Gamers, HALP!!!

[jedimaster91]

Specifically PS2, but probably a universal enough issue for anyone.

My dog got herself tangled in the cord and knocked my PS2 from it's lofty ~1.5 ft perch. I was playing a game at the time (the game in question: Kingdom Hearts 2. Tragic) and it scratched the disk. I've tried everything from toothpaste, to Pledge, to commercial scratch remover. The disk is now the least scratched up disk in existance, yet it still won't play KH2. It plays KH1 and Battlefront just fine. The system sounds like it's getting stuck somewhere, but I can't figure out where. It pulls up the title screen just fine, but when I try to open my file or start a new game, it goes to black and stays there.

Any ideas? Pweese? It's not my disk and I really don't want to have to buy a new one. Or worse, start over.

[Rhion]

Even though you buffed the hell out of it, you could have still lost data.

It sounds like the disc is at fault if other games work. Your saves should be nice and safe on the memory card though. Can you try the KH2 disc in another ps2? If you don't know anyone with a ps2 you could try rental/game stores.

[jedimaster91]

I'll have to try that anyway. The console itself may be borked now. Mr Jedi's trying to fix it, but I dunno if it's even fixable.

[Kogarashi]

I'll second trying both disc and memory card in a different console if you can. If that doesn't work, maybe seek out a store with scratch removal services? They may be able to help where the home-done stuff doesn't work.

[Dreamstalker]

If the label-side of the disk is scratched, that could be the problem (data layer is closer to the surface on that face or so I've been told).

Radial scratches on the shiny side are fairly forgiving; circumferential(?) ones not so much.

[thansal]

As silly as it sounds:

What colour are all these disks?

Disclaimer, this is all old info I'm pulling off the top of my head, it might be different for Slims, and I might just be off my rocker:

The PS2 has 3 different types of disks it can read (IIRC): DVDs, Blue DVDs, and Black DVDs. Each one of these has a slightly different ideal focusing distance for the laser, and it's not uncommon for a system to stop being able to read one or more types (IIRC, it's either black or blue that tend to fail most often, I think black).

Fixing a laser that's out of whack isn't that hard, just time consuming and fiddly. Unfortunately, I can't find a really good guide atm, however there were a couple on youtube that looked promising (no sound at work, so I'm not checking those).

The obvious quick test would be to nab your games and drag them over to a friend's PS2 and test them there, good luck!

[jedimaster91]

For awhile there it wasn't even turning on (note to self, that ribbon that connects to the power and eject buttons is kinda important and needs to be attatched), but Mr Jedi seems to have fixed that. Looks like I need to replace the game itself, which is much cheaper than getting a new system. Still, I was kinda looking forward to getting the slim version. Oh well.

Hopefully a new disk will fix the problem and it's not a memory card issue. If I have to start over after 25+ hours of game play (including that lame 5 hr tutorial) I think I might cry.

I forgot to mention in my OP, it's my sister's game disk. She has the slim version so I may hang on to the bad disk and see if her system will play it. I hear the slims have better lasers, so maybe there's hope.

[surreal20]

it's possible that there is an actual crack in it too, not just a scratch.

[lordlundar]

The PS2 has 3 different types of disks it can read (IIRC): DVDs, Blue DVDs, and Black DVDs. Each one of these has a slightly different ideal focusing distance for the laser, and it's not uncommon for a system to stop being able to read one or more types (IIRC, it's either black or blue that tend to fail most often, I think black).

Your info's a little off. The three types are DVDs, PS2 CDs (blue) and PSX CDs (black) The ones that were having the issue were the PS2 Cds because the drive has to spin at an odd rate which older systems had problems with. The PSX enhancements sometimes have the same issue.

[ShadowBall]

I have the big clunker PS2 and a "borrowed that I forgot to return" slim PS2 from my BF. The big clunker has been acting up, only playing certain games (does not like DDRMax2), taking about five minutes or so to play goddamn KH1 cut scenes and totally glitching/resetting itself in other games. Piece of shit...and I haven't even dropped it (but if it doesn't behave, it's going to take a ride down the stairs).

Some of my games were bought used and have a few nicks here and there, but nothing that would kill the games since they played fine in the POS clunker. The slim one plays everything just fine.

So if the disk is acting up, you can just get a new one since everything will be on a memory card. Sometimes the memory card gets fucked too - my DDR EXtreme game decided to delete everything and never save anything ever again. In any case, BF may not be getting his PS2 back anytime soon, meaning the one he borrowed from his friend will likely not be returned anytime soon either.

[thansal]

Your info's a little off. The three types are DVDs, PS2 CDs (blue) and PSX CDs (black) The ones that were having the issue were the PS2 Cds because the drive has to spin at an odd rate which older systems had problems with. The PSX enhancements sometimes have the same issue.

That's interesting, I didn't know it was a drive spin thing. The guides I had all seen were about adjusting the laser's distance from the disk.

[Fire_on_High]

I've got one of the older chunky units that refuses to read the blues, and likes everything else just fine. Some games seem to have been released in multiple versions...the Tekken Tag I bought with it had to be returned, but later on I saw another copy so cheap I bought it just on the offchance, and it actually works perfectly, tho it looks a lot grottier than the first.