]

My PS2 sucks. Sony should make them strong enough tobounce down a flight of hardwood stairs.

[Butter]

If they make the black box strong enough to withstand an airplane crash, why don't they just make the whole plane out of the black box?

Are you with me?

[Kodos]

Originally posted by cthomer5000
why is it that whenever Kodos has a legit post that screams for a poll, he doesn't give us one? :confused:

I actually figured that anonymity would encourage PS2 haters to say theirs broke, even if they've never had one. I figured there'd be more honest answers if you had to post your name. :)

Besides, if I posted a poll, I would have to change my sig.

[Rich1033]

For those of you who are having problems reading discs you might try buying one of those DVD lense cleaners and a can of air to clean all the dust out.

[Kodos]

I did that, and it helped. :)

[Butter]

Originally posted by Kodos
I figured there'd be more honest answers if you had to post your name. :)

My first 8 PS2's all crapped out on me.

The first one died on the way back to my house from the store. I heard it laughing at me from inside the box. Didn't buy the protection plan, so I was screwed.

The second one was dropped on the way in the house. Opened it up, and it was a pile of ash.

The third one, I got as far as my TV, before it realized that my TV was not a Sony and immediately burst into flames.

The fourth one I was able to plug in, but the DVD drive stuck open, and I ended up just using it as a drink holder.

The fifth and sixth ones are bookends in my room, victim of a tragic chimney sweep dust accident.

The seventh one actually displayed the first screen of Grand Theft Auto before the lens actually melted the disc in the player. That was a mess.

The eighth one I was actually about to upset Miami with Ohio U. on Legend of NCAA Football 2003 when the processor realized how ridiculous that was and refused to restart.

The ninth one just arrived. I think I heard it crawl into the kitchen and crack open a Bud Light, so I'm not optimistic.