Booting up ulaunch from CD/DVD problem.

[jjaweh]

My PS2 is the SCHP 30001 R. It's chip-modded and I can play homebrew/backup discs with no problem. I'm not sure what type of chip they used though. Are there chips that don't work well with ulaunch?

I've tried several lots of cd iso and dvd iso (even the ones stickied here) and burnt them directly using nero and dvd decrypter on 1x-4x speeds. Still no luck.

The dvd iso's I tried just sent me back to the ps2 browser screen, sometimes red screen ( "Please insert Playstation 2 disc blah blah" ), and not very often the screen just goes black then nothing happens.

The cd iso's weren't good either. I loaded them same way I loaded my ps1 games, by holding the reset button. I don't know any other way. Still won't boot up. The playstation 1 screen shows but without the PS logo (just the "Playstation" and the SCEA something). And gets stuck there.

I really want to make this thing work mainly to play games from the HDD. So please guys. This is getting a bit frustrating.

Any response will be greatly appreciated.

Great forum BTW.

[SP193]

What version of uLaunchElf were you using? The latest (as I know of) version is v4.42. The older versions had many bugs, so the use of them is generally discouraged.

My PS2 is the SCHP 30001 R. It's chip-modded and I can play homebrew/backup discs with no problem. I'm not sure what type of chip they used though. Are there chips that don't work well with ulaunch?

If your mod-chip is working, then you should not have a problem launching homebrew.

I have not heard of any incompatible mod-chips yet, but maybe some of the more experienced members/uLE devs can verify this.

I've tried several lots of cd iso and dvd iso (even the ones stickied here) and burnt them directly using nero and dvd decrypter on 1x-4x speeds. Still no luck.

Older FAT PS2s are picky - They may accept some brands of discs, and not another. This is also true for different products made by the same manufacturer (E.g. there were reports of verbatim CD-Rs not working with early PS2s, but the DVD-Rs are generally strongly recommended).

Can you please state the brands you've tried?

I loaded them same way I loaded my ps1 games, by holding the reset button. I don't know any other way. Still won't boot up. The playstation 1 screen shows but without the PS logo (just the "Playstation" and the SCEA something). And gets stuck there.

Don't do that! The CD ISOs are Playstation 2 CD-ROM images!! uLE is a PS2 program, and won't work when the PS2 is in PS1 mode (The garbled/missing SCEI/SCEE/SCEA text is caused by the PS2 being confused).

I really want to make this thing work mainly to play games from the HDD. So please guys. This is getting a bit frustrating.

uLE is unable to allow you to load/play commercial games from any other media except from the CD/DVD drive without external software.

BTW: Welcome to PSX-scene!

[dlanor]

My PS2 is the SCHP 30001 R. It's chip-modded and I can play homebrew/backup discs with no problem. I'm not sure what type of chip they used though. Are there chips that don't work well with ulaunch?

No. Not to my knowledge.

I've tried several lots of cd iso and dvd iso (even the ones stickied here) and burnt them directly using nero and dvd decrypter on 1x-4x speeds. Still no luck.

If you use modern high quality media, such as Verbatim, then you should not burn at the slowest speeds, since these high quality media were not designed for that. It is better to use a speed in the middle of the range the discs were designed for.

The dvd iso's I tried just sent me back to the ps2 browser screen, sometimes red screen ( "Please insert Playstation 2 disc blah blah" ), and not very often the screen just goes black then nothing happens.

This is typical for badly/wrongly burned discs, or low-quality media.
And of course it is also common for badly installed chips, but since yours does work for booting normal PS2 game backups, it should also work for burned bootable homebrew discs.

The cd iso's weren't good either. I loaded them same way I loaded my ps1 games, by holding the reset button. I don't know any other way. Still won't boot up. The playstation 1 screen shows but without the PS logo (just the "Playstation" and the SCEA something). And gets stuck there.

This perfectly explains why you could not boot the uLaunchELF CD. Because even though it is on a CD, it is still a PS2 program, not a PS1 program, and it is only PS1 programs that can be booted with the console in PS1 mode.

A PS2 CD should be booted exactly like a PS2 DVD, but some 'stupid' modchips are unable to do that, since they 'fake' a DVD disc type indication whenever booting a disc in PS2 mode, and this makes it impossible to boot PS2 CDs. Note that this also means that original PS2 games released on CD are impossible to play on a console having one of these 'stupid' chips.

I really want to make this thing work mainly to play games from the HDD.

The only advice I can give you is what has always worked for me.

Get some real high quality DVD-R discs, such as the "Verbatim AZO 16X DVD-R" discs that I always use myself, and then get the uLaunchELF v4.38 DVD ISO available in the main release post of uLaunchELF.

Burn that ISO to one of those discs using ImgBurn at a speed setting around 8X (if your burner is good at that speed), and then boot this disc exactly as you would boot a burned PS2 game backup.

NB: ImgBurn is a direct descendant of "DVD Decrypter", still by the same author and still freeware. ImgBurn is newer and therefore a little better at generic burning with modern media and modern equipment. But "DVD Decrypter" is superior at ripping DVD-Videos, so there is good reason to have both programs installed, as neither one can fully replace the other.


Getting uLaunchELF (aka: uLE) to work is a good first step to making a lot of other homebrews work, since uLE can be used as a launch center for all of them, whether they are stored on MC, USB, or HDD. And for running backup games on HDD the best program available is OPL (== Open PS2 Loader) which you will find in another subforum close to the one for uLaunchELF.

Best regards: dlanor

[jjaweh]

Oh my. I never thought there would be that much difference between high-quality blank disks and the regular ones. I couldn't find any verbatim blank dvd-r's so I tried using sony brand. It works like a charm now.

First stage done. I'm going to make an exploited memory card with this then try backing up games to my HDD. Hope all goes well.

Thank you so much dlanor and SP193. I really really appreciate your fast responses.

See you on future threads.