Please can anyone offer any insight into the problem i'm having backing up ps2 games with DVD Decrypter?

I have only just started making my own back-ups of games I own using Decrypter and have run into a problem i can't seem to get round. I have successfully made several back-ups that appear to work at first but degrade very quickly or even if very lightly scratched seem to stop working immediatly.

I have been told it could be down to the qualitly of the discs i'm using, but i have tried a couple of different brands including Panasonic and Memorex but still have the same results. If anyone can suggest a brand well known to work I would be very interested.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.
Regards - Ed

P.S. Don't know if it makes any difference but my modchip is an up to date Infinity unit (sorry can't remeber exact spec).

dude you cant play backup ps2 games without modchip or swap magic ... yet

Seems he has an Infinity chip as he stated...

Use Verbatim DVD-R's or TDK scratchproof ones, those are 100 times more resistant to scratches than normal disks.

regards, Stephen

Boydem, let me throw my thoughts into this.

It sounds like to me that there's nothing wrong with those burned discs you're trying to play in your PS2. I think the reason why you're noticing that you're burned discs no longer work is because of your lens. It sounds like your lens is weak or close to dying very soon.

I mean the PS2 was not designed to read burned media. If you're using burned media and noticing that the disc is becoming unreadable in the PS2 after a while but the disc has little to no visible scratches, marks or fingerprints on the underside of the disc; then it looks like it's a lens problem. Historically, PS2 lenses are very, very weak.

The only thing I can suggest media-wise is always to use Taiyo Yuden media. For the lens, you could try cleaning it with a DVD Player Lens Cleaner and see if that makes any difference.

I agree with most part of your thoughts, PS2 lasers are really some weak ones. But then why does $ony claim that their machine reads DVD+-RW aswell when it cannot read DVD-+R properly ? People should learn and boycott $ont stuff to warn them.

regards, Stephen

I'm assuming that you have one of the slim models in which case yes, it is supposed to be able to read DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs.

But like I said, the PS2 lasers were built weak in the factory. I'm not sure if this is intentional or whether this was simply a manufacturing defect with the console itself but either way, it's not good. From my experiences, Ive found that the disc read error problem only develops after introducing burned media to the lens.

The thing is though, if Sony hadn't put these PAL, NTSC and Region 2 restrictions on the consoles in the first place, then the lens would be more suitable for reading burned media and operating just as it would with discs from your own region. Then we, the consumers; would have little to no need for using burned media on the PS2 lens.

I think this is what Sony are trying to address for the PS3 (with the games at least). But you are right though, we should be getting Sony to fix these problems for us for free. They did used to do this about a year ago but if you want a lens repair done now then they're going to charge you around £100 which is not worth it in my opinion. You might aswell buy a new console for that price.

Thanks to everyone who posted a reply, a lot of very good advice there.

I had considered that the laser could be on it's way out, but the ps2 is actually only about 6 months old and i can't imagine that it could have burnt out the laser yet.

Another point is that a friend of mine has loads of back-ups that he acquired (not copied himself) a while ago, to back up the games he owns and they all work fine on my ps2 regardless of scratches or age.

I think i will try the disc brands suggested and see if i have more luck there, if i'm still having problems i think i will send the unit back to ghost2fitter and get them to check out the laser etc.

Thanks again - Ed

Well, if your PS2 is a 7000X machine, and has no some kind of extre protection (Summ0ne, Slimfix, or anything else) then the laser burnout can happen anytime, even in minutes. Unfortunatelly these slim machines have quite a crap lasers, especially the SPU head. The old ones had better ones, though the 400a and 400b were also crap.

regards, Stephen