Rants, my nightmare PS2 Modbo chip installation, and more rants. (#1, 2022/09/08)

You know, I started thinking; I might start doing PS2 modchips as a business... better late than never I suppose, especially now that PS2 softmods have basically taken over. I'll really go far with this!

Yeah, jokes aside, PS2 modchips are hard to install. VERY hard.  So why would someone even consider it when softmodding is easier and cheaper?  Because there's some good stuff you can't do on a softmodded PS2, especially slims, that still makes hardmodding desired by PS2 users to this day, like being able to play burnt discs, being able to natively install HDD-OSD and all the compatible games/software to a non-PS2 branded hard drive, load Free McBoot on your SCPH-90001 slim, play import DVDs, and even load software from USB on bootup.

These are all things people still do on PS2s.  It just makes life so much easier for bedroom homebrew coders and noobie PS2 users alike; sure, for now you might say "Well I don't need any of that stuff!", but just you wait until your softmodded memory card or hard drive gets corrupted, and you'll be saying under your breath "man, I really wish I had that modchip after all; I could totally use the USB boot feature to get myself back up and running without having to burn any discs or do swap tricks" or if you want to play a game that just isn't compatible with Open PS2 Loader, you'll be saying under your breath "man, I really wish I had that modchip after all; I could totally use the ability to play burnt discs so I can play this game that isn't compatible with Open PS2 Loader" or once you find out that playing PS1 games on POPS sucks, you'll be saying under your breath "man, I really wish I had that modchip after all; I could totally use the ability to play PS1 backups/imports without compatibility issues, like Open PS2 Loader, and I can actually use my PS1 memory cards this way too!", it's gonna happen sooner or later, and you're gonna say those exact same words.

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Ok, enough mucking about.  You all came here to read about my Modbo 5 install from hell, didn't you?  Man, after I just finished hyping modchips up, now you're gonna read this and think "Heck no!"  Fine, here goes:

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So, 3 weeks ago, I got ahold of my childhood PS2 Slim again, after having given it to one of my friends years prior so he can play Guitar Hero on it.  This PS2 is an SCPH-90001, and it's incompatible with Free McBoot, as I mentioned earier; SCE famously patched the original memory card exploit on this model, which Free McBoot was derived from.  Meaning, the only other way to softmod one of these is by using Fortuna.  I tried Fortuna for a while, and I got sick of it really fast; you can't have any other files on the memory card you set it up on, and you can't keep the memory card you use for actual game saves in the PS2 when you launch the exploit.  Super aggravating! 

So I quickly opted for a Modbo, and when I sat down to begin working on the motherboard the first time, I quickly realized I was out of wire that I use for these.  

For some reason though, I decided NOT to stop and call it there; no no, I had the bright idea to keep working on it... but what was I working on?  Why, making a big ol' mess, of course!

Look at that.  LOOK AT THAT.  I just splashed solder all over the place...  What was I thinking?

I was at this chip trying to work all that solder and distribute it across the pins for, what felt like an eternity.  Really, it more like an hour and a half, but I cannot emphasize enough just how much this set me back; I could have installed a Modbo in a clean PS2 in the time it took me to clean this up alone.  Anyway, here is the result:

In the picture it still looks a little messy, but that's just excess flux.  I tested EACH AND EVERY PIN with my multimeter and made sure that none of them were shorting.  I swear, without that flux, this would have been literally impossible to clean.  USE FLUX, PEOPLE!

Now look, accidents happen.  If this happens to you, please don't be discouraged; it's possible to fix, as you can see, but it's *not* easy. Like, I mean if one little thing goes wrong, then you can cause even more damage, like bending/snapping pins, scratching/pulling a trace off the board, stuff like that.  I know that probably made it even more discouraging...  All I'm trying to say is, getting to know the proper method willl guarantee success.

So anyway, after I cleaned this up and made sure the chip was still good, the rest of the installation went without a hitch.  Everything else practically fell into place after this; the wires I had to solder to the pins on this chip, probably thanks to all that solder and flux that I put on the pins, went on first try; no having to resolder them because they got loose, no shorts to the adjacent pins, it was great!  It was like God rewarded my efforts getting the solder cleaned up and granted me a successful install.

On this side I could have tweaked some of the wires a bit, managed them so they'd be neater, and my first time closing it I actually had to re-orient them so the top shield would go on.  But yeah, soldering them was a piece of cake.

I'm envious of the people that do it and make it so nice and clean and flat, with all the wires right next to each other like ribbon cable almost.  Maybe I'll get there someday, but I still think this looks pretty nice.  

And yes, the system works!  I'm writing this the next day, with the PS2 right beside me running Tony Hawk's American Wasteland as I sit here and type this.  

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So, did you learn something in all this?  Did you get a laugh?  Did you cry?  Let me know!  You can probably find my email address floating around here if you dig around, and if you do, shoot me one and let me know what you thought.  Thanks for reading, and have a nice one!