okay so they wife and i sit down to watch a movie the other night. i pop the dvd into the ps2 and the picture is all squirly and jumping like(if you are old enough to remember) on an old tv where the horizontal and vertical hold is off. i thought it was the disc so i tried another but it was the same way. then i tried some game discs, dvd and cd ones. they acted the same way. i tried cleaning it but that didn't work either. the pic is even a little weird when the PS2 is just on the browser screen. i checked all of the connections even connected straight to the tv. nope didn't fix it. ran the vcr to make sure it wasn't the tv and the picture was fine and stable. the guy at the local store where i buy my games said the laser is probably wearing out or the mechanism that drives it is breaking. he was suprised mine was still working since i have one of the first ones and got it launch day. he said there were alot of problems with the first ones and some didn't work out of the box. anyone know if what he is saying is true or have any other ideas what might be wrong and if it is fixable?

bump! what is this? a conspiracy to not answer my cry for help?;)

my frind had the same problem. he waas one of the first people in line to buy the first ps2. sony has a free replacement on the older ps2, as long as the warranty seal has not been tampered, my freind opened his ps2 to clean the inside, it helped but he voided his warranty, he would have had a free replacement but they would not do it since it was opened. anyway check out the sony ps2 webpage there should be some info there about getting a free replacement.

hey thanks ibfubar that's great news. always the informative one you are!

I better watch out for that. I too bought mine on the relese date.

At least Sony will replace the defective part.:)

i ended up calling as i couldn't find the info on the site. they said it is $89 for service diagnostic and repair +$9 to ship it back to you. he didn't mention anything about the free replacement part. but i will ask once they have my console and call me with the dianostic. gotta ship it to a service center, the one for my area is in irvine, cali. luckily i can ship from work free of charge. 1-800-345-SONY

Originally posted by zoom44
okay so they wife and i sit down to watch a movie the other night. i pop the dvd into the ps2 and the picture is all squirly and jumping like(if you are old enough to remember) on an old tv where the horizontal and vertical hold is off. i thought it was the disc so i tried another but it was the same way. then i tried some game discs, dvd and cd ones. they acted the same way. i tried cleaning it but that didn't work either. the pic is even a little weird when the PS2 is just on the browser screen. i checked all of the connections even connected straight to the tv. nope didn't fix it. ran the vcr to make sure it wasn't the tv and the picture was fine and stable. the guy at the local store where i buy my games said the laser is probably wearing out or the mechanism that drives it is breaking. he was suprised mine was still working since i have one of the first ones and got it launch day. he said there were alot of problems with the first ones and some didn't work out of the box. anyone know if what he is saying is true or have any other ideas what might be wrong and if it is fixable?


Yep its true i worked for gamestop the amount of peopel that bitched and complained about there ps2s not working. i got my ps2 the first day and it started crapping out around 3 months agos. So i pooped it open and theres thease do spinny looking clock gears you fiddle around with and then it will work again. I have to do that every 2 months but it works. if u need any help i can give you a step 2 step process if needed.

Have you vacuumed the PS2 itself lately? Sometimes dust accumulates in the vents, causing my PS2 to have difficulty in playing a game or watching DVD. It happened a couple of times to me and when I vacuumed it, the PS2 was fine thereafter.