Newby question

Judderman19 · #1 07-03-2002, 11:54

Hi Im gonna be getting my PS2 chipped. But it's gonna cost me £65 is that a reasonable price? They'r also gonna be putting in a Messiah chip. Ive heard thats the best. Is it? or am i being done?

charlie_ps2 · #2 07-03-2002, 13:43

I'll say from the outset that I'm biased and have an interest in my answer. I sell the Messiah and recommend an installer.

That said, there are people of whom I know that charge £45 and I've heard no complaints. One of them does it in 45 minutes - but he doesn't test them fully so far as I know.

The 'going rate' in January was £70. And that is what we charge now. Believe me it's a fair price and I'll tell you why. It takes 2 to 3 hours with disassembly, re-assembly, pre-test to ensure the PS2 works in the first place, 46 solder points (some of them less than .20mm apart) and then test with imports and backups incl. DVD-R. So far so good - that's the easy bit. Then .........

There might be an old modchip to get out. Not trivial but not dramatic if it's just 8 wires. But you have to check that the BIOS pins aren't bridged.

But when you come to test it with backups the shagged lasers of the PS2s that come in, especially those that had NEO2.2s in them they don't work. Now the laser has to be recalibrated and that is a tricky affair, none-the-least because you have to have the PS2 running in a disassembled state. Some lasers are so shot that DVD-Rs will never work; those PS2s need a new laser and the customer is going to say "well it worked before".

In fact my installer is thinking of banning v3s (so old that they are guarenteed to give problems).

So, never mind the £65, make sure the installer is a good guy.

Judderman19 · #3 07-03-2002, 15:26

Thanx for the speedy answer. the chipping is going to be done at a local shop. Im not 100% sure they are legit. anything i should ask them just to make sure they know what they are doing? i dont wanna hand my pS2 over to some amateur with a solder.:-S

charlie_ps2 · #4 07-03-2002, 17:07

Ask 'em if they've done one (Messiah) before? If he hasn't and hasn't done a NEO4 successfully, then don't give it to him is my advice unless he does other devices with legs no more than 0.20mm apart. Ask them how they are going to test the result (needs at least CD-R and preferably DVD-R? Ask them how they are going to solder onto the CD/DVD controller (you're looking for 0.10mm tip, 15w iron, 33swg wire).

Ask him if he intends to solder to any VIAS (they are the small holes in the board). If he melts one, the board is shot. A pro would prefer to solder to very close together legs than risk a VIA which needs scraping to make a bonding point for the flux etc.

It's not a bit like doing neo2.x. The guy needs to be a pro in my opinion.