PS2 Serious Laser Issues (SCPH-39003)

flanylla

flanylla

Forum Noob
Hello all,

I'm 17 years old and jobless, so buying a new laser set is not an option - and that aside, the 39003/v7 lasers aren't on eBay at all aside from international sellers, which cost more than buying another console from the UK.

Basically it'll read normal DVD games, and nothing else. Won't even read for a second on DVD9 games such as GT4 and Tourist Trophy, and on anything else it just comes up disc read error after clicking for about half a minute and trying to spin the disc.

My PS2 is horizontal, not vertical. It is a SCPH-39003 that is unmodded and I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Any way of adjusting and/or any ways to clean the laser unit so that it can at least read somewhat games again?

Thanks for any support
 
You can clean the lens with cotton ear sticks (also named q-tips?) and isopropil alcohol
One tip of the stick needs to be a bit wet with alcohol (to cleanup the dust).... and the other tip dry without alcohol (to polish and remove the alcohol residues)

Before doing that i "customize" a bit the cotton at the tips of the stick with my nails to make some kind of circular (and plane) surfaces

The fisrt time you touch the lens with the stick you will realize is like "levitating" (literally) in a magnetic field... and is only grabbed by 4 very thin copper wires (are named the coils)
If you bend that wires (permanently) you have ruined it... so... dont push the lens too much

The movement you need to do when cleaning the lens needs to be made veeeeeery carefully, with the stick always located in the vertical of the lens, and rotating it (a bit like if it where a screwdriver)

Couple of rotations with the side of the stick wet with alcohol... then few more rotation with the other side to polish the surface
After that take a magnifyer glass and verify that he surface is shiny
If is shiny... the work is completed successfully
If not... repeat
 
Last edited:
What? A 39000 with laser issues? Thats new, specialy since these models are bulletproof, try cleaning the laser, i didnt once on a 39004 and it worked, previously it didnt read any type of discs (CDs/DVD5/DVD9).
 
Okay, since I'm no good at handling things I'll get my dad to do it, he said he would since he has some alcohol wipes (he said they'd be more effective: he works with boilers and all sorts since years so he's pretty experienced with taking and cleaning things) ^^

Thanks for the assistance!
 
Alternatively, you can run your favourite PS2 games without the disc by using its HDD/network adapter and it requires FMCB memcard mod to work.
 
The SCPH-39000 series would be approximately 17 this year. It will have part wear.

If you ever decide to buy a replacement, do note the original part number because this model can be fitted with either the KHS-400C or the SF-HD7.

Other than cleaning, you could enable the diagnosis option in the browser. That will enable some automatic adjustment, to allow the hardware to read discs better.
 
flanylla said:
Okay, since I'm no good at handling things I'll get my dad to do it, he said he would since he has some alcohol wipes (he said they'd be more effective: he works with boilers and all sorts since years so he's pretty experienced with taking and cleaning things) ^^

Thanks for the assistance!
Click to expand...
Using cotton sticks is much better than alcohol wipes, i made it many times
The only thing that initially could sound a bit weird is what i mentioned about "customizing" the cotton with the nails, i made a drawing to explain it
O8K0fS7.png


The point is... the surface of the lens is spherical, so you need to create an inverted "plate" with the cotton at both sides of the stick. This way your stick will adapt very well with the lens surface
If you create that "inverted plate" with the cotton very well usually the lens is cleaned very fast, with 1 rotation of the stick is enought

You just need to push the lens down a bit very gently, rotate the stick one time, at this point is when you need to look at the lens with a magnifyer glass to know if is needed to continue
If the only thing left are residues of the alcohol you flip the stick and make another rotation with the dry side (to polish) and work finished

I dont like the idea of the alcohol wipes because maybe contains some "substances" that we dont need (like parfums or any stuff used in cosmetics). Is better to use pure alcohol
And the cotton of the sticks is a lot more softness than the wipes



-----------------------
Btw, there is other way to improve the power of the laser, by "opening" the potentiometers, looks like 2 small screws and you can regulate them with an screwdriver
But this requires a long explaination, and keep in mind some concepts:
1) the potentiometers are regulated with expensive electronics equipment that we dont have... so any kind of "home made" regulation is bad by definition because is imposible to achieve the same accuracy than making it with the correct equipment (an osciloscope)

2) opening the potentiometers is the same than increasing the amount of water that passes inside a damaged pipe... it works but the pipe is going to degrade exponentially (way faster than before), so you are shorting his life... but considering the pipe was already damaged yeahhh is fine to do it :D

3) if you open them too much the pipe explodes (game over, insert coin)
 
Well at least you don't call them bloody Q-tips that word annoys me lol

Anyway: I will have to tell him to do that; and reference this thread as a result :) - hopefully will be sorted sometime soon
 
your ps2 is a Fat model so try to find a network adapter and an HDD and install games using WinHip the hdd speed is really really good :)
 
Hehe is because i never seen that brand so the name is not catchy for me, also i always named them "cotton ear sticks"

Btw dont touch the potentiometers i mentioned (even if you find a tutorial), there is a critical thing needed to do before touching them and usually is not mentioned in the tutorials

In short... is needed to meassure the original values of them (and take note about it somewhere)... this allows you to "return back" to the original values
 
Also make sure that you do not use the wrong alcohol or substance, because some of them could potentially destroy the lens!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back
Top