Please help with a very strange and rare problem with the PS2 FAT SCPH-30004R console.

[Brylant80]

Hello, Please help with a very strange and rare problem with the PS2 FAT SCPH-30004R console. when I turned on my PS2 today, I was greeted by the first time ever boot screen. I had to choose a language and region. The date and time in the settings were also reset back to 1999.

I will try to accurately describe all the symptoms below:

1. The console loses the system settings every time I reset the system and goes straight in to first time ever boot screen with language and region selection.
2. When I press the eject button the tray opens too fast and the PS2 doesn't realize when it's open - so the motor makes a whining noise while trying to open the already opened tray. The only way to get the tray back into the console is to reset the system.
4. I just entered the triangle-menu of the PS2. Usually the option "console" (I guess it's "unit" on US-PS2s) says "SCPH-30004"... but right now it's "unknown".

So far the description of the errors, but there are some things I want to mention:
- the PS2 was not being modified (I was the first one to break the guarantee-seal because of the defect)
- no soldering was done until now
- I didn't drop it on the floor (it was standing just beside my TV for
months)
- all fuses are working
- all cables are in perfect shape
- the console did not overheat and stood in a well-ventilated place

I opened the consoles and took it apart. With the naked eye, I did not find any irregularities. Motherboard, power supply and capacitors look fine. I took the opportunity to replace the CMOS battery, but it didn't help either.

Another strange thing is that the system was working for about ten hours yesterday (I played about two dozend games), but when I wanted to play with it some hours ago, it was broke again. I was searching the web with google for about one hour and the only help I found was that I saw postings from people with the same problem on several bulettin boards and some PS2 being sold on eBay with this defect... but I couldn't find any solution to this problem. :-/

The case looks hopeless but there may be someone with good advice and ideas, or someone who may have encountered this problem earlier? Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[buzzer]

Change the battery

 

[Brylant80]

Change the battery

Please read carefully what I wrote. I changed the battery but it didn't help.

 

[silverdale]

If there's people on eBay flogging them and no ones buying then it's a good indication its a software problem thats hard to fix within a flash chip of some sort and is more than likely f##ked for good.

 

[Brylant80]

If there's people on eBay flogging them and no ones buying then it's a good indication its a software problem thats hard to fix within a flash chip of some sort and is more than likely f##ked for good.

Today, for a few hours I soldered on the board and in the power supply and nothing. One resistor on the DVD drive pcb was loose so I soldered it thinking it was a problem but unfortunately not. Something must have broken by itself, some chip maybe? I do not know. For now I give up and buy a new silver PS2 Fat 50004 console because there is an opportunity at a very good price. With two silver controllers, a memory card and 3 games for 32USD or 23GBP. I feel sorry for this black console because I bought it with the thought of inserting the hard drive and programming the memory card under Free McBoot but probably everything will go to this new silver console.

Thank you for your response

 

[chookey]

I took a quick look at the circuit. Unusually the rtc battery doesn't power the eeprom in the PS2. It only powers the timer/clock which shares the data and clock lines with the eeprom and the Mechacon ic's.
When the machine is powered off, the battery keeps the date and time through the timer IC 405. I believe at switch off the eeprom IC 406 dumps it's settings into the Mechacon IC 604 and at switch on retrieves this data.

There is software available to make adjustments to the Mechacon where you can also make changes to the eeprom. I doubt that this would be of any use to you though.
Initially I thought it could be a corrupt eeprom but the fact that it works sometimes sort of strengthens my thought that the eeprom is freshly rewritten at each boot.
My first tests would be in the shared power circuit for both the Mechacon and eeprom which is DIG_+3.5V1. Anything beyond that would be out of scope for most diyers