Works fine for me using HDL 0.7c via memcard exploit. Of course I've barely played it because it seemed to suck, but the 2 times I did play it worked just fine. No modes needed.
You see i have Hdloader 0.7c the splash screen says patched with 0.7c dated 6/1/2005. I Have both fullversion and the shrunk down version . I have tried with mode 3 on both and no mode on both niether work all hang up after the 3rd screen. Sounds almost like a helicopter...100% frozen. Could i possible have a bad version when i got the game...I used the rebuild tool GNIE made for it. Any help...thanks!
Edit : I also cant get into ps2nfo to see if they have the same patch or not. Says the forum is down.....