Fixing the Forgotten Playstation 

Got lots to learn, but I did my best 🥹

I have a feeling the first laser probably still worked, but the SD card being lodged in there was the issue preventing it from moving along the rail to read.

You can get custom made ribbon cables, don’t leave the game! It’s still fixable.

I'm that niino guy from the forum screenshot. The mac drive you can find a compatible PSX (x500 and x700 models) laser in is from the PowerMac G5, not the PowerBook G4. (Also, several drives have been used in the PowerMac G5, but only the DW-U21A has that laser). SF-DB11 won't even fit vertically inside the entire PowerBook G4 chassis 😀 A few things: The ribbon cables in the PSX are extremely brittle due to age. They are generic parts (defined by length, pin spacing, number of pins and direction) and thus are possible to be replaced. Hopefully you didn't kill anything when trying to forcefully reinsert the broken cable. You didn't take the plastic part that slides on the worm gear from the original laser and mounted it on the replacement laser, so even if everything else would be working, the drive wouldn't work. There are several versions of the SF-DB11 laser pickup, and only some of them will work (the wrong variant looks almost identical but will cause a short and melt a fuse or even the laser ribbon cable; just google it)

I've refurbished a PSP and a Vita, my heart weeps for you tackling that daunting task. I still get ill when I hear the words "Ribbon Cables."

Got one of these! My XMB is in English which makes working through the features a LOT easier

The classic thing that happens whenever you think you can fix something that is out of your league. The best thing is to take it to a specialist but at least you were honest and showed the video of your attempt. That's really humble and makes you likeable. Good work!

They actually have a mod now that supposedly can emulate the HDD in the PSX. Would love to see a video of someone trying that.

As an amateur modder, my heart empathizes with you! I have broken many projects when just starting, but with each one I gained more knowledge and skill, and am breaking way less of them now! You got this Ken, keep fixing and modding!

You got this! Go for that cable! I wanted to see more content on this unit when Austin first showed it and was excited that you got your hands on it! Let this be a learning lesson. You should do a FULL come around and maybe mod it? This unit is beautiful and could be something amazing if you allow it.

Please don't give up ken! You can get custom ribbon cables and I'm not a big PSX guy but normally with well loved consoles people have already documented what pieces you need to get it working again. I wanna see this thing work though!

Epic to see a Video on the PSX! So many have forgotten about it when it was the origin of the beloved XMB UI later adopted by the PlayStation 3. I hope this video encourages all those who owned this system to try reviving it.

Dudeee finally I love your doing videos like this we need more!!

That was such an awesome find. I wouldn't give up just yet. You got this!!!

I’m excited to see you put the video out even if it didn’t turn out the way you thought it would!

Send the device to “this does not compute”! He fixes everything 😊

I had two different regular PS2s (the OG model, not the slim) fail on me due to a faulty disc reader. They were really struggling with QA at this point. I swore off Sony for a while because I also had a 50 disc changer that crapped out around that same time. Also, remember all the faulty memory cards around the PS2 launch? It was nearly impossible to get one in the US the first 6 months-1 year after launch. Pepperidge Farm remembers.

The fella that owned that PSX had small kids. That SD Card is straight up small kids learning wonder.

15:30 I personally know how you can fix a flat flex cable. Just cut off the mangled bit and then use scissors to scrape off about a centimeter of the paint on the side that had the contacts exposed. The cable will be a bit shorter but still it should hopefully work, and it's FREE, no need for some expensive custom cables or anything.

I honestly FEEL you on that, I wrecked my 3DS's top screen cable and almost broke down in tears :c But hey, don't let this destroy you! You learn! Get back up and try again ^^

The exact same thing happened to me, from the disc drive not working well to the console dying from a ribbon cable getting snagged. The difference is I did all that in the same DAY it arrived from Japan, and I spent $200 on it 😞

Honestly try seeing if you can get replacement ribbon cables for it. There are companies that will make boutique ribbon cables as well, it's not the end of the world. All a ribbon cable contains are tiny traces to connect leads together 🤷

I have the same issue on mine and I know there is a fuse that blows quickly. If the Ribbon cable gets moved while you have the console plugged in to troubleshoot it, you blow a fuse. If you have the ribbon cable slightly off, you blow the fuse. There is one fuse that causes it and at first, it was hard to find the replacement and now, I can get them easily and I got mine come back to life after replacing it.

I have a couple of PSXs that I am working on bringing back to life. They have various issues, broken ribbon cable (my fault), malfunctioning HDD (Dead on Arrival), and malfunctioning disk drive. I hope to repair them enough to modify the software/hardware and at the very least get the PS2 working. Definitely one of the most complex systems I have ever worked on.

Def keep going, that thing's not dead and you don't have to give up! Especially if it's just a ribbon cable, bro! Keep going, you can do it!

You should use that Panasonic Vieira tv you guys have when you test it with consoles, it looks aesthetically very pleasing in the video.

Ok i have a new mission in life! Im gonna do my best to find parts for that psx and send them your way. No guarantees or anything but i really wanna see that thing up and running!

21 years ago, the Playstation 10 was invented.

Great video

Nothing worse than that feeling when you try to fix an old console and you just know that you’ve touched something or done something you shouldn’t have. Happened to me when I tried to fix a ps2 from a thrift shop and the console just died after trying to fix the disc drive

It could be a capacitor issue, not a disk laser lens reader issue. I had several issues with my Playstation 1 console; however, when I replaced the capacitors, everything worked again.

Ken so professional

"It's pretty finicky IF you need to do any repairs" Honestly with the PSX, it's not if you need to do any repairs, it's when. The PSX is one of history's least reliable consoles, probably worse than the OG 360's with the Red Ring of Death.

A little fun fact that very laser is what actually made the PS2 region locked. When it reads the disk it, it checking where the game is from. If it reads that the disk is from lets say the US then it will reject it saying the this disk doesn't belong to this specific PS2. So that's why people bought that special region locked disk. By reading that disk it tricks the PS2 into thinking its a Japanese version. It would allow people to play Japanese games. Now that is no longer the case.

I hope the renovations went well

With that ending, it sounds like a good way to get a multi-part series of videos out :P

I ended up putting a few together to get a working one...still have 2 parts units

Ken, we’ve one at my mother in law’s in Japan. My nieces & nephew used it. Just super nice.

I have one. Never used it because of the voltage difference. Apparently you need a step down converter so you dont fry it. Theres also 9 different revisions of this thing. Japan has 100v outlets. USA uses 120v outlets. You may have fried it.

Before this video I didn't even know this existed! So cool!

Don't give up brother, I believe in you I know you can do it!

Wow seeing that dvd rw brought back my childhood memories of renting ps1 games at the video shop and writing them to blank cd’s. Man they were the days 😂 on my plextor cd re writer.

Love this

Always do your research my friend watch videos on how to take it apart before you do it yourself it takes sometimes it takes trial and error when it comes to taking apart consoles it happens I know your pain especially when I replace the shell of my DS and it doesn't power on

I'm not sure if you still have The PSX and if it's still not working but I also imported one I swapped out the laser and it does work perfectly now. I am wondering if you did not replace the track on the laser that you imported into the system because you need to replace the track with the original track from the laser that was in there before at least with the model. I did it would not catch on the gear if you didn't do that. Happy to have a look if you want me to

Hi! Show me how you replacement dvd lens. Please!

Trust me, you did ur best! Tbh, I got problems with my Blu-ray Drive in my PS3, and basically killed the motor, to make it work again I was changing the whole drive for another dead ps3 but it turns out, when I was trying to do a maintence for a Sony Vaio long time ago, it happen that I broke the flex that connect the keyboard to the main board (which basically kills the trackpad, also the power button it self) so, yeah, Sony most of the time made things harder to repair and it can be worse sometimes, don't blame your self on it!

I’ve worked on a fair share of these consoles. The disc drive motor not kicking in is most likely due to one of the sensors or microswitches being misaligned or coming unplugged. Also the ribbon cables are actually really standard and common, you can find them online fairly easily although they’re typically a bit longer than the original. As far as hdd’s go, if your hard drive dies in this console it’s essentially a paper weight. These hdd’s are serialized to the console, kinda like the original Xbox but instead of being hardware serialized it’s written in the first few sectors of the hard drive and the encryption hasn’t been cracked yet. And I’m fairly certain because of that you can’t swap the hdd's between consoles, otherwise I'd be able to revive more of these consoles. Lastly, this should be obvious, but do not install ps2 games directly to the hard drive in this thing. Yeah I know it's possible but it's a super easy way to kill your hard drive, believe me you want to keep as much strain off of that drive as you can if you want your console to last. My recommendation is an SMB server with OPL. You could go the usb route but bad stuttering and compatibility issues isn't great. Anyway hope you can fix it! They aren't too complicated, I'm happy to give anymore advice if needed.

@Denki have u ever done a video about that PSP TOOL that stands in front of the PS5 at 16:21

I do wonder if the PSX has CFW for it. Could enable the ability to swap out the HDD for any HDD, maybe even a SSD. Maybe upgrade or swap out other components? I have a rabbit hole to down tomorrow.

There is a channel called ‘Andrew Paul’ he repairs consoles etc but only makes videos now and then, and he has some of him repairing and restoring and modifying a PSX. May be worth you looking at his videos as he details where he got some parts. He gives lots of details on the ribbon cables too as they are very delicate.

There better be a followup video of you repairing it for real

The cable is in tons of Sony game systems of the time. If you have access to a parts ps3 phat check it out. Or just grab the cable model number and look it up

Hey you gave it a go and gained valuable experience doing it. You will learn for next time from this experience. We’re only human and we all make mistakes. Could be worse.

sad ending but still an absolutely great video

i have a sony bluray player with the cross media bar, its the only thing keeping me from throwing it in the garbage

wouldnt retesting it after you found the sd card, might have been jamming the laser from moving

Long shot, but would ODD TINKERING be able to breathe life into it? Dude works miracles.

Ken got his Austin Evans windows vista moment

The moment that SD card came out he should've just put it back together to check if it worked.

I know that pain to well. Just broke my perfectly functional Xbox one X. Why did I touch it!!??!! Thermal pasted it, power supply fails. Wawawa...

There was a rumor going around saying that the PS2 hardware was added at the last minute, with the rumor being backed by the fact that Sony Corporation marketed the PSX, rather than Sony Computer Entertainment.

Okay Not expected but very welcome to see I have one and mine died. There’s basically no documentation or support for this piece of history

Could the PSX internal hard drive be used for Final Fantasy 11?

I LIKE YOUR HAIR STYLE, DUDE!

Anyone know where to buy the hoodie he is wearing❤

I always wanted to get my hands on one

Shit lol ... U could say that on the beginning of the video...i was thinking finally I can watch a pax that works lol 😅😅

My daughter once inserted a penny into my Mercedes Benz cd player. It stopped in there until it was sold. Guarantee a child put that sd card in there 😂

I remember Adam Korlik mentioned on his channel about the PSX how they were very finicky from the beginning and that is why they are so cheap now in Japan.

maybe the sdcard has disturbed the cdrom mech to read cd's properly?

"I want to go in a little blind for the sake of the content" was your first mistake

Summon Tronicsfix 😂

Just like what happened to me when I tried to fix my PS3’s bd it wasn’t reading discs after fix it now read discs but doesn’t take them because I broke the cable for the motor

whats up with grandma agnes and granpa charles? hahahaha

RGB and S-Video is SCART and YUV and S-Video is VGA.

For the people who don't know yes you can replace the hard drives it'll just lock the drive you clone to

Damn now I don't feel so bad about snapping my PS2's fan cable yesterday, luckily that's only a £5 replacement.

I have a PSX and have the same issue only that it will play burn cd’s 💿 and DVD’s but won’t play the standard ones or the PS1 or PS2 games. I wanted to fix it also but looked at it and thought it’s not worth it. So I still used it to play movies. I mite even try to burn a tv show or two. Haven’t used that feature yet.

Oh man, I wanted one of these so bad and I was really upset when I found out it was Japan only. I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Turn the PSX into a sleeper gaming computer......

I remember this seeing this console was DVD power house

This reminds me a lot of the Panasonic Q, aka the Panasonic Gamecube.

for context, the playstation 2 had a whole 32mb of internal memory... as for the memory cards, 8mb

maybe that sd card was causing issues with the cd drive not working correctly?

Wait, how have I never heard of this?

Well obviously this calls for a rematch; you guys need a functional PSX!

MY PSX still has a damaged check reader, I simply use a memory card with FreeMCboot for PSX DESR and it skips the reader and my ORIGINAL games work without a problem.

Ribbon cables can be fixed or bypassed.

is it not possible to just replace the ribbon cable? .. (possibly a dumb question.. but im no expert) - if the actual lens can be replaced hy not the the cable?

You still have the temu headphones 😂!!

It's still fixable. If nothing else, there are skilled people out there that know everything about these things and can do repairs we arent able to do ourselves. Why I'll eventually be sending off my YLOD PS2 compatible PS3 to people thet can revive it because it is beyond my current ability.

:( may it rest in peace. A sad day indeed

Didn't know they made that

Ive got a psx with a dead harddrive. The hard drives are super fragile if its not the disk drive its that dying. But you can still use it with a broken hard drive. If you a have a free mcboot card you can still use the discs in it. You loose the super cool ui though

Heartbreaking to see the PSX not power on but I believe in you!!

Ez fix hopefully u can get a replacement ribbon cable. Or send it to someone who can fix it

256GB? they didnt have those drives back then. it was 250GB Was that DVD drive completely different when you showed it out the box?

We need the Gen 1 PS3 fixed next !!

woah ken the most bizarre hardware sony made fr.