{"id":279,"date":"2021-08-13T18:14:08","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T15:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicau.ro\/?p=279"},"modified":"2021-08-13T19:25:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T16:25:00","slug":"a-playstation-2-story-chapter-1-fixing-the-power-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nicau.ro\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"A Playstation 2 Story – Chapter 1, fixing the Power Supply"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WARNING: Unless you REALLY know what you’re doing, DON’T attempt fixing your Playstation power supply! The power board contains large capacitors which may deliver a deadly shock, also when the device is unplugged!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Short story:<\/strong>
\n– Playstation 2 Fat model no. SCPH-50004, input 240V
\n– Power supply module not delivering 12V to the motherboard. It was delivering 0V
\n– Went on taking voltage measurements at different points on the board, which sometimes triggered a discharge towards the negative, temporarily fixing the issue
\n– One capacitor turned out having a really large ESR<\/a> and a large voltage loss
\n– Replacing this bad capacitor permanently fixed the issue<\/p>\n

Long story:<\/strong>
\nLast Saturday while strolling through the flea market, some fairly looking console caught my eye. It was a fat PS2 with no warranty sticker. The seller was confident about it running just fine. He was arguing “my kids just paid 1500 RON (about 300 EUR) for a new console” while i was replying “yeah, that doesn’t mean this one’s working” :> I ended paying 30 RON (about 6 EUR) which makes it a true bargain! Of course I hoped it was working :))<\/p>\n

At home, the first test and the console doesn’t power up! So i went disassembling it, dusting all components, case, cd-bay area. Isopropyl Alcohol is a great PCB cleaner, but don’t use it on plastic\/rubber. There was a missing ribbon cable – connecting the controller unit to the motherboard and also, a cable connecting the cooler to its power supply. Interestingly the cooler fan was still in place.<\/p>\n

Both missing parts can be bought online. That holds true for the power supply module, but attempting fixing it is more interesting<\/p>\n

Things I tried:<\/strong>
\n– Went online looking for a power block schematic. Couldn’t find anything for the SCPH-50004 model, however there are fan-made schematics for other models.
\n– This is the best digest of schematics<\/a> all of which seem to match the PS2 Power Source
\n– Also, note this schematic for the 90002
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\n– None of the above schematics seemed to fully match my board<\/p>\n\n\t\t