Its been acting up lately. It dosnt play anything and gives me a “disk read error” message. What can I do to fix this (besides buy a new system).
Some form of lens cleaner?
where is this lenz located? Im not a tech savvy guy at all.
Sorry for being vague, what I meant was a cd/dvd lens cleaner. It looks like a regular cd/dvd you place it in the drive as normal but on the underside are a number of small brushes which clean the lens as the disk spins, It could just be the case that the lens is dirty hence, the disk read errors, for a few bucks its worth a shot…
thanks for the tip
your laser might be worn out
Well, I had the same problem lately. That’s a very well known PS2 - malfunction, but in almost all cases you can easily repair your Playstation. There is a 90% chance to get your PS2 back in business.
I have a pdf tutorial on my harddisk, but it’s only in german.
Here is the link --> http://v105159.dd1618.kasserver.com/tyrant/Playstation2LaserAnleitung.pdf
I could translate it, but I’m too lazy right now.
Well there are 2 possibilites to save your PS2’s life. The first one is to clean the dvd-harddrive and clean the lense. Watch the tutorial how to open the PS2, it’s really simple.
For the dust inside the Playstation, you can simply blow it away. For the lense you need to be very careful!! The lense is very sensitive, you need a q-tip , a piece of cotton wool (dabber) and nail polish remover. Imbue your q-tip with the nail polish remover (don’t take to much, only a little bit) and clean up the lense. You have to do this very carefully and with passion (rofl). After cleaning it up, take the dabber and go very slightly over the lense with it.
If this does not work, you have to try option number 2 (This is the way how it worked for my PS2).
You need to adjust the lense/laser new. When you open the dvd-player there is a white cogwheel above the lense. The cogwheel can be moved to the left and to the right and if you spin it 360 the lens is moving to it’s original position. I tried it and it didn’t work, I spinned the cogwheel a little bit more to the right, no reaction. I spinned it like 45 degrees and I heard the player is making better noises and after some minutes of spinning it only very slightly… tada… it worked. I adjusted my lens new.
My PS2 is now six years old and it works flawlessly again. It even boots my swap disc.
I really recommend you to take a look in the tutorial, it’s in german but the pictures are good. If you have any questions, ask me, I’m sure you can fix your PS2. There are a lot of people who made it this way. It took me about an hour to do it, because after you spin the cogwheel you always have to turn off the power and put the dvd-case back on the player.
And don’t forget to turn off the power and when you open the PS2 case, take care of the cable on the right side. You can disconnect the power cable, if you do it violently. So, no hectic, take your time adjust the lense and always turn off the power when you try to boot your discs. It’s annoying, but if you do everything right you will probably save your console. It’s really not difficult 
if you’ve had it for a while you might need to open it up and clean it
i had mine since launch and when i cleaned it (about a year ago), the lens was white from caked dust, and one of those CDs with the little brush didn’t work. I cleaned it with a wet q-tip and now it loads everything fine.
Thanks for all the tips. It sounds kinda complicated, but I’ll try to do what I can. I’ll post if I run into any problems.
The ps2 isn’t that hard to take apart. If you lens is worn out you should be able to get a new one online for about $20 depending on the model you have. It’s definetley a lot cheaper than buying a new ps2 or paying someone to fix it for you.
Sorry I don’t have any links on hand because I haven’t had to fix a ps2 for a while.
one best way to fix the disc read errors if you have trouble playing blue disc games is to put clear tape around near the hole of the disc then play it. don’t know why but i guess it realigns the laser or something.
So I opened up my ps2 and blew all the dust out and cleaned the lasser and cd spinny thing with alchohol and q-tip, but it didnt work. It seems my ps2 wont play anything besudes an Ab-Lounge dvd instruction video.
It makes a clicking noise and a fast whirling noise when it plays this ab-lounge dvd, and it wont play anything else. Is this problem not fixable? Keep in mind I have the old bulky ps2.
Try using this. I’ve probably fixed 10 PS2s by cleaning the lens and adjusting it.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about.
@ Lick me off, have you tried to adjust your lens?
For some reason my PS2 is rejecting official discs, DVD or PS2. Playing burned DVDs or games is no problem for some reason, but when I try to play an official DVD or boot an official game (not including my region games) it doesn’t read it properly. Any ideas what’s wrong?
I just bought these and my ps2 works like new.
Wow, replacement lasers? Where did you get them from and how much? Are they easy to install? Also any region issues?
Hellz yeah they are easy to istall the only thing u need to know is what verison ur ps2 is. Mine uses KHS-400C lasers. Each laser cost about 50$ I get them from my job.