all that sounds to me a weak laser trying to read disks and failing at various points... it's a classic symptom for old cd-based consoles, using backups only stresses the laser more and shortens it's lifespan

keropi wrote on 2021-07-26, 10:04:

all that sounds to me a weak laser trying to read disks and failing at various points... it's a classic symptom for old cd-based consoles, using backups only stresses the laser more and shortens it's lifespan

Doesn't happen to all the games. Like in San Andreas, the fmvs play at full speed and the game renders fine without stutters while flying very fast with cheats. I could do with not playing these 2 as I have them on PC, but is it still safe to play backed up San Andreas. I still have a original copy of Ferrari Challenge that hasn't posed problems.

not all burned disks are the same so that can explain things
the best solution would be some kind of HDD loader

keropi wrote on 2021-07-26, 10:56:

not all burned disks are the same so that can explain things
the best solution would be some kind of HDD loader

I have an old Toshiba HDD lying around but even if I install it I think I will need FreeMCBoot and OPL, and I heard both or either is incompatible with SCPH-90XXX series consoles, thus I am have to look for alternatives. Absolute pain!

Yeah... 90xxxx are slim models right? Do not waste time with slim models and HDDs, you need the fat one and the network adapter to have it work ok

keropi wrote on 2021-07-26, 15:39:

Yeah... 90xxxx are slim models right? Do not waste time with slim models and HDDs, you need the fat one and the network adapter to have it work ok

Meanwhile on booting it shows Infinity 1.93. I guess that's some modchip. How will USB fare ? And can this model install fmcb or opl or anything that it requires.

usb will be horrible do not waste your time using it...
and yes it is a modded console

keropi wrote on 2021-07-26, 21:10:

usb will be horrible do not waste your time using it...
and yes it is a modded console

I think I will continue with DVD that I have to burn personally or buy. Meanwhile 2 video CD and DVD that I tried got recognised but didn't play. They work completely fine on my main PC, is there anything firmware dependant or update dependant there?

hmm, it should just work provided the drive can read the disks
here is the modchip instructions, there is also a boot menu and boot shortcuts
https://www.shop01media.com/image/data/files/ … ration%20v1.pdf

keropi wrote on 2021-07-27, 12:05:

hmm, it should just work provided the drive can read the disks
here is the modchip instructions, there is also a boot menu and boot shortcuts
https://www.shop01media.com/image/data/files/ … ration%20v1.pdf

The drive reads half of all the game disks I have properly. It at least doesn't mean the laser is dead, however it can't boot the DVD and the CD video. I will use an older DVD and CD, circa 2004 and see if that works.

You can use freemcboot on a slim PS2, and can choose to place your games either on a USB stick (inserted in one of the USB pots on the PS2) or NAS (connected to the LAN port on the PS2). USB is not recommended as it's too slow, but NAS is a very workable option. The NAS option will work with nearly anything—I've tried a shared folder on a Windows laptop, a Raspberry Pi with my ISOs stored on a USB stick (inserted into the Pi), and finally settled on a tiny "travel" router with my ISOs stored on a USB stick (inserted into the router). All worked perfectly fine.

I'd recommend setting up the travel router, personally. It can be powered from one of the USB ports on the PS2, starts up in seconds, and is safer to shutdown than the Raspberry Pi. The model I use is a TP-LINK TL-WR902AC. Very easy to setup.

newtmonkey wrote on 2021-07-28, 02:08:

You can use freemcboot on a slim PS2, and can choose to place your games either on a USB stick (inserted in one of the USB pots on the PS2) or NAS (connected to the LAN port on the PS2). USB is not recommended as it's too slow, but NAS is a very workable option. The NAS option will work with nearly anything—I've tried a shared folder on a Windows laptop, a Raspberry Pi with my ISOs stored on a USB stick (inserted into the Pi), and finally settled on a tiny "travel" router with my ISOs stored on a USB stick (inserted into the router). All worked perfectly fine.

I'd recommend setting up the travel router, personally. It can be powered from one of the USB ports on the PS2, starts up in seconds, and is safer to shutdown than the Raspberry Pi. The model I use is a TP-LINK TL-WR902AC. Very easy to setup.

NAS would be costly to purchase, additionally it is harder to get hold of these in my region, I would have to order somewhere online. Currently I don't need NAS for anything else so I think this purchase won't be much worthy, considering it can still read most game discs but doesn't read video CD/DVD.

What about a raspberry pi or a share on a laptop? It really does work with nearly everything.

I don't suggest buying a NAS in the conventional sense which is indeed pricey. By "NAS" here I mean "any computer or network device with a shared folder." Like I said, you could even connect any PC with a shared folder over the LAN port to accomplish this.

The problem with PS2 hardware, especially the slim PS2 in my experience, is that the drive quickly deteriorates once it starts having trouble.

I am not suggesting to go and spend a lot of money on a solution, but you might already have the hardware you need to resolve this (either a raspberry pi, laptop, or whatever). It's worth looking into. If not, you really have no other choice but to hope your PS2 doesn't get worse.

newtmonkey wrote on 2021-07-28, 18:21:

What about a raspberry pi or a share on a laptop? It really does work with nearly everything. […]
Show full quote

What about a raspberry pi or a share on a laptop? It really does work with nearly everything.

I don't suggest buying a NAS in the conventional sense which is indeed pricey. By "NAS" here I mean "any computer or network device with a shared folder." Like I said, you could even connect any PC with a shared folder over the LAN port to accomplish this.

The problem with PS2 hardware, especially the slim PS2 in my experience, is that the drive quickly deteriorates once it starts having trouble.

I am not suggesting to go and spend a lot of money on a solution, but you might already have the hardware you need to resolve this (either a raspberry pi, laptop, or whatever). It's worth looking into. If not, you really have no other choice but to hope your PS2 doesn't get worse.

I will be buying a laptop next year, till then I will be on CD/DVD. Meanwhile I conducted some tests:

I converted Bully disc, which didn't load after intro; Black, which had video stuttering; NFS Carbon, which had texture streaming issues to bin/iso and when I loaded them up with PCSX2, I had 0 issues. Even the backup process of the DVDs had no errors and no retries.

Today I decided to burn a Frontech disc for Burnout 3 and it worked completely fine.

So what do you reckon from these results? Should I try playing the game from CD directly on PCSX2 and have some results?

The laser in your PS2 is going bad, and how that manifests itself varies with each disk. Whether your PC drive is able to rip those drives to an ISO is completely irrelevant.
Also if you have a PC with which to rip/burn discs, can't you share a folder on that to play games?

Oetker wrote on 2021-07-29, 13:27:

The laser in your PS2 is going bad, and how that manifests itself varies with each disk. Whether your PC drive is able to rip those drives to an ISO is completely irrelevant.
Also if you have a PC with which to rip/burn discs, can't you share a folder on that to play games?

The problem is with my location. I have to spread the wire across the whole floor consisting of multiple rooms, because my mounted TV and PC are on either ends of the floor level. It wouldn't bother me but the other family members