PS1 PSOne (SCPH-101) works fine after "warming up"

[Seig345]

Summary:

I have an NTSC PSOne (SCPH-101) that seems to work just fine with the exception that it requires a "warm-up sequence" that involves getting it to boot to the red "Insert PlayStation 1 Disc" screen with a disc spinning inside and letting it sit for a few minutes before rebooting. After this the game boots right away and I can swap games and they'll load just fine on the first try. Video cut-scenes, music, loading times, game-play etc. are all fine after the warm-up.

• I got the console cheap on ebay as it was "not working/for parts or repair". (sounded like a fun project)
• I believe I'm the first to have opened the console up. (warranty label was untouched)

What I've observed/have done so far:

• When first starting up with a disc, I will either get the Red "Insert PlayStation 1 Disc" screen or it will drop into the Memory Card/CD Player screen.
  • The disc typically stops spinning if it reaches the MemCard/Player screen.
  • Sitting at the MemCard/Player screen for any amount of time does not lead to games booting.
  • The red "Insert Disc" screen seems to leave the disc spinning non-stop, which is what lead me to trying the spindle motor swap mentioned below to see if it was needing time to "warm-up" the old motor so it could spin at the correct speed due to age of motor or lubricant.

• The largest plastic gear that directly connects to the teeth on the laser (sled?) to move it back and forth had several broken teeth; I replaced it with one from an aftermarket replacement drive meant for an original PS1; it no longer occasionally gets stuck on certain games. Warm-up behavior did not improve/change.

• When the warm-up behavior continued, I tried replacing the spindle motor and hub assembly with the one from the aftermarket drive. No change.
  • Naturally, I also inadvertently destroyed the spindle hub on the original drive's motor assembly in my attempt to remove it, but such is my life of tinkering.

• Optical lens has been cleaned with 99% IPA and a cotton swab for good measure.

Personal conclusions so far:

The replacement spindle motor is an unknown quantity, but since the behavior is unchanged after the swap, I've tentatively ruled it out as a root cause for the moment.

The drive does not sound particularly loud or concerning when operating (even sounds a little quieter with the replaced gear), so I'm also disinclined to believe it's a simple lubricant issue on the rails or gears.

I wasn't sure if a failing capacitor might be the culprit; needing a little extra time to get juiced up before passing the right current to the spindle or perhaps the laser itself? (If that's even how capacitors work...)
Otherwise maybe it's the laser itself that is failing and needs extra time to bring itself back up to spec? I'm not sure what the "failing behavior" of a laser typically looks like.

I've tried poking around looking for any previous threads covering the same experience, but my search terms kept bringing up "overheating" issues, likely due to "warm-up" being the most precise term I could think of to describe the behavior. If there's another thread addressing this same situation I apologize.

Any insight or a point towards a thread discussing (and hopefully resolving!) this issue is greatly appreciated!

 

[Seig345]

Update:

So I've done a little more experimenting and ordered another low-priced non-working PSOne, the listing for which described the motherboard as needing repairs but the optical drive worked when tested with another motherboard.

First I tried tweaking the potentiometer on the original drive in the PSOne, reducing the resistance and allowing more current to reach the laser. This resolved the "warm up" issue and the PSone started booting games immediately, albeit it still demonstrated some issues while playing games (Battle scene in FF8 would take a while to load, then the monsters would take a moment to load, and then finally the characters). Additionally, I had to turn the resistance down so far that I'm guessing the laser was just too far gone, and while it barely works now, the adjustment will likely just speed up its death, and may be the reason game behavior became abnormal where as before I don't recall there being any loading issues after getting a game to boot.

When I swapped the drive out with one from the other PSOne console, the "warm up" to get a game to boot was almost non-existent and required only the slightest adjustment (from 1.15 down to 1.05 when checking with my multimeter) to resolve it altogether.

While nothing is ever certain, I believe this mostly points to the laser itself as the source of the issue I was having.
New cap and renewal of lubrication on the drive parts probably couldn't hurt though.

Any further insight is still appreciated, but I think my case might be closed.
Hopefully this info might help another aspiring console tinkerer out there though!