Don’t Think Too Much

There was a time when I never consciously thought about what I was doing. I made no progress and that wasn’t good.

Then I started thinking. I saw results, I made progress and that was good.

So I started thinking even more, because I wanted to succeed faster. I built thought frameworks (general rules to guide my thinking) as I learned about new fields. It took me a long time to realize that my rate of progress hadn’t changed at all, and I was burning more energy for nothing.

Why do I say that?

There were others who hadn’t built a clear framework of how to think. But it didn’t matter. Because of their social position, because they took action, they got the hot girl or were rich. Thinking the right way can lead you to success, but is only one component.

“A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points” – Alan Kay

What’s the easiest way to get another perspective? Ask someone else. Sure, it is possible to imagine another perspective, but asking is just easier, plus you get to strengthen a social connection.

Sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know – and this can overturn your thought framework overnight. Exploration is the answer here, and this can be time consuming.

Lastly, after having built many thought frameworks, I noticed most of them resulted in sound common sense. I didn’t have to spend so much energy building them in the first place!
Caveat: some bad life advice masquerades as common sense. It can really help to think through “common sense” advice to see if it really is “common sense” or some misguided line that an unfortunate, misinformed, unfortunately loud individual is spewing on social media.

The value of thinking

Thinking is simply bringing your subconscious thoughts up into the consciousness, where we can think about it faster using reason instead of emotion, overcome biases installed by society, overcome bad habits and misleading values in our subconscious, gain a clear vision of where we want to go etc. Words are the handles by which we grab and manipulate our thoughts from the sea of our subconscious. Word choice is very, very important.

But the consciousness is simply a tool, and one shouldn’t depend on one tool exclusively.

When I think too much

I go through life in a daze, not noticing the beauty in my surroundings, forgetting upcoming chores/appointments which are important but not urgent, and as a result I have to construct routines to get my life back on track, which makes me rigid and (ugh) German.

To improve one’s skills, there is no limit to the conscious complexity one can construct. But actually the most fun way is to improvise, boosting efficiency with honest communication and a very short iteration cycle.

When is a good time to think

When learning a new topic, a framework to guide your thoughts, a chosen set of values to strive towards from the very beginning, will help you achieve your goal quickly. (source: dancing experience)

When you have a gut feeling, but you just can’t put it into words. Not bringing it up to your subconscious could waste months, years of your time. Open a blank document and just start typing whatever comes to your mind, dumping your stream of consciousness into words (very effective, source: The Ultimate Commonplace System).

When building new processes to streamline your life. Within moderation: do not make a whole new routine and force yourself to commit to that. Instead, see what trhythm you naturally fall into and make slight tweaks to that. This is a good balance between enjoying life and improvement. Discipline is a finite resource after all.

Turn your brain off

I used to meditate to turn my brain off. Now I’ve rediscovered a better way from my childhood: video games, anime, tinkering with long lost hobbies. Wall Street Playboys would deride it as a waste of time, but one must waste a bit of anything once in a while.

The trick is to stop playing once you aren’t thinking about the original subject anymore, but your brain isn’t yet totally hooked on the game either. Video games can make your brain noisy and distracted too.

Am I thinking too much?

If you’re asking this question, you most certainly are. Remember a time when you weren’t under pressure to deliver, like your childhood. Then, in this quiet space that you’ve finally allowed yourself, listen to your gut.

You already know what to do.

My adventures in fixing a YLOD PS3

When Naked_Snake1995 posted a way of reviving YLOD PS3s on PSX-Place, I knew I had to try it out.

Note: standard sized tantalum capacitors (7.3×4.3×3.8 mm) are taller than the Proadlizers and will push against the motherboard’s aluminum shield on the bottom side (the top side where the chips are has more clearance, because other components right next to it are larger). But it will still fit together.

Removing the NEC/Tokin Proadlizer Capacitors

The hardest part by far. I’ve tried, and my advice is don’t use a hot air station. Most of the heat will go towards melting the plastic instead of heating up the solder underneath. By the time you’ve heated up the pads (takes several minutes if you’re lucky), the board is hot in one place but cold in others, which is obviously very bad for it. Not to mention, many electronic components are meant to endure only a few seconds of heat while reflow soldering.

Just use a sharp paper cutter like this Pakistani – he takes it off in a minute. The sharper it is, the less force you have to use, which means less chances of you knocking something off or scratching the board.

The trick is to not be afraid to dig the blade deep underneath the NEC’s pads. If you can get the blade mostly horizontal, it won’t dig into the board.

This is how mine looked like in the end. I chose a thick gauge wire to connect the + terminals of the capacitors because I assume a lot of current will be flowing through. Make sure it is not too long so it doesn’t obstruct the heatsink screw. Also, it is best to put it on the back side of the motherboard, not the front, so that it stays away from the RAM traces and other hot components.
Front of COK-002
Back of COK-002

Unfortunately, that still didn’t work. The YLOD timing is now different – the fan does spin up, but after a few more seconds, and I get 1 group of 3 beeps, not 2 groups of 3 beeps. Still no idea what that means.

I sent the mainboard off for a RSX reballing, but had no luck.

Troubleshooting using syscon

With the recent release of syscon’s firmware encryption key, one can now talk to the syscon over UART and hopefully figure out what the exact error is. Unfortunately it looks like the syscon only reports errors in codenames, but darknesmonk has shorted a few pins on the RSX to simulate hardware errors and reported what the syscon says.

Playstation 2 disc drive explanation

Before we answer any questions, you need to know the basics of how an optical disc drive works.

A CD spins on the spindle, and the laser reads, moving outwards from the middle of the disc. Think of the data on the disc as a spiral, just like vinyl records, from the inside to the outside. The laser shoots out of the lens, is reflected by the disc, then goes back into the lens and is redirected to a photodiode that responds to some light (CD: infrared light, DVD: red light).

Data is recorded as “pit”s (actual potholes in the media) and “land”s (no depression). The depth of the pit on the CD <0.2 micrometers, so that the light reflected from a pit will cancel the light reflected from a land, so that the difference is very obvious to the photodiode (source).

Now, since you can’t even see the spiral track with your bare eyes, it’s unrealistic to expect that the simple worm gear (coloured arrow) is precise enough to position the laser exactly where it needs to be. That’s why the lens can move sideways (coloured arrow) as well – this is called the “tracking”.

We’re talking about light here so of course we also have to deal with focusing the laser. And since you can’t expect every disc to be perfectly flat or not wobble while spinning, the lens also has to be able to move up and down to always keep the disc in focus as it spins. And of course there is the electronic circuitry to ensure all this happens automatically.

When you insert a CD/DVD into the drive, the lens will light up and try to find a disc, and try to focus. The lens assembly has two laser diodes built in: CDs use infrared, so you can’t see it, but DVDs are a deep red. The lens has a maximum range of movement, and if it goes too far upwards and it couldn’t find focus, it will go to the very bottom and try again.

This Youtube video (really long) explains it very well.

Now, we can answer questions like:

  1. My PS2 is making a clicking sound
    The laser couldn’t find a focus, and once it went as far up as it physically could, it slammed down to the bottom to try and find a focus there, just like the autofocus on a camera.

  2. My PS2 is making a rattling sound
    My fat PS2 made a rattling sound when the worm gear couldn’t move the laser head and the gear teeth were chattering against each other. But to be sure, open it up and see for yourself.

  3. My PS2 won’t detect CDs/DVDs
    If your laser is old and can’t shoot out enough light, then the photodiode can’t tell the difference between “in focus” and “out of focus”. Makes sense right?

  4. My PS2 can read CDs but can’t read DVDs?
    As mentioned before, there are two laser diodes, one for CD and one for DVD. If the DVD one is more worn out…

  5. Why won’t it read my CD-R/DVD-R – or reads it slowly
    Recordable CDs/DVDs are a totally different animal from official pressed discs. They reflect less, and if you burnt the CD at high speeds, the pits won’t be as deep, so the laser has to shine brighter to find something – and if it shines too brightly, the photodiode might not be able to tell the difference between a 0 and a 1. And if it isn’t sure, it will try reading the same part again…

Some SCPH-5000x PS2s (with a V9/V10 motherboard) had a problem where if the laser couldn’t find anything, the PS2 could drive too much power to the laser, burning it out prematurely. Keep that in mind.

What a healthy drive looks like

If all else fails, disassemble the PS2 and open the drive to see what’s going on. Here’s what a working mechanism should look like for a SCPH-50000
SCPH-70000

Replacing the laser

Aliexpress or eBay. PS2 Slim lasers are easier to find than PS2 Fat lasers, which probably means that PS2 Slim lasers aren’t going to be around forever either.
Fat: KHS-400B/C
Slim: PVR-802W