My PS2's been fine for nearly three years now. Yesterday, I turned it on to play Guitar Hero. All I could hear was a loud grinding noise, which it obviously isn't supposed to be doing.
I opened it up (my warranty was already voided anyways), and after 3 hours of tinkering around and several theories, it turns out that the "snake motor" is making the noise. It pushes the lense to the very end (near the outer edge of the disc), but the snake motor keeps running, pushing the plastic thing attached to the lense up against a wall, making the grinding noise.
I've tried everything I could think of. Any ideas?
Sounds like some form of conductive debris has gotten inside and created a short circuit somewhere. In my experiences with pc's, it's almost always something stupid like that. There could also be something wrong with the processor, in which case I'd buy a new slim ps2 with less moving parts.
My last PS2 did the same thing. It was a SCPH-50001 model (version 9) with modchip installed. Turns out the LA chip has burnt out. If that's the case, you can get a "LA clone" off eBay or your local repair shop. Usually they are about $30.
I have the same problem with 2 modded ps2s (version 9s)with different modchips and there is no way the LA chip went out on both of them directly after the install. I hate to bring this post back up, but I am stumped!