PS2 Problem with CDs but not DVDs

[Blyss]

I am wondering if anyone has ever experienced this problem. Due to my limited uh... fabrication ability I have my fat PS2 lid modded as such pictured in the attached image. As you can see with the top flipped open, the DVD drive's cover is removed and the disc is bound to the spindle with the... "cap thingy" which was liberated from the cover. This always worked fine til my old ps2 died and I had to get a new one. Popped the new cover off and the drive cover and just put the old top on it. The problem is that the "cap thingy" will not "stick" CDs to the spindle well. When the drive spins up with a CD in it, the CD "slips" between the cap and the spindle and become impossible to read. I imagine this would happen with the drive in stock form as well since the cap is only bound to the spindle and nothing else when the drive is in closed position. This happens with printed or burned CDs but neither printed nor burned DVDs and did not happen with my previous unit. I have both new and old spindle caps as well and neither will successfully attach a CD to the unit, initially I suspected the new unit's cap had a weak magnet. My question is has anyone else ever owned or experienced a PS2 with such a problem? The only remedy I have as of now is to tape the spindle cap to the CD before hitting the eject button to cause the ps2 to read it. This is annoying and probably not good for the unit I imagine. Any feedback would be appreciated.

[noetikos]

dang why did you vandalize your PS2 with all of that red stuff written on it also, it would really help us readers out if you could start breaking your post into smaller paragraphs to suffice for a better reading.

i think that your having problems because your flip-top lid is somehow crooked or misaligned (because of the way that you made it or the top case has a different fit on the console since it's a different model). you could use the older (original) spindle that you've used before to give a better grip on cd discs.

anyway, i have a more of a commercial flip-top lid installed on one of my consoles. i had to swap out the cheaply made plastic spindle with the original one in my case. the spindle serves as a sort of security check (from what i've heard before) and it keeps the disc from flying out like a weaponized Japanese star.

the best solution would be to go on ebay to buy a commercial flip-top lid.

[dlanor]

the best solution would be to go on ebay to buy a commercial flip-top lid.

I beg to differ. That may be the best solution for those who insist on continuing to use discswapping methods to run backups, but it is far from the best solution over all.

For users of a fat PS2 a far better solution has long been to run games through HDLoader instead, which is now effectively replaced by "Open PS2 Loader" for most users, since that is a project with very active development and support, and is a fully freeware project, unlike all the other game loaders which are 'dead' commercial projects. (Still sold, but not progressing.)

And with "Open PS2 Loader" (aka: OPL) there is no need for any other PS2 resource than the basic ability to launch a homebrew elf. You can then run game backups without using any CD or DVD discs, and without needing any internal storage device in the PS2 (apart from an MC).

Current public release of OPL supports game backups run either from USB drives or from a networked PC (using standard SMB filesharing), and the current beta versions also support use of an internal PS2 HDD (connected to Sony Network Adaptor), and that feature will be included in the next public release.

At present no other method than OPL can even begin to compete for the title of 'BEST' way of running backup games. There simply is no comparable competition...

The only competitor not obsoleted by OPL is ESR, since it offers a non-mod backup method not available in OPL, but ESR has the drawback of still requiring the use of a separate disc for each game as well as a fully functional DVD reader in the PS2.

IMO flip-top lids and related disc-swap methods are a thing of the past, no longer needed.
(Except perhaps as an emergency one-time method of installing FMCB or other exploit.)

Best regards: dlanor

[noetikos]

@dlanor:

without any doubt OPL or HDL are by far the best solutions to swap magic or cogswap.

i only assumed that it would best for him to get a commercial made flip-top lid if the user still insisted in using a flip-top lid (i think that this guy of those persons that doesn't like to spend any money since he made his own flip-top lid ). i would strongly advise him to go the extra mile and buy some kind of hdd to start running disc images instead of swapping for discs.

[dlanor]

i only assumed that it would best for him to get a commercial made flip-top lid if the user still insisted in using a flip-top lid (i think that this guy of those persons that doesn't like to spend any money since he made his own flip-top lid ).

Well, then the optimum setup for him to minimize new investments would be to get just the network adaptor, so as to run games through SMB filesharing from storage on a PC. I really don't see any real need for a PS2 HDD (I've almost completely stopped using mine).

It's what I do myself mostly, and even without the new SMB speed improvements that jimmi is working on, the SMB core of OPL is already much better than the USB core ever was. Even demanding games like FF12 play glitch-free in the main game sections with only minor catch-up pauses occasionally in the high-rez FMV movies. With the new improvements soon to come I believe it will match full PS2 DVD speed (as you may know, that speed is only 2X(DVD)).

Btw: What I said here should not be seen as any 'slur' against the other two OPL cores, as they work fine for what they are. But they both have their separate drawbacks. For the HDL core it is the inevitable tie to the HDL-specific game format, and its special install methods. And for the USB core the main drawback will always be the USB 1.1 hardware of the PS2. There is not much we can do about these limitations. So the SMB core will always offer greater speed than the USB core and greater flexibility in storage/install methods than the HDD core.

Best regards: dlanor

[Blyss]

Well, then the optimum setup for him to minimize new investments would be to get just the network adaptor, so as to run games through SMB filesharing from storage on a PC. I really don't see any real need for a PS2 HDD (I've almost completely stopped using mine).

It's what I do myself mostly, and even without the new SMB speed improvements that jimmi is working on, the SMB core of OPL is already much better than the USB core ever was. Even demanding games like FF12 play glitch-free in the main game sections with only minor catch-up pauses occasionally in the high-rez FMV movies. With the new improvements soon to come I believe it will match full PS2 DVD speed (as you may know, that speed is only 2X(DVD)).

Btw: What I said here should not be seen as any 'slur' against the other two OPL cores, as they work fine for what they are. But they both have their separate drawbacks. For the HDL core it is the inevitable tie to the HDL-specific game format, and its special install methods. And for the USB core the main drawback will always be the USB 1.1 hardware of the PS2. There is not much we can do about these limitations. So the SMB core will always offer greater speed than the USB core and greater flexibility in storage/install methods than the HDD core.

Best regards: dlanor

For the record, I own a defunct official PS2 HDD and Network adapter, that died in circumstances related to the death of my last PS2. I absolutely love HD Loader and while it might not seem like too great an investment to replace that hardware, without going into too much detail my financial situation is pretty harsh, and I'm more concerned about how I'm going to pay bills than that.

But to further my original question:
A) I've confirmed this does indeed happen with everything in stock condition, original lid, dvd cover etc.
B) Though I neglected to mention in the original post this is more of a concern for playing PSX games. I only own one single CD based PS2 game and I converted it to DVD anyway. (And unrelated, that game Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is pretty much unplayable even on DVD, I'm not sure HD Loader ever did more for a game than it did that one heh. If you are familiar with the game you know what I mean!)
C) I agree disc swapping is a thing of the past. But I made that lid and however amateur it might seem... I made it. A tomato always tastes better if I grew it in my own garden. I put effort into so I might as well use it heh.