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The information contained in this document is provided as is
. No warranties of any kind are expressed or implied; use of
this information is solely th e responsibility of the reader. The author will neither assume responsibility for illegal or other
misuse of the information contained herein nor damage or harm to humans, animals, plants or facilities
Mr. B / DNA Design for GameCity / www.gamefreax.de
Playstation 2 Laseradjustment / replacement
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Disassembling the console
b) SCPH 30004 (Eur) V3, V4, V5
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There are many FAQs regarding the adjustment of PS2 Laserunits (LU), as Sony seems to adjust ´em
too careful, so the LU has a greater life expectance, but the PS has difficulties reading some DVDs or
Most of the answers give advice to screw a little bit on the laserpots, but that´s a real nerve wrecking
way of getting your PS to work.
This reworked and rewritten tutorial gives explanation to properly adjusting the LU.
There also seems to be a problem with some batches of PS2 - the LU dies and the PS2 can´t read DVDs
and/or CDs anymore. Fortunately there are some vendors selling refurbished or new laserunits - the
problem is that in most cases you have to replace the unit yourself. The explanations and aproaches
given in this tutorial are meant as a help performing this task.
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Oscilloscope (at least 20 Mhz bandwidth!)
10:1 Scope testprobe with clamp
a set of presicion screwdrivers (like the ones for repairing clocks)
Philips screwdriver (for removing the PS2 cover)
your PS2 utility disc (Jap model) / demo disc (Eur model) or any ot her PS1 gamedisc and a
knowledge on how to use that stuff ... (esp. the oscilloscope !)
small piece of thin, isolated wire, solder wick and a solder iron
For replacing the laserunit:
precision height gauge (German: „Schieblehre“ or „Mikrometerschraube“)
precision screwdriver size 1
screw securing lacquer (Loctide screwfastener)
solder iron and desolder wick or desolder pump
If you don´t have one of the tools above (esp. the scope and probes ) ask somebody who can lend it
to you (TV repair shops ..), if you lack of [6 knowledge] then ask somebody who´s familiar with this
(again TV repair shops...) ;)!
Fig. 3: tools for laserreplacement
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Disassembling the console
(Bringing the console into service position)
If you disassemble and modify your PS2 you will lose warranty.
The following procedures should only be done by skilled persons with the console
the mains. If you aren´t sure if you can do this ask somebody who´s familiar with this kind of
Furthermore be extremely careful while doing the adjustments as there are
Remove the bottom and top cover by removing the screws under the small plastic/rubber pads.
Remove the metal rfi-shielding at the bottom (pcb) side.
Unplug the flat wire band from the drive connector by lifting off the clamping bridge (carefully!!!)
Turn the machine around and dismount the drive by removing the two screws holding it.
Turn the machine back to the bottom side and plug the wire band back to the connector.
Place the drive that you can access the drawer, without bending the flat wire band (I put it on the
pcb, isolated with a sheet of paper and „up-side-down“ to get access to the adjustable resistors).