[Pa-furry] a tech question

[Kyraeus]

I'm not the one who originally posted about working on PS2's, but in 
experience, that's usually tended to be a worn out motor/bad lens, or a 
combination of factors that cause it not to read the presence of a disc.

I'll try not to get too technical, but either way, there's a good guide 
here, if you decide to go mucking around in your PS2, or just want to see 
what's involved, in case you pay someone to do this for you. That way you 
can gauge if you're being ripped off. 
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/ps2.ars

Now, that said, noone can be sure of your problem until they see the PS2 
open, so take this with a grain of salt, also if anyone else has ideas, 
please let em fly, I'm an amateur in this.

Basically, if the problem is your lens or motor going bad/dead (as some of 
the PS2 units are pretty old, as far as console lifetimes go), you may want 
to consider a new/refurbished unit. For the price, wouldn't it just be 
better to have a whole new unit, rather than a beat-up old one with a new 
laser installed? I've seen parts on ebay, but the cost is prohibitive when 
you can get a refurb or someone else's old PS2 now with PS3 and XBox360 out 
for around $50-100.

The other possibility is that somehow the small gear adjusting the movement 
of the reading lens was moved. Located here: 
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/ps2.ars/3 , there is a part 
of the earlier guide related to this.  Note... where they mention using 
multiple games/etc to test this, they do it because the PS2 could actually 
run a number of different types of discs. From the black-colored games 
discs, to DVDs, to the blue ones, or regular silver bottom cds. I would try 
to test this with as many as possible when you do, just to make sure that if 
you DO have to monkey with this gear's position, it's reading everything 
properly.

Otherwise, I'd either see if you can sell the unit to someone who does 
repairs, and pick up a newer one, or see if you know anyone getting rid of 
theirs due to the new console wave.

In addition, I'm actually looking to purchase a working used unit myself 
cheap, if anyone's in the market to sell. lemme know.

Otherwise, hope this helps a bit, good luck!