Malfunctioning PSOne?

seamus

OK, I probably should have dealt with this long ago, but I only posted my warranty card 4 months ago so......anyway, last Christmas, I got a PSOne(the cool white small one), along with a few games, 1 of them being Final Fantasy VIII(or VII, whichever was the last one released for the ps1). Brilliant game, enjoying it loads, when suddenly it started locking up at the same place every time. I was quite pissed off. We brought the CD's back to the shop, they replaced them. Same crap again. Rang Playstation's support supplier who informed me confidently that this was not a hardware problem. Emailed the manufacturer, who gave a big spiel, one of them being 'we push the limits of data that can be fit on a disk'(wtf?), but gave a few suggestions, such as turning the unit on it's side, or not playing it for long periods.

Still sounds like crap to me. They also suggested trying it in a different machine. I took a lend of an old Playstation 1(the grey one), and happily played the game without problem for a week or so. Went back to my machine, and it locked up again. Grrr :mad:. I then bought GT2, and it started locking up at the same place in just one track, making me lose my stuff through not saving. Then I forgot about it 'cos of moving house, and other things. But I have it out now, and really, really want to get back into FF. Has anyone had this happen to them? We turned it upsidedown at one point and it seemed to work better, maybe it's overheating?

Thanks all

Cake Fiend

That used to happen a lot to the earlier model Playstations. The laser would come out of alignment and you'd have to turn it upside down to read discs properly. This is the first I've heard of it happening to the new model though.

seamus

No it wouldn't be that cos the music plays fine, just the game itself locks up, music keeps playing.......and playing.........

Dont be at yourself

Would I be correct in assuming that it locks up when the PSOne tries to load a certain place in the game? If it is, then Sico could very well be right - the PSOne can't read the data from the disc and so it locks up. The music would still be playing because its loaded beforehand.

seamus

No, it just locks up when for example The character is moving through a certain place, and then it just stops..ie the screen freezes. I always thought the music was played from the CD seeing as there isn't exactly enough RAM space to hold the music(although it is looped)

SantaHoe

Originally posted by seamus
No it wouldn't be that cos the music plays fine, just the game itself locks up, music keeps playing.......and playing.........

Nope Sico's right, I've gone through 3 Playstations with this problem... same thing exactly, worked better when turned upside-down, skipping disk etc.
I opened my PSX up and had a look, the little sliding tray that houses the laser was worn out completely (from friction?), which caused the laser to point at an odd angle, due to lack of support from underneath the tray.
Which explains why it works upside-down and not up-right.

Bring it back to the place where you bought it, they *should* exchange it if you have a reciept... I know GamesWorld did for me after my PSX packed in after about 8 months.

azezil

That happened mine too, but it was well outta warranty so i adjusted the laser myself n it worked fine ever since

seamus

Cheers lads, reckon I'll give Sony a ring though. Game wouldn't be exactly accomodating seeing as I have no receipt, and all the packaging except the box has been thrown out.