PS2 slim is getting slow in its old age

Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice. My PS2 slim is approximately 5 years old. I hadn't played it in a while, but yesterday I was playing Bully (a relatively recent PS2 game), and I noticed that it was taking pretty long too load. Does anyone know why that might be? I think it might be dirty, so would that slow it down? Any suggestions on how to clean it?

Thanks for the help! That PS2 is my gaming life as it plays nearly all of the games that I love.

It could be a number of things. The most likely causes would be either a dirty disc or a dirty/misaligned laser, all of which are pretty straightforward to fix.

It could also be a third party memory card if by load you mean loading a saved game. And if you have a third party memory card. :p