[thegoldenband]

I have an early-model Playstation (#SCPH-1001) that recently started to rattle intermittently when the disc was spinning. At first the problem was sporadic, but a couple days ago it became constant, and shortly thereafter, the motor gave up in the middle of a game and refused to spin. After it had a while to cool down, the motor would spin again, but with the same symptoms. The rattle seems to match the rotational speed/position of the disc.

Is this something that can be fixed with a few squirts of WD-40 (and if so, where), or is this a lost cause? I do have a PSOne (small/slim model) that works fine, and the SCPH-1001 had the "works best when upside down" issues that are apparently common to older units when the lens tray (or whatever it is) starts to warp. But I'd like to get this one working again since it can play Japanese imports via the swap trick -- which works brilliantly, by the way, but may well have contributed to my motor problems...

This post has been edited by thegoldenband: Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:00 PM

[Bruce Tomlin]

If what you care about is imports, getting a stealth or no-piracy chip would probably be a better option. The code for progamming an 8-pin PIC is out in the open, so it's not like you have to order from some crazy place in Hong Kong. Apparently the keywords to search for are "mayumi stealth v4.0" for stealth and "ap508usa" for no-piracy. (You get no help here beyond that, though.)

I was always amused how Sony made region protection based on copy protection, such that the latter had to be broken to break the former. Naturally, the result was rampant piracy.

EDIT: Hmm, seems the needed 12C508/12C509 chips have gone obsolete and are harder to obtain now. Go figure.

This post has been edited by Bruce Tomlin: Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:48 PM

[thegoldenband]

Thanks for your post, Bruce. It'd probably be easiest just to pick up another SCPH-1000 or 1001; in fact, I passed one up last month at a yard sale where I bought a bunch of PS1 games for a buck apiece, so they probably wouldn't have wanted much. Still, the frugal New Englander in me wants to see this one working again; I just don't have the technical know-how to do much with it.

[Video]

Unfortunately, it's not easy to swap out parts on the early psx systems. You get 3 systems, they will likely have 3 different sets of parts inside. Man, those things are a mess. If you can find the same model with say, a burned otu PSU or something, you might can steal it's disc drive. It would probably not be to hard to just swap the motor itself, but I've never successfully done this (then again, I'm more rip it out and slam it in for this type of stuff and don't have tools so )

That swap trick will work on most any pre One series system IIRC, maybe a later system like a 9k or something own't work, but I've never messed with it, so I don't know for sure....though I did play one import DBZ game with an import booter disc, and that worked on my 9k, so who knows?

[shadow460]

Replace the CD unit and your problems are solved. New drives can be purchased online. The hardest part is calibrating the new drive if that's even required.

If it's just the drive motor, perhaps the sled is still usable.

[chriswhit]

The motor and eye is the same in each style ps1 you just have to carefully change the plastic case around the unit to make it fit from 1 to the other. I've done this many times.

[tz101]

thegoldenband, on Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:55 PM, said:

I have an early-model Playstation (#SCPH-1001) that recently started to rattle intermittently when the disc was spinning. At first the problem was sporadic, but a couple days ago it became constant, and shortly thereafter, the motor gave up in the middle of a game and refused to spin. After it had a while to cool down, the motor would spin again, but with the same symptoms. The rattle seems to match the rotational speed/position of the disc.

Is this something that can be fixed with a few squirts of WD-40 (and if so, where), or is this a lost cause? I do have a PSOne (small/slim model) that works fine, and the SCPH-1001 had the "works best when upside down" issues that are apparently common to older units when the lens tray (or whatever it is) starts to warp. But I'd like to get this one working again since it can play Japanese imports via the swap trick -- which works brilliantly, by the way, but may well have contributed to my motor problems...

Never use WD-40 on anything with rubber or plastic parts. It will degrade the plastic parts to the point of failure. I recommend spraying silicone lubricant liberally to the CD drive spindle bearing. This worked beautifully when I repaired a PS2 fat console a while back that had a similar problem.

[thegoldenband]

Aha, thanks for the heads-up about WD-40. I'd heard it wasn't a one-size-fits-all solution, but I didn't realize it would damage plastic and rubber. I think I have some silicone lubricant somewhere, so I may try disassembling the PS1 over the holiday and see if that fixes things. Thanks!

[nathanallan]

If you take it apart just don't drop anything, you could at worst break the laser and at best knock it out of alignment. I've swapped parts before, and the main issue I have run across are the RF shields not being perfect fits. Not too hard to deal with, just be aware. But they have been pretty easy to work on, things inside seem very modular and not that integrated (well, with the disk drive, that is).

Hope you get it working again!