New Member, new help request!

[cleeg]

Hello, I'm having one very specific problem and can't seem to find the answer on this, or any other forum. I'll be as specific as I can, and apologise if this HAS been covered elsewhere. It's my first post, and it's an annoying help request I'm afraid...

My setup is a Fat PAL PS2, SCPH30003 with a busted laser. It has freeMcBoot installed, with HDLoader 0.8c, and OPL 0.8 amongst other apps. I play all my games via internal HDD connected with an ethernet adapter (Maxtor Diamond Max 120GB) I formattted the HDD with WinHIIP (full format) originally.

I play all my games via OPL, and only one via HDL (eyetoy play 2) so am very familiar with all the settings, how to install titles, manage my HDD etc...

The one game I am having major traumas with is PAL Burnout 3 Takedown (SLES_525.84). Every time I get past all the intro splash screens and opening video the title screen hangs and won't let me go any further. I have read about and tried running via HDL with MODE 3 enabled with no joy. OPL with any options tried won't run the game either.

I have acquired my nephew's Fat PAL PS2, SCPH 39003 which reads discs excellently, so I tried the actual game disc in this and got past the title screen once, loaded a profile and tried to start a game, when it froze (urrgh!)

I cleaned the disc, which had light scratches only (using my own tried and tested method of Brasso metal polish and a drill bit cleaner I made which ALWAYS works with discs), hoovered out the PS2 and tried again - now I get the same problems as I do when running the game via HDD as above. It hangs after the intro screen, and I can hear the lens unit moving back and forth and generally struggling.

I decided to use the ESR route, I had massive problems isolating the ISO - any program (all free, I'm a tight arse) I tried would get 2/3 through copying and give up. Eventually I discovered I could get the ISO from the HDD via WinHIIP. I patched it with ESR disc patcher GUI v0.24a, first tried a Memorex DVD+RW which would be detected by ESR correctly, but not load past the GUI (black screen).

I did the same again, but with a cheap no brand DVD+R, and the game loaded well and read without difficulty but froze up as above after the intro, without the lens making any kind of struggling noises this time.

So: I'm thinking I have a bad original disc in the first place, is this likely to be the problem? I'm thinking this because every option I try results in exactly the same problem, so it seems logical to me that the difficulties I'm having are coming from the actual disc.

I'm going to try a new bought copy of the game next, but before shelling out I'd appreciate any help from those more knowledgable than I, to see if there's a problem with my process as outlined above.

Apologies for the length of this post, but I'm trying to be specific and not miss anything out, and if it's been covered before then I'm sorry for that too.

Many thanks for reading, and all the best.

[RandQalan]

To me at least you tried everything possible to get it to run and no joy
So your explanation leads me to the same conclusion that the original DVD has something wrong with it
Sorry to hear that you can't get it to run
But if you do get another make iso and store the original so that will not happen again

[cleeg]

Thanks for the reply, it's appreciated. Is it common to have a bad original pressing, WinHIIP read the disc with no problems at all so it seems funny to me, even though I can't think of any other problem it could be at the moment. Any more seconds on this before I cough up more money would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea how to go about downloading ISOs for PS2 so that wouldn't be an option for me (just in case anyone suggests it!).

Cheers all.

[RandQalan]

It is not common but can happen and if somehow the scratches that you mentioned were over major data to run it could be the cause too

[spud42]

I noticed you have used +r and +rw disks. you may have better luck with a -r disk. i would stay away from rw be they + or - .

for +r disks you need to set the "booktype" to ROM if you do a search on booktype i am sure you will find quite a few references.

I have this game and it plays for me on HDLoader and OPL .

[cleeg]

I have this game and it plays for me on HDLoader and OPL .

Thanks for the reply, do you think it likely that I have managed to make a bad ISO? If that's the case I'll maybe have to try a new bought copy. Thanks for the tip with the DVD formats, I'll maybe give that a try next time I buy some discs. What versions of OPL and HDL are you using by the way?

[spud42]

i think the OPL is version r590. i compiled it from yoshi's ubuntu VM

[RandQalan]

Always one step behind spud42

Revision is at 611

[cleeg]

Thanks to all for the help with this, it's greatly appreciated. After reading all the posts I decided to go ahead and buy another copy (£3, bargain!). I installed it on OPL's internal HDD with WinHiip after the disc booted fine in my PS2 (I have since put a new laser in, as it was busted, the laser from my nephew's PS2 as in my original post. His wouldn't accept my HDD for some reason). IT WORKS in OPL0.8 with no modes selected and all default disc reading settings. VMC and IGR also work. It must have been a bad original copy.

Many thanks again, this game's ace!

[versatileninja]

How do you detect a bad original copy? I didn't know original copies can be bad.