| With the recent news of
malfunctioning PS2s in the UK, it came as little surprise to me
that my very own US PS2 began making some strange noises during
a recent Ridge Racer V play session. There was a very loud
buzzing that occurred once or twice, and then there was a high
pitched squeal that seemed to occur fairly regularly. I popped
out the game disk and was shocked to discover what can best be
described as scuff marks around the outer edge of the disk. Most
of the marks came off with my CD cleaning pads, but there were
some minor scratches left behind around the edge of the
disk.
I called Sony ASAP. The rep on the phone said that he hadn't
heard about my particular problem, but suggested that I send it
in for warranty repair. I was hesitant to part with my system --
after all, aside form some minor problems with a few DVDs it seemed to
run things perfectly. I collected the information on how to send
it in for repair, but decided to wait.
Ridge Racer V is the only PS2 game that I own, so I set out
to test my system with some rental games to see if it was just
my copy of Ridge Racer V that was causing the problem (the game
uses extremely constant and intense disk accessing). At my local
Blockbuster I looked over all of the rental PS2 games. Both
the store clerk and I were shocked to find that about a quarter
of the games suffered from deep circular scratches that made my
own Ridge Racer's scuff marks look pristine. If you're thinking
that it was the stickers that Blockbuster puts on the disks that
were causing the problems, you'll be interested to know that the
disk with the worst ring had no sticker on it at all. Those
that did have stickers had very small stickers that are probably
unlikely to unbalance the disk to any serious degree (IMHO).
It was pretty clear to me after this experience that there
are some seriously malfunctioning PS2s out there! Concerned that
mine might soon become one of them, I looked up the number of
the service center that repairs the PS2s and gave them a call
long distance. When I spoke to a service rep, I was told that
what I was experiencing was indeed a problem and if I didn't
send my system in it may eventually wreck my games. I was told
that once my system is received, the repairs should only take about 10
days, after which it is returned by FedEx with a new 90 day
warranty.
So, tonight I am without a PS2. Hopefully it will return to
me with a new lease on life before February, but there are no
guarantees. In the meantime, I'll keep you posted on any
interesting developments. If you're having problems with your precious
PS2, call Sony and ask if you need to send it in for repair.
-Mr. N64
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