Playstation 2 FAQ
Why is my PS2 not spinning the disc?
Diagnosing the issue
A PS2 that is not spinning the disc has three main causes. The Spindle motor itself can broken. This is the motor that the disc sits on while in operation. The disc drive could be bad. Lastly, and this is the one people usually don't know about, the motherboard of the PS2 console could be the cause. The real trick is figuring out which one is causing it. Sometimes the only way you will know for sure is changing out parts and seeing if the disc is spinning afterwards. However, there are a few things you can check to narrow it down.
Start by checking the Spindle motor
When the disc is put inside your PS2 console, it sits on something called a spindle motor. This controls how and when the disc is (or is not) spinning, as well as the speed it spins. This is a logical place to start if the PS2 is not spinning any of your discs. Open you console first and get to the disc drive inside. You don't need to remove the disc drive to test the spindle motor. This only requires a regular size phillips screwdriver for the case, with a smaller one for the disc drive. Remove the disc drive top and find the spindle motor. When the console is off, the spindle motor should be able to move freely. Simply flick the spindle to get it to spin. Did it spin for a second or two freely? Then the Spindle motor is fine. If it moves but would not spin, just moves a little bit, then this is not normal. If it wouldn't move at all, then there is a definite problem. Make sure you are sure here, the spindle motor will spin freely but it doesn't spin like a fidget spinner either, If should spin for a second or two at most, but that is perfectly normal. A spindle motor doesn't fail for any reason, it is usually because of physical damage. The motor can seize up which makes it impossible to spin, or the ribbon connectors could also be damaged. Make sure you check the ribbon/connector for any obvious damage. Lastly, Don't over think this step, the spindle motor failing is pretty rare but does happen sometimes. Unfortunately, buying just the spindle motor is nearly impossible in this day and age, so if you know the spindle motor is seized and not spinning correctly, you would need to replace the disc drive with one of these working ones. Luckily replacing the disc drive is still half the cost of buying a whole new console.
Moving on to the disc drive
After checking the spindle motor we move on to the disc drive itself. Believe it or not the laser also plays a part in getting the disc spinning. If the laser performs a check and doesn't detect or read any info on a disc, it also won't spin the disc. So now we need to perform a check to try and narrow this down. It can get tricky trying to figure out if the disc drive or motherboard is the cause of the PS2 not spinning a disc. But you can perform a test that will help some of you narrow it down. Just keep in mind that this is not a one all be all solution, drives can show a multitude of symptoms. Yours might not show the same way. Just like we did before with the console open, we will perform a test. This time leave the disc drive in tact just have the top console housing off. This time have the console on and running. (Don't touch anything inside while it's on!) use the buttons to eject the tray and put a disc in. As soon as it closes monitor what happens. Does the disc spin AT ALL, even if it only spins for a couple seconds? You can see it spin in the middle. it may be so quick and spin so slow that there is no noise from the disc spinning. This is why opening it can allow you to see if it really isn't spinning, or if it just spins a little bit and never gets up to full speed. In MOST cases if the disc does spin a little bit but stops quickly this is an indicator that your disc drive is the issue. This usually happens when a laser doesn't detect any info from a disc, and shuts down the spindle motor before it really gets up to speed. Which of course means the disc drive isn't reading discs correctly. At this point you should be leaning towards the disc drive causing your issue and replace it with a PS2 disc drive like one of these. Just make sure you read the descriptions there so you find the correct model you need! NOW, this is not ALWAYS the case. The failures on the motherboard can sometimes mimic the same behavior. This is where it gets tricky, so read on before assuming it's the disc drive.
A quick note to add. The EARLY (30001,30002,etc) models of the PS2 console have a certain disc drive that controls itself. This is because those disc drives have a PCB (Printed circuit board) inside the drive. This PCB controls the function of all the parts inside the drive. If you have one of those, there is ZERO chance the motherboard is the issue. This is only the earliest models and not all 3000X models. Remove the disc drive and look at the bottom. Check the picture below and compare. See that green board? If you have a green board like that then you don't need to go further, as the motherboard does not control operations. If you have a drive with the green PCB like the one in the picture below, then all you need to do is replace the disc drive! Just make sure you buy the right one as there are two types, so look through these PS2 disc drives and find one that matches yours exactly!
Dealing with the motherboard
Now we move on to the motherboard. Unfortunately if the motherboard is not spinning the disc then we are dealing with a common IC failure. Besides the note above about the earliest models, the rest all control the disc drive via ICs on the motherboard. When one of those ICs fail, or begin to fail, you can see a HUGE Amount of symptoms, including a PS2 not spinning the disc. If you did the checks earlier and saw absolutely no sign of life, meaning no spinning what so ever, then you should lean towards the motherboard being your problem. Again, this is not always the case, just what happens more often than not. So I would focus on replacing the motherboard with a PS2 motherboard like one of these. Just make sure you get the model numbers on yours and replace it with a matching one. Unfortunately the motherboard will also spin the discs up and still be your issue, so this is a "test it out and see" sort of deal. It is completely possible you replace the motherboard only to find out the disc in your PS2 is still not spinning. The failing IC can still show signs of life and in those situations there is no SURE way to figure out the issue until you replace it. Luckily you can replace the motherboard and disc drive for less than it would cost to buy a whole new console. So if you replace the motherboard and the disc drive you're still better off than replacing the entire thing.
