So now that you've seen the video, learn the TRUTH behind the PlayStation Franchise and the Disc Read Error plague. (And don't worry gang, we're going to cover the Xbox 360 RROD in a future article. Coming VERY soon.)
Designed to Fail
Some have claimed that Sony’s quality control is a bit lacking. Others have gone so far as to accuse the Sony Corporation of wrong doing, purposely engaging in the dastardly act of planned obsolescence.
What is “planned obsolescence” you ask? This is when a company designs a product so that it will fail after a predetermined amount of time, usually just after your warranty expires. The product may be constructed with a hidden weakness or "Achilies Heel." Over time this part of the hardware design will be the most likely to fail. And the center of most defect complaints.
One of Sony’s more outspoken critics is Shinji Mikami, producer of the Resident Evil series. Here’s an excerpt from one of his more notorious interviews:
"Shinji Mikami, producer of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, strongly criticized Sony and Square in a recent radio interview in Japan. Mikami accused Sony of purposely designing their consoles to break easily so that gamers will have to buy a replacement. He also said that Sony's high sales figures are helped by the fact that many gamers, himself included, have had to buy a second PlayStation and PlayStation 2."
"From there, Mikami went on to accuse Sony of doing the same thing with their line of PCs, Walkmans, and cell phones. He asked why no one has complained about this and said that it was almost like cheating and committing a crime. The radio DJ tried to interrupt Mikami and shift the conversation to another topic, but when Mikami was asked if he thought Sony's customers are foolish, he replied, "Yes."
To be honest, some people claim Mikami only made these statements because he is angry with Sony for some unknown reason. Still, there does seem to be some truth to his claims; after all, he has worked with Sony for over a decade. He must be more than familiar with Sony's hardware.
But it's not like he is the only one complaining...
The PS2 Class Action Lawsuit
Sony was actually sued in the United States and Canada over alleged defects in the PS2 game console. Now you can’t have a class action lawsuit without first having a large group of people to represent. Apparently there were enough people in the world to justify this legal action.
The lawsuit claims:
“The plaintiffs in those cases claim that certain inappropriate “Disc Read Error” messages are displayed. They also claim that some PS2s fail to play and that some of them cause damage to CDs or DVDs during playback.”
Disc Read Errors are something I’m painfully familiar with. As are many PlayStation owners. Do a quick search of google or youtube and you'll find many, many articles relating to the subject of DRE's. After all, we've been plagued by them for the past 10 years.
Growing Suspicion
As you know, my PS2 no longer reads certain discs. As you can see I have devised an interesting solution to my problem. The funny thing is, the same exact trick worked on my original PlayStation. My original PlayStation also had the same exact problem. It kind of makes me wonder if the accusations are true. I also feel that I may have found the Achilles Heel on this particular model of the PlayStation 2. Could this be my smoking gun?
Identifying the Achilles Heel
The first Achilies heel in this model PS2 is this dastardly white dial. Basically it is used to adjust the height of the PS2 laser. Slowly over time this dial goes out of alignment and must be re-tuned in order to fix your PS2.
The second culprit is the lens assembly itself. It rides on a track that slowly wears down over time. When you perform the trick seen in my video you're basically causing the Lens Assembly to use a part of the track that is not worn away. So over time the lens assembly may eventually fail yet again. However this is the price of owning a Sony console. DRE's come with the territory. Disc Read Error problems were wide spread on the Original PlayStation, The PSone, The PS2, The PS2 Slim and now even on the PlayStationPortable.
YLOD (Yellow Light of Death) and Error Code 8001: THE NEW DRE
As of this writing literally 1000s of PS3 consoles have been crippled by a deadly clock bug known as the 8001 error code. Is this yet another example of the Sony Timer? Probably considering Sony's track record.
In Conclusion...
Sony does seem to design their hardware so that it fails after a certain amount of time.This is a fact that's sure to upset many of our readers. Unfortunately the problem continues with each new hardware generation. The only way to stop this issue is by not buying sony consoles.
