The Slim PS2 model is the worst console I have ever owned.

[RobotVM]

I never really got into the PS2 when it first releases back in the day. Recently I decided to pick one up to play Persona 3 and a few other Atlus games. When looking for the model I wanted I decided on the PS2 Slim model because of how nice it looked compared to the original model. So I looked online and found the best condition one I could find. When it came in it would not read games. I looked online and found that the laser may need to be cleaned so I used some alcohol and cleaned the lens. After doing so it would read a few games but not all of them. I decided to return it to the seller.
I found another one and the seller tested it and found it worked. I got this one in and put in my brand new copy of Person 3. After a few hours of playing, I proceeded to remove the disc and I found a deep circular scratch on the outer part of the disc. After doing research it turns out that this is a known issue with the Slim PS2. The laser ribbon cable over time loses it's adhesive and when the laser moves towards the outer position the ribbon bulges up and touches the disc causes the circular scratching. Sony really did a shitting job trying to cram a PS2 into a slimmer case. TIL: PS2 Slims are prone to have broken lasers and can scratch discs.

 

[andymcc]

Yeah, they had a high defect rate when they came out too. I went through three in the first year.

 

[CatDoggo]

I have to agree. The original PS2 I had back in the day stayed in working order way longer and with less issues than the Slim I eventually replaced it with did.

 

[ThatsMyTrunks]

I recommend looking into Free McBoot and PS2 homebrew to find your way around this problem. With Free McBoot you'll be able to play games off a thumbdrive, despite the disc drive being dead.

 

[Deleted member 32374]

YMMV, I had a sliver one that I traveled with and I loved it. Bought is second hand in 09 I believe, had it for few years. No issues.

 

[Huey]

Damn.

My OG PS2 that I bought in launch year is still working *knocks head* I was actually thinking about buying a slim recently, so maybe I'll hold off. Fuck, I wish Sony would implement a proper BC solution.

 

[Duo VII]

If I don't want my PS2 slim to suffer a similar fate, I'd have to open it and reapply a better glue to the lens?

 

[Alberto Robert]

Yep, original PS2 is still the GOAT. Also, im pretty sure the earlier models of the Slim PS2 overheated quite easily.

 

[LegendofLex]

tbh the real reason PS2 sold so well was the high replacement rate

Spoiler

/s

I went through 3 PS2s and 2 GameCubes. Build quality really sucked that generation.

 

[Afrikan]

Weird... I've had mine for yeeeears. Took it back to Africa, since it's so small... played NFL 2K down there....and other games. And worked fine.

Loved mine... one of the best trade in deals at Gamestop. Phat PS2 + $100 at launch I believe.

 

[CanUKlehead]

I bought a Slimmie cause my fat PS2 broke...only for the fat to boot up again a few months later.

Haven't had the same problem as OP but then again, I mostly have that Slim as a showpiece. Probably my fave-looking console.

 

[RobotVM]

If I don't want my PS2 slim to suffer a similar fate, I'd have to open it and reapply a better glue to the lens?

Click to shrink...

they sell replacement ribbon cables on eBay. I would buy one there. Just be careful not to break the piece that holds the cable on the laser like i did... Also, make sure when you turn your ps2 off to move the laser foward. It is when it stays back it causes the ribbon cable to bulge and the glue starts to give out.

 

[lasthope106]

Nah. I had one that was dropped from quite a high and it still going.

 

[Psrock1]

It couldn't play God of war on it for some reason

 

[shadow_shogun]

Weird... I've had mine for yeeeears. Took it back to Africa, since it's so small... played NFL 2K down there....and other games. And worked fine.

Loved mine... one of the best trade in deals at Gamestop. Phat PS2 + $100 at launch I believe.

Click to shrink...

Same here expect I brought mine with me from Nigerian. It's still in great condition after 13 years and I don't recalling ever having issues with it like I did with the OG PS2.

 

[Fafalada]

Did you have the one with external or internal PS? I thought the latter was supposed to have the best build quality...
Anyway I had great experience with mine (minus the thing threatening to bring down the entire building with vibrations if you played a CD game on it) but sadly that lasted only until it got stolen during a move :(

I sometimes think about chasing one down - but the lack of USB2 bugs me, I don't want to use optical-disc to play games anymore.

 

[Polk]

I recommend looking into Free McBoot and PS2 homebrew to find your way around this problem. With Free McBoot you'll be able to play games off a thumbdrive, despite the disc drive being dead.

Click to shrink...

Isn't it very slow though? AFAIR it's only USB 1.1

 

[Sonicfan059]

Never heard of this nor have had any problems with mine.

 

[julia crawford]

Clearly you've never had a Casio Loopy.

 

[Hint]

I must be an outlier here... My launch day PS2 has to be the worst console I have owned, longevity-wise. It was giving me disk read errors after only like 2 years of owning it. Since then, I have owned two Slim PS2s independent of each other and never had an issue with either of them. All other consoles I've had in my life have never given me any problems either, besides a 360 that RRoD'd after maybe 4 years.

 

[RobotVM]

Did you have the one with external or internal PS? I thought the latter was supposed to have the best build quality...
Anyway I had great experience with mine (minus the thing threatening to bring down the entire building with vibrations if you played a CD game on it) but sadly that lasted only until it got stolen during a move :(

I sometimes think about chasing one down - but the lack of USB2 bugs me, I don't want to use optical-disc to play games anymore.

Click to shrink...

It is the one with the external power supply. The 7000 model. From what I understand the 9000 model fixed a lot of issues but instead of ps1 hardware emulation it does software emulation which can cause some ps2 games to run at a slightly lower framerate. This is due to some of the ps2 games using the ps1 hardware as additional processing power.

 

[Brunire]

I kid you not, my PS2 slim died because my friend shocked it when trying to turn it on. Dude really drags his feet, but come on PS2!

 

[Deleted member 12352]

Ha... Mine still works great more than a decade later. Was using it a few months back to try and finally finish Wild Arms 4, but damn the picture quality on modern TVs is straight ass so I didn't get very far.

Had two OG models go tits up on me before getting this one though. Plus, if you're only buying long out of production hardware recently on the secondhand market, you're seriously rolling the dice.

It's not exactly ideal either, but another idea is just getting a cheap PS3 and buying the digital versions of those Atlus PS2 games (I'm under the impression a lot of them are on the US PSN Store anyways.) would at least save you from dealing with any potential disc drive issues.

 

[ApeEscaper]

Unlucky. I still have a working well slim PS2 here

 

[Taco_Human]

My OG fat ps2 still rocking games nicely.

 

[Deleted member 8752]

Bought mine new in the last production run of North American PS2 slims back in 2013 if I remember correctly. Mine is still running flawlessly, but I'm sure as the very last production run it was a very reliable hardware unit.

It's not really fair to judge the quality of a console based on buying it second hand. You have no clue how the previous owner treated it.

 

[RobotVM]

Ha... Mine still works great more than a decade later. Was using it a few months back to try and finally finish Wild Arms 4, but damn the picture quality on modern TVs is straight ass so I didn't get very far.

Had two OG models go tits up on me before getting this one though. Plus, if you're only buying long out of production hardware recently on the secondhand market, you're seriously rolling the dice.

It's not exactly ideal either, but another idea is just getting a cheap PS3 and buying the digital versions of those Atlus PS2 games (I'm under the impression a lot of them are on the US PSN Store anyways.) would at least save you from dealing with any potential disc drive issues.

Click to shrink...

Picture quality is really good if you buy the HD retrovision Component cables off Amazon. I did that and run it through my OSSC, image quality is really nice. I tried it directly through my TV as well it looks good.

 

[Oneself]

Both my launch day phat and slim are still working fine. :| Knocking on wood!

 

[Unseen]

Yep, the ribbon cable's a real pain. Recently I figured my PS2 Slim has the same issue. I gently pushed the ribbon back down, but I'm not confident to place a single disc in it until I figure some MacGyver solution to prevent the problem recurring.

 

[RobotVM]

Yep, the ribbon cable's a real pain. Recently I figured my PS2 Slim has the same issue. I gently pushed the ribbon back down, but I'm not confident to place a single disc in it until I figure some MacGyver solution to prevent the problem recurring.

Click to shrink...

Buy the 4.00 replacement off eBay. I tried pushing it down and it didn't fix the issue. If you must try a disc buy an old DVD and try that.

 

[Deleted member 12352]

Picture quality is really good if you buy the HD retrovision Component cables off Amazon. I did that and run it through my OSSC, image quality is really nice. I tried it directly through my TV as well it looks good.

Click to shrink...

Really? Hadn't heard of those, but I'll look into them. Cheers for the suggestion.

 

[LewieP]

I recommend looking into Free McBoot and PS2 homebrew to find your way around this problem. With Free McBoot you'll be able to play games off a thumbdrive, despite the disc drive being dead.

Click to shrink...

Sadly on a slim you're going to have to use USB which had a slow read rate, whereas you can use HDD on a phat model, for much faster load times.

 

[AlexBasch]

I recommend looking into Free McBoot and PS2 homebrew to find your way around this problem. With Free McBoot you'll be able to play games off a thumbdrive, despite the disc drive being dead.

Click to shrink...

Free MCBoot was a life saver when I bought P4 back in the day. The laser just went dead one day and I was stuck for weeks because of that. It was a true blessing when it released.

 

[plausible unnatural]

I used to have 2 fat PS2s, all of them stopped reading discs at some point. I believe it was a common issue.

 

[davidnolan13]

My launch ps2 gave me disk read errors out the box. My replacement went within a just a few month before the slim came out. Never had any problems after I got my slim.
2 launch consoles I've ever bought day 1 have had issues out the box.

 

[nachum00]

I bought a used OG PS2 all the way back in 2003 and I still regularly use it to this day.

Just last week I was worried I needed to replace it because it stopped reading games. But I smacked it a few times and it's working fine for the moment.

 

[Deleted member 2102]

Isn't it very slow though? AFAIR it's only USB 1.1

Click to shrink...

It is, yes. USB's the worst option for running backups. On a slim PS2, your best bet is SMB over ethernet. There are compatibility issues with it, though, so it's not perfect. Definitely take a look online to see if a game requires any specific settings, or has FMV lag. If the speed fluctuates, it can cause issues as well.

The best option for running backups is an HDD/SSD with the fat model PS2. You can run some adapters to use a SATA drive instead of IDE, which gets rid of the one bottleneck with that method. It's how I play everything now, as even the fat models are prone to the disc drives going bad. Just rip the disc to my computer, then hook up the drive to transfer over the image. I use an SSD because it's what I had lying around, but it's a bit overkill and only really worth it to cut back on moving parts. Any 7200RPM, 2.5" SATA (2.5" due to the adapters taking up space) will work great.

 

[SoulBrothaNum2]

My parents got really tired of buying me new PS2s.

"Disk Read Error" was a plague. I eventually learned how to dismantle and completely clean a PS2. lol worst build for a console I've ever came across (that includes Red Ring of Death). My PS2 Slim is still chugging along. never had an issue.

 

[Fafalada]

It is the one with the external power supply. The 7000 model.

Click to shrink...

Thanks - will keep that in mind if I ever chase one down, I'll stick with 9000 series or the Fats then.

From what I understand the 9000 model fixed a lot of issues but instead of ps1 hardware emulation it does software emulation which can cause some ps2 games to run at a slightly lower framerate.

Click to shrink...

Nah - the emulation was changed since 7000 series. They ditched PS1 CPU and replaced it with a PowerPC (that runs an emulator for both PS1 and PS2 I/O CPU from that point). It didn't have a real effect on performance (again, only I/O and Audio processing, nothing that would directly impact PS2 games), but depending on what it's doing it CAN be both faster and slower than original chip was, so I think there are around 30 games total on the system (between PS2 and PS1 games) that had compatibility issues as result (like random crashes on memory-card access etc).

Isn't it very slow though? AFAIR it's only USB 1.1

Click to shrink...

USB 1.1 transfer is about 1/3rd of the peak DVD speed, but without the seek-penalties, so on average it's probably around 60-70% of the DVD speeds. But yea, much as I'd like a PS2 with Flash-Drive, it feels just a bit on the slow side to go that way :(

 

[Afro]

I remember the power supply heating up to like 6,000 degrees F.

 

[Wonderbrah]

I bought the latest version right before they stopped producing them 5 or 6 years ago for $50 and i've never had an issue with it.

 

[Swiggins]

My launch PS2 STILL fucking works.

Why the changed the design I'll never know, the originals were fucking tanks.

 

[Aswitch]

Damn.

My OG PS2 that I bought in launch year is still working *knocks head* I was actually thinking about buying a slim recently, so maybe I'll hold off. Fuck, I wish Sony would implement a proper BC solution.

Click to shrink...

My thoughts exactly! I still have my ol' reliable Launch PS2 since i was a kid and is still working to this day! It can no longer play blue discs(Oni is the one game i can only think of at the top of my head), but other than that, still solid. It just makes me appreciate the console even more. I'll prob still pick up a ps2 slim at some point though with this in mind. I'll prob try modding it to get some of that longevity out of it.

 

[Pyro]

Wow I had no idea the slim had these issues.

I loved mine back in the day because I got it cheap after the then next-gen consoles came out and caught up on all the games I had missed out on.

Perhaps because I only played the games once for just 2 years is why I never ran into this stuff.

 

[boontobias]

Had my ps2 slim for a good 8 years. No issues. My gamecube for longer. Maybe their parts have been replaced but this thread is confusing

 

[Soulstar]

My PS2 slim worked for years. I haven't used it in a while so I don't know if it works now though.

 

[The Iron Banana]

The slim was almost too good to be true. It's amazing to this day how much they reduced the footprint of the original PS2. I never had one, deciding to stick with my original launch system. I miss that thing sometimes. Those were some good times.

 

[Themaddestgamer]

I went through two of them in the first year. Third one lasted a long time though.

Great games and first taste of online gaming in socom.

 

[Teh_Lurv]

The PS2 Slims also have an issue where the "door closed" button can wear out over time, which will keep the console from spinning up the disc. Padding the plastic prong on the CD drive hinge with tape or putting a heavy object on top of the console can workaround this issue.

 

[BocoDragon]

You found two defective units OP. They're generally pretty reliable. I bought a chipped one used some years back, and it still works like a champ.

I have both a PS2 phat and PS2 slim, actually. They're both great designs, but early phats are the defective ones.