f13.net

My son got a PS2 in February.  I bought GT4 for my husband.  Everything worked fine, for a few weeks.

Now, GT4 does not work in the PS2.  Every other PS2 game that we have works.

Spouse took the GT4 game down to gamestore so they could use their spiffy cd polisher on it, to ensure there were no scratches.  They did so, the disc looks perfect.  It ran fine on the PS2 at the store.

Spouse brought game home, put it in the PS2 and no go.  Checked the memory chip and it's fine.

So today I rented another GT4 game to try it out.  It doesn't work either.

Every other PS2 game that we have works.  Our GT4 game doesn't work on our PS2 but it works on gamestore's PS2.  The rented GT4 game doesn't work on our PS2 but presumably works on gamestore's PS2.

I don't want to buy another PS2, really I don't.  I just replaced our Gamecube because after howevermanyyearsit'sbeensinceitcameout the rumble pack went out.

Ideas/suggestions/comments welcome.

A quick search of google turns up a comment here and there about GT4 being incompatible with some PS2's and Sony offering to replace the unit for a cost, but I can't find anything concrete.

Check this thread (http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=55927) for some info on the problem and some things you can try.

I bet that this is a DVD9 disc.... yes, looks like it is. Some PS2s have lasers that are too weak to read multi-layer discs, and most PS2s lasers degrade over time. Or... it could just be a dirty laser lens, or a combination of dirt and degredation... I opened my PS2 and cleaned the lens very carefully. It now plays DVD9s okay. Apparently it will get weaker, and I'll need to clean it more and more often until cleaning doesnt work. Then I'll have to pay a susbtantial proportion of the price of a new PS2 to get it refurbished.

Yes, it seems that because GT4 is a dual-layer disc, weak or dirty lasers can prevent the game from loading.

I first ran into this problem with Champions of Norrath. Turned out the shitty laser was doing me a favor.

Thanks for all the information.  (The intarnet is my friend. Why didn't I think to Google it?)

I cannot find a manual so I opened the disc case and cleaned some thingie that looks like it might be the lens, and any other thingie that might be too.  Eureka, it worked.

The PS2 seems so f'ing flimsy compared to a Nintendo machine.  Compared to _any_ Nintendo machine.

What a disappointing design flaw.

Playstation is a pretty unreliable hardware line in general. Actually, SONY is a pretty unreliable line in general. There were a lot of problems with the lasers on both the PS and PS2, going slightly out of alignment was very common in PS1 for example.

No, you'll buy a PS3 and read different message boards to fix the new problems.

We just got a PS2 returned with GT4 because they didn't play well together.

Sigh. I see bad shit in the future.

This is different bad shit than what one normally sees in an average EB?