My PS2 first showed signs of wear about a year ago, when it refused to play my old PSX games, unless they were in absolute mint condition. Only after ten minutes' thorough cleaning would it read discs, and sometimes, nothing would help it. Still, I dusted off my old PSX, and shrugged it off as a mild inconvenience.
Eight months or so later, it began to have problems reading any disc. It took a period of over a minute to begin reading anything, and before I realized this, I thought it had packed up altogether. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
Soon afterward, it stopped reading DVD's or music CD's. Much like with my PSX games, the disc must be well cleaned before the PS2 will accept it. A single flaw on the surface will render it useless.
Now, the final straw. I brought home Disgaea: Hour of Darkness today, delighted after having waited for a PAL release for months. I place it in the disc tray, and...nothing. Absolutely nothing. I try again. No reaction. The machine makes a few clicks, a few worrying whirrs, and then announces that there is a 'disc read error'. No amount of tinkering seems to be able to solve this, and so I test another game: Soul Calibur II. It works perfectly. FFX? No problem. Gran Turismo 3? Absolutely fine.
But then, what's this? Pro Evolution Soccer doesn't work. In fact, it produces an effect identical to tat of Disgaea, right down to the pathetic noises that the PS2 makes. What do they have in common? Aha! They're both blue discs!
So, it's come to this. My PS2 no longer plays PSX games, DVDs, Music CD's, or blue discs. Wonderful. Absolutely bloody wonderful. Sony sure know how to build their consoles.
Has anyone had a similar experience with their PS2? What was the solution? (Help with the blue discs would be especially appreciated, as I'm dying to play Disgaea.) What about other consoles that you own?
