Hi, need some help from any PS2 repair gurus out there please!
My Slimline PS2 (SCPH-70003) is making a rapid clicking sound that is
worse when a game DVD is spinning at high speed.
I bought the PS2 used and replaced the fan and laser with a new unit.
I recorded the sound as a short audio clip which can be found here:
Please could you give it a listen and see if your experienced ears can discern the cause? I cannot see anything hitting the disc. It only happens with game DVDs, when an audio CD is inserted then it is pretty much silent. Otherwise the games appear to load and run fine.
I should also add that the clicking was also present with the old laser unit I replaced (the old unit produced a disc read error). I do not think it is anything to do with the current new laser unit.
The laser arm to the worm drive is a metal one which I understand can get weakened. Someone mentioned that the laser motor might be trying to send the laser unit to the end of the rail and not stopping but I cannot see the worm drive move when the clicking drive is present.
Does the disc load?
- If the disc can be read and noise occurs while loading, it's the wormgear motor (not the rod) getting dry, try & get some WD-40 into the motor base to get it lubed.
- If the disc can't be read at all & the wormgear keeps spinning & sends the lens banging against the spindle soon as the lid is shut, then it's the laser flat/ribbon cable - invisible breakage has formed on the internal conductive traces. You can get a new one for under USD$3 from Ebay.hk including int'l shipping, the only caveat being they use the slowest service so you won't get it till like 20-30 days after placing the order.
A further point on lubing, rarely does the worm gear motor need to be lubed inside, so you can probably skip that part. The part that does need to be lubed oftentimes is the metallic rod/rail which pokes thru the holes on the laser carriage - use white lithium grease for that. Do NOT lube the spiral snake gear, you want to keep it as clean as possible so the T-shaped arm metal piece can have a tight grip on it. Speaking of that, the noise you hear could actually be the plastic tip on the T-arm slipping/skipping from the snake rod when it's bent out of shape & laser is moving fast. What you need to do is flatten the T-arm as much as possible, so the 2 teeth on the plastic tip bite firmly into the spiral. Hope that solves your grinding noise issue.
The disc does load normally and quickly, it's just the clicking noise which is the only abnormal thing about this slimline PS2.
I do not think it is the metal laser rails, the laser moves pretty quietly along them.
Today I removed the T-arm and then while holding down the lid switches I observed the spiral snake gear move without making any noise. I think this eliminates the snake gear motor being the source of the clicking. There was some muck and grease on the bottom of the T-arm (on the part that is black plastic with two diagonal teeth). I cleaned it and the snake gear with tissue and refitted the T-arm to as tight fit as I could make it. I also bent the arm downwards slightly towards the snake gear. Trying a disc load test again and to my ears the clicking has diminished very slightly.
I wonder if a replacement T-arm is in order? I have seen white plastic replacements on eBay which some folks say is better than the metal variant which I currently have. Might be worth a go. The clicking does seem to strongest be from the T-arm area of the PS2.
It's frsutrating. I put the lid on and even with that the clicking is sadly loud enough to be a nuisance when the disc is spinning at moderate speed and playing something like Gran Turismo 4.
When you press down the lid sensor(s), the laser moves to the center of the disc to begin reading, but that initial movement is significant _slower_ than during in-game data reading. Same goes for when you open the lid & it repositions itself to the outside.
When the game is in progress, the laser has to move back and forth much quicker, especially if the game data is not as sequential in nature, for example GTA where the next-to-do subroutine can vary greatly, or sports game with live commentary.
When you have a media that is harder to read than usual, like heavily-scratched or recordable, it accentuates the problem even more, because there's more reading errors & the lens has to move back to the outer ring to re-track lot of times. The faster movement of the snake gear will cause more friction & make the T-arm more likely to skip, and as the metal/plastic fatigue builds up, the worse case scenario I've seen is that the game will hang altogether. That's why you reported the clicking has diminished but is still audible.
I suppose unlike mine, the plastic teeth on your T-arm has probably been ground down or deformed to a degree which makes the situation irreversible. In that case you'll probably have to buy a new T-arm to completely solve the issue, the good news is that it's fairly cheap to replace. Hope that helps.
Just thought of another possibilty, it could be that your spindle motor is getting dry or on its way out. I haven't tried taking that particular part apart so I'm not sure whether you can lube it effectively or not. You might as well try replacing the whole laser deck, ebay.hk sells it for USD$14 including a new lens.
After another session of careful observation and diagnostics - I do not think it is the T-arm. I looked for some slight vibration in the part of the T-arm in contact with the snake gear while the clicking is present but I could not see anything.
When placing my ear above the spinning disc, the clicking seems to be present from the black spindle. I managed to eliminate the clicking temporarily if I depress the spindle with a spare finger while it is spinning. So your idea of this being the culprit seems to be the right answer. I am not sure which area to lube as you mentioned it being dry. There is a metal "pin" of some sort right in the centre of the spindle and there is not much room at the base. Like you advise, I may be better of just buying a new laser assembly (deck) from eBay etc for £10 - £15.
2nd hand laser assembly/deck purchased from eBay for 10£ delivered. Laser unit removed from old deck, fitted to new deck, deck then installed into PS2, PS2 powered up and... no clicking!
So the conclusion is that the spindle MAY be the source of the clicking in your Slimline PS2. Pretty much none of the guides on the net I found mentioned that the spindle may be the source of clicking. Hopefully people will find this thread of use. Refer to the audio sample in my first post for what the clicking sounds like.
Congrats Iceman! I too had a clicking problem, but in my situation it turned out to be the arm. The important thing is that we both got it solved, now time for me to go back and enjoy SD Gundam G Gen Wars without any annoying noise or crashing!
