PS1 laser issues

B

badman

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Mar 31, 2020
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Hi,

I have a few PS1 consoles (2x SCPH-9002 and 2x SCPH-5502). One of the SCPH-9002 is modchiped but it's laser is in a bad shape (it reads some games and plays them mostly fine with some sound issues and some games don't load at all). Laser from the other 9002 is dead, does not load games at all. Is there any way of repairing of refurbishing those lasers? Is there a website selling replacement/new/used lasers?
My other option is to use a laser from a 5502 console on a 9002 but I don't know is this possible or can I even damage the console with a stunt like that. Has anyone ever tried something like that?

Thanks for your help.
 
All PlayStation lasers are interchangeable electronically you may need a cable extender though. The main failure I usually see with later PlayStation lasers are the nylon beads wearing down as shown in the photo. It may be easier to replace that from another laser
 

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Thank you for the answer. I will try the most convenient method. I will also try to use the power cable from the original laser.
Btw, how good are the lasers from ebay?
 
Your best bet is probably to get a PS One SCPH-101 laser which is the KSM-440BAM (latest PS1 model that may have the least wear and tear). However, like Tokimemofan said, you'll need a ribbon cable extender and may need to swap out the grey cover for your original black-colored one to fit in the console.
 
vxscph said:
Your best bet is probably to get a PS One SCPH-101 laser which is the KSM-440BAM (latest PS1 model that may have the least wear and tear). However, like Tokimemofan said, you'll need a ribbon cable extender and may need to swap out the grey cover for your original black-colored one to fit in the console.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I will look into that as well.
 
Also it would hurt to test the spindle motor, I’ve seen some that have partially shorted windings and cause problems similar to laser failures. Mostly on 100x and 550xunits though
 
Is it true that by changing the length of the ribbon cable changes the bias and gain of the overall circut for the laser itself?
The reason I ask is because I changed out an SCPH-1001 with an SCPH-7501 laser and haven't been able to properly calibrate it at all and has constant issues with disc reading because of it
 
Vorde said:
Is it true that by changing the length of the ribbon cable changes the bias and gain of the overall circut for the laser itself?
The reason I ask is because I changed out an SCPH-1001 with an SCPH-7501 laser and haven't been able to properly calibrate it at all and has constant issues with disc reading because of it
Click to expand...
I would check the spindle motor. I’ve seen this countless times after replacing the laser, sometimes one of the 3 coil sets in the motor will partially short causing the rotation speed to be incorrect, check the motor with a volt meter and then turn it 1/3 of a turn and repeat. The large white gear in the sled can also do this, the metal lasers have a ridge on them that will cause a jam if you don’t swap it as well when replacing a plastic one. The left gear in the photo is from an aam plastic assembly the right is from an acm metal assembly
 

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Hope I can write here, otherwise delete this.
I have a PsOne with a broken pin inside the ribbon cable connector on the motherboard.... How can I repair that? :/
 
Vorde said:
Is it true that by changing the length of the ribbon cable changes the bias and gain of the overall circut for the laser itself?
The reason I ask is because I changed out an SCPH-1001 with an SCPH-7501 laser and haven't been able to properly calibrate it at all and has constant issues with disc reading because of it
Click to expand...

The correct settings will vary depending on the specific optical pickup you use - but having said that, it's more likely that your problem is simply that the old PU-7 and PU-8 based consoles like the SCPH-1001 are far more sensitive to the quality of the optical pickup than the newer ones. This is why you sometimes get heavily used KSM-440BAM pickups out of PSones which work fine in the consoles they came from but don't work in a SCPH-100x
 
Since the broken contact is pin 10, you can just solder a 91 ohm resistor between pins 10 and 11 on the optical pickup assembly, since that's all that pin 10 is connected to on the main board.
 
Trimesh said:
Since the broken contact is pin 10, you can just solder a 91 ohm resistor between pins 10 and 11 on the optical pickup assembly, since that's all that pin 10 is connected to on the main board.
Click to expand...
Before doing the job... I'm starting to think there could be something else here.... The only thing that moves is the laser assembly back into place if I move it myself beforehand in the "wrong" position. And that's because it's the "power" connector and the "position sensor" on the optical group that do the job. With the ribbon cable attached nothing else change... No spinning motor, no lens going up and down and I don't see the red laser light (I'm not watching it directly but from an angle). Can this be all related to a single broken pin?
P.S.: the optical group works just fine in another unit.
 
Ichisuke said:
Before doing the job... I'm starting to think there could be something else here.... The only thing that moves is the laser assembly back into place if I move it myself beforehand in the "wrong" position. And that's because it's the "power" connector and the "position sensor" on the optical group that do the job. With the ribbon cable attached nothing else change... No spinning motor, no lens going up and down and I don't see the red laser light (I'm not watching it directly but from an angle). Can this be all related to a single broken pin?
P.S.: the optical group works just fine in another unit.
Click to expand...

The only effect that broken pin should have is to prevent the laser diode from turning on. You should be seeing the focus search and (except on some very old models) the initial spindle kick. I would start by checking all the fuses on the board, since the most common cause of this is missing supplies.

The fact the sled drive is present means that the BTL driver chip has power and it at least partially working - although it's also possible that it has some damaged channels.
 
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