Decided to put both Sony Playstation and Playstation 2 in one article as both projects has much in common.

A Gift

This has started as a birthday gift idea for my friend. Fully modded PS1 including PixelFX RetroGEM HDMI mod, xStation ODE and MemCard PRO. HDMI mod is a quite advanced project, at the time it was a real challenge for me. I was still using Hakko soldering station and cheap LCD microscope. Successful installation was a real achievement for me and somewhat milestone in my soldering experience. Gift was presented to the celebrant in time and this story might have ended with him using it happily ever after. What could go wrong?

Troubleshooting

It took less than a week for the console to return to me. Two issues appeared – the 480i graphics would glitch (and Pixel FX menu would not work) and some pixel noise appearing at 240p resolution at various degree. It is interested that I did not notice them when testing with my LG OLED. Also what is interesting that this appears only on NTSC games, and PAL games works as expected. But since we don’t play PAL games it is useless. I’ve tried different options, firmware upgrades and downgrades, but the issue persisted. Eventually I got in contact with Pixel FX guys and one of the issues was identified as a bug in firmware (but now it’s not clear for me if that was really the case) and the reason for pixel noise was not found. Seeing as remote troubleshooting doesn’t get us anywhere we decided I would ship the console to their USA office. Upon receiving the console they fixed the issue with pixel noise by adding a resistor to some line, not something I missed, but it was not in the manual (should have been added after my case). Since they were shipping the console back and shipping was free I also got myself a PS2 HDMI kit. First thing after receiving the console was a test and I was not very happy, because the glitches were still there, but pixel noise was fixed. Since 240p now showed fine, I returned console to my friend. It was probably the same day (or maybe next) that he called me and said “the console froze while using and some smoke came out of it”. Ok (not okay actually), the console is back at my table. It actually took some time to find out what burned. It was short on voltage line on the GPU flex. How come it only happened now? No one could answer me this question. Maybe some micro solder bridge. In any case the PS1 motherboard was good as dead. I desoldered all the useful components and board went to a dedicated test board bin. I decided to order Japanese PS1 console (NTSC-J) and install mode there. Since I also have PS2 HDMI mod I decided to install it. Keep in mind that this mode as also for the same friend, but now of course he was paying for PS2.

PS2 modding

While waiting for the PS1 to arrive, I got myself working on PS2 mods. The request was not only HDMI mod, but also installing Modbo chip. Nowadays you can’t get a new original Modbo chip, so you have to resort to buying cheap Chinese clones. Generally installing the chip is not too complicated, apart for a few cables that are somewhat tricky. You have to solder 30 AWG cable to the IC pins that are pretty much the same size and very tightly spaced. What also does not help is highly recommended use lead-free solder. Good practice would be to assemble and test the console after each mod installation, but assembling the PS2 is such a hassle that I decided to install both mods and try my luck. Compared to PS1 the PS2 installation is more difficult. There is one flex with couple of contacts that is soldered to controller port and it is probably most difficult one. The most problematic part with the main flex is that it’s impossible to align it ideally. Overall installing both mods in a row it’s quite an effort and achievement.

I remember that my friend said “You sure it will be different with PS2” and I confidently said “Yes, it is different hardware.”. Oh boy was I wrong. I tested and the same glitches happened with NTSC. The problem now was that 480i is the primary resolution with PS2. But the issue appeared at random, and more times you boot and it worked fine. So the console was somewhat useful, but nevertheless annoying. I was waiting for Japanese PS1 now.

NTSC-J PS1

So the SCPH-7000 arrived from Japan, I’ve tested it and everything seemed fine. Until I opened it up to install mods. That’s when I realized that it does not support xStation… Later I also found out that this model is not even moddable, unless you replace BIOS chip. So basically it turned out to be trash.

Next I ordered SCPH-5500 from Japan again. This time the revision was compatible with both xStation and HDMI mod. I installed both mods with much bigger confidence. Tested on my LG OLED, everything seemed OK. Got on my Brompton and delivered console to my friend. Later in the evening I got call from my fried and guess what, there was a problem. Now it was a bit different issue, the FMV intros seemed to glitch at 1440p. I got the console back and tested on LG OLED, and it was working good. Then I connected it to my old Sony LED and reproduced the problem… At this point I was mad. But I said I will make this work somehow.

NTSC USA PS1 and PS2

I was starting to guess that the problem is that we are running NTSC games on a non USA consoles. Technically there is not a big differences between different region consoles, however in my case it seemed like only cause for the problems. So I ordered PS1 and PS2 from USA. I can tell that installing PS1 HDMI mod is way easier because the flex fits very well. Somehow this PS2 installation was harder than before. Nevertheless I got both consoles working. What can I say, my guess was correct. Both consoles now works perfectly even with Sony LCD. Son in total I installed (or reinstalled) HDMI mod for 5 times, got myself a t-shirt.

Modbo and PS2 OPL (Open PS2 Loader)

A quick not on Modbo chip and PS2 OPL. With the chip enabled I get OPL freezing upon starting. It behaves the same with both knockoff and original chip. You can disable chip with controller upon console boot and OPL will work fine. I even transplanted original Modbo 4.0 chip from old PS2 slim to the PS2. This was needed because a few games that require disk swap was not working with knockoff chip. So original Modbo still has it’s value, but you will have hard time finding one.

Conclusion

If you play NTSC games use USA console for HDMI mod. If you only play PAL games, then PAL console is good enough. Also if you don’t really need Modbo, then better do not install it.