PS2 with Video Output Issues

[Chuck D. Head]

I bought a PS2 phat from a neighbor kid at a garage sale for $15 w/ Kingdom Hearts 1&2 and Lego Batman. Not a bad deal. I kind of half way expected trouble because he said he thought the av cord was bad cause it would mess up the picture. I knew I had a few different PS AV cords, so I figured to give it a try.

 

It pretty much does the same thing, no matter what cord (RF or composite) I use. When powered up cold, it looks fine after a few minutes, maybe five, the output gets a little darker, then redder, then loses vertical hold and eventually dissapears down to a few reddish dots here and there. I suppose I should just toss it, but I have a maternal instinct for defenseless electronics and would like to help. Any ideas?

[flynnz]

Never ran into that myself, but perhaps you could try a set of component cables and see if it does the same thing as the composite cables. Other than that, I am thinking it's something on the mobo that is none to happy

[jferio]

It's likely either a bad capacitor, or more likely to be that the heat sink doesn't have good thermal contact.

 

One test is to try a PS1 game and see what it does.

 

Capacitors are usually easy to swap (look for one that's swollen). If it's the heat sink, you'll have to remove the heat sink, clean up the old thermal paste, replace it (use the higher grade silver always always always), and reinstall the heat sink.

[Mark Wolfe]

open it up and see if there is anything lose where the a/v port connects to the mobo, after you try the other suggestions.

 

there are guides to opening up phat PS2s, just google it and compare your serial number to the corresponding take-apart guide