Monday, December 15, 2014

Repairing the PlayStation 2's PS1 Fuse with a Resettable Fuse

First things first... this isn't a PlayStation 1 fuse. It's a PS1 fuse. That's what it's labeled as on the motherboard.

This sucker is also the destroyer of worlds if you anger it.

The PS1 fuse is there for the power and eject buttons. If you've never opened a PS2, these are a nightmare. They're attached by a ~8 inch ribbon cable to the motherboard. The actual power and eject buttons are connected to the top of the case, meaning you have to walk on eggshells every time you open the PS2.

This fuse blows at the slightest disturbance. I blew mine out just doing some routine maintenance. I found that I had a V4 PS2 and not a V3 as I thought, so I bought a KHS-400C laser since they're reputed to be more reliable (it does seem to be). Anyways, while I was closing up the system I didn't have this ribbon cable seated well. It was slightly off, which shorted the cable and blew the PS1 fuse.

Shitty. Without the PS1 fuse functioning, there is no way to turn on the PS2 and use it. I don't like how easily this fuse blows, so I wanted to negate any future issues. I considered bridging the fuse, but if it blows that easily, this seemed like a bad idea. Enter resettable fuses. They don't blow like traditional fuses, and they're widely used in modern electronics. Opening any recent game console, you'll see resettable fuses everywhere. As always, Wikipedia has the rundown.

The PS1 fuse for a V4 PlayStation 2 is a 400 miliamp (or .4 amps) fuse rated at 12 volts. I couldn't find a 400mA 12v resettable fuse, so I bought a 400mA 60v fuse. The voltage really doesn't matter here, the amps do.

Pre-Installation

There's not enough clearance on the board for the resettable fuse to stand, so I trimmed the legs quite a bit and laid it down. Since the fuse is blown, you don't need to remove it; the current isn't moving through the fuse, so soldering either end of the fuse to the other will bypass the blown fuse. I left the original PS1 fuse in and soldered the resettable fuse to the sides of the fuse. This made life considerably easier since the original fuses are surface mount components.


There it is all installed. I trimmed the legs down to where they bend inwards. It was the perfect size to fit right against the edges of the original fuse. I had concerns about this working even though it was completely sound in theory. I reassembled everything and...


Perfect!

Now I can get back to Final Fantasy XII. I did have a working PS2 slim, but I really hate that thing. Plus I'm very attached to my HDD mod now. I'll do a post on setting all of that up soon.

10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Let me know how it goes, should work out fine if you used a multimeter to confirm that fuse was the issue.

      Delete
    2. Hey dude ! I had the exact same story and tried your tick and it didn't work. I have a close up picture of my soldering job, may I show you?

      Delete
  2. Came here from your Reddit posting. I picked up a PS2 at a garage sale for $20, with the assurance that it was fully functional. Lying bitch... Oh well, caveat emptor with anything bought at garage sales.
    I haven't yet cracked open the case, but my guess is it's the fuse that's blown. This was a very useful bit of information! When I have some spare time, I'll go at it, and follow up here.
    Knowledge is power.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi i think this happened to my ps2. I have it apart but my circuit board doesn't look like yours. I know basic electrical but not really anything about boards. How do i know where to install the fuse/ how do i know how to test if it's bad? Hope you can help.thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's quite a few different motherboard revisions for the PS2. The easiest way to find the fuse is just the writing on the board. It should have "PS1" silkscreened on the board where the fuse is. To test if the fuse is bad you'll need a multimeter with a continuity function. Place the probes on each end of the fuse. If you get a beep there's continuity and that fuse isn't the issue. If there's no beep then there's no continuity through the fuse and it's blown. If it is blown you can just do like I did and leave the original fuse there and solder the replacement to the sides since there's no continuity with the original fuse.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey! How do I find out whether mine is a V3 or V4 PS2 and what difference would it make to the fuse needed? I have a Test Kit Variant of the PS2 if it helps, really keen to fix this little bit of game dev history

    ReplyDelete