Is it Hopeless? Water logged PS2

chanticlair281 · Post by **chanticlair281** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:47 pm

My nephew lived in Gulfport Mississippi when Katrina came through. They had evacuated but like everyone else thought that it would miss them or not do that much damage. My nephew did not pack his PS2 and their house flooded. They lost pretty much everything and have had a really hard time with FEMA and what not. Having found this site and reading all of the great tips on here I asked him to let me try and fix it for him. I really want something good to happen for him. He has had to relocate and change schools and stuff and I thought this might be a good way to make him see that something good can happen. However, I get it home and take it apart and I seriously start doubting if it is even worth it to try and salvage. I have some pictures that I will try and post to show you what I a up against. If any of you have any suggestions or parts I will be open to hearing them. Can someone point me to a link that tells what is essential and what is not. I would not be opposed to converting this to a portable if that is what it needs. I was thinking that I could put in a HardDrive and load all of his games to that becuase that CD looks like it has had it. What should I do?

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:59 pm

Looks dead.

Sword_Gun · Post by **Sword_Gun** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:03 pm

If its dry, try plugging it in, ground yourself with rubber first.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:03 pm

That cannot possably be fixed. Im sorry that you have to hear that from me

Post by **Triton** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:27 pm

well you could try cleaning it good with rubbing alcahol or wash and bake or something, its very unlikely tho

chanticlair281 · Post by **chanticlair281** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:41 pm

The unit will power on but I do not hear the fan. I could not get the CD door to close. I have a contact cleaning pen that I got from RadioShack. I soaked all the boards in water as well as the CD player. I scrubbed a lot of the rust off with a toothbrush. I am going to let it dry for a couple of days and then see if I can put it back together. To all of those that have made a portable out of these can you offer any advice about what is vital and what is not.

EnterTheHatrix · Post by **EnterTheHatrix** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:31 am

With all that rust, I highly doubt it would work.. Plus that thing will be loaded with dried on salt. The best thing you can do is wash it down thoroughly with distilled water and leave it to dry, but the chances of it working are highly slim. Even if you do manage to boot it, I can guarantee the lazer wont work.

As for what's optional and what's not. You can do away with the USB ports. if they've corroded and caused shorts it will cause you problems.

Do away with the optical port too.

I'd be surprised if the power supply worked since it holds a charge for weeks.

Loading games on to a hard drive requires booting via a CD. If the DVD drive isn't working, you wont be able to load anything, which means you'll need a modchip which can do it for you. But then you're looking at wasting $50 on a PS2 that barely works. I'm sure you can get a second hand PS2 for that price.. Maybe a little more.

And Hard Drive compatibility isn't great.. about 80% of games work on it. A lot of sites claim 93% compatibility, but most games I've tried don't even work.

chanticlair281 · Post by **chanticlair281** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:46 am

I did manage to get a lot of the rust off and most of the salt. I can still see quite a bit of corrosion(sp) on the board but I thought I would give it a try anyways. I put it all back together (minus screws and the fan) plug it in and it powers on. when I hit the power button it turns green. When I hit the eject button it made a sound like it wanted to eject but it did not. After a few seconds of trying to open the CD Holder spins and the laser flashes red and moves up and down. My question is this is there any type of display that should be on the screen when you first turn it on. I have never owned one so I do not know. I am trying to test if just the CD is bad or if there is no output at all. I think where the adapter with the composit cables plug into the unit is rusted and I may need to bypass it. Can someone point me to an article or post some pictures that would allow me to solder this cable directly to the PS2 board? Is it just like the ps1? I have ben's book if that is the case. What I am getting at is I want to try and buy a replacement CD drive but do not want to if that is not the only thing that is wrong.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:59 am

It sounds like the drive would work again if you buy a new laser & recalibrate it (It takes a while...)

Try getting one of those water-compressor-things & cleaning the boards that way, & then bake them. Research the "Wash & Bake" method.

I'm sure you can get it working again, It'll just take some time & elbow grease...

EDIT: ...& yes, the PS2 DOES have a (start-up? Splash? Call it what you will...) screen. There's also sound during it, so also look for sound! :p

EnterTheHatrix · Post by **EnterTheHatrix** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:11 am

If you've got no video or sound, it's f'd.. you might be able to solder the wires directly and see if you can get it to work .

chanticlair281 · Post by **chanticlair281** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:01 pm

so is it the same as soldering the psone av cable?

EnterTheHatrix · Post by **EnterTheHatrix** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:03 pm

Check the PS2 sticky, it might be.

daguuy · Post by **daguuy** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 4:08 pm

my PS1 and PS2 use the same video cord so it should work if you solder to the same pin as PS1. the CD drive problem is probably because the CD tray motor is rusted and either needs cleaning or replacing.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 4:37 pm

I've also had a few PS2's that wouldn't open, due to the magnets on the drive & the drive cover sticking to eachother. (A good tap/slap while ejecting fixes it

)

Doesn't sound like the case here though...

chanticlair281 · Post by **chanticlair281** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:48 pm

After the past 2.5 hours of breathing a contact cleaner pen I am making an official annoucement... I give up! I cleaned every single contact on that board until I could see the original silver shine and I still got no video and no audio. What is worse is that the CD tray is hopeless. Hopefully FEMA will come through for them and my sister can buy a slim or something. I really appreciate all of your ideas and all of your help. I can't imagine what gaming was like before great forums like this one. Now I am going to bed because this room will not stop spinning.

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Is it Hopeless? Water logged PS2

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