Symptoms of dying lens??

Recently my PS2 started having playback issues w/ some games. All games are backups on DVD(Ritek). So far noticed w/ Jak X racing and GT4.

Here's what it's doing:
- Games load and at any given time it may go to black screen, sometimes still has sound other times no sound. (No HDD)
- Games load and at any given time it may freeze during gameplay or menus w/ no sound. (No HDD)
- With HDD installed, I noticed that everytime game freezes or goes to black screen, HDD led (not PS2 HDD activity led) is on when it shouldn't be since I'm playing off DVD.

Other games play fine. Are these early signs of a dying lens? And yes I did Romeo fix.

Sounds oh so familiar. This is how things started with my ver4 ps2. Mine got progressively worse until it wouldn't play any dvd's (games or movies) it would only play psx games. So it was dumped in the attic for a year and we got a ver10. Until my pal told me about the exploit and hey presto, working ver4. I love this scene

But sometimes the laser isn't actually dying - it just needs adjusting try here for pointers http://arstechnica.com/articles/paed...ware/ps2.ars/1

I guess I'll try adjusting the lens. I'll be getting a bigger HDD just to be safe.

As long as you can run a psx game all is not lost. Just noticed yours is a v9, so not THAT old. Thats the trouble you can never tell how long the laser is gonna last. I have a pal who's still going strong with a v3. Hope you get it sorted.

Jak X and GT4 won't run off the HD unless you are using Toxic OS and GT4 needs a patch.

he isnt actually playing them of hd

Those 2 games I'm playing on DVD backups. Coincidentally, they're the only 2 that I've noticed freezing up. In any case I have HDL 7c which should play GT4.