PS1/2 Bought a PS2. Confused about something

[Vultix93]

I already have a Slim PS2 with a FreeMCBoot memory card, I was sideloading the games using SMB using a Raspberry pi 3 but I really don't like that setup so I bought a Fat PS2 thinking on putting FreeHDBoot on it.
The PS2 is model SCPH-39004 and I paid €45 for it. It came with a bunch of accessories and a Network Adaptor that I thought at the start was one of those off brand ones, like the Game star knock off compatible with SATA drives. When I opened it, it seems to be a genuine one? Now, IDE drives are hard to find and most of them have little capacity for the massive cost they have and I really doubt their reliability. This kind put a wrench in my plans because I may have to buy a SATA adaptor for it.

Another thing is that I put a disc to check if the disc drive/laser is working. While loading the game something was written on the screen IIRC loading Modbo Chip. Now I'm completely lost.

Searching online it seems to be a modchip (apparently until V4 are made by a company, then a v5 was made by an entirely different one) but I have no idea what version I have, what can it do and more importantly if it will create issues with FreeHDBoot. There was no mention of it in the listing when I bought the console.


What do you guys recommend I do?

 

[tech3475]

Be careful with conversion kits, I modded mine but I had to put kapton tape on it because it shorted.

I think it's also blown the 12v rail fuse so now I can only use 2.5" drives.

Also, don't bother with FreeHDBoot IMO except for initial setup or as a backup as it's slower than FMCB from my experience.

 

[SylverReZ]

Also, don't bother with FreeHDBoot IMO except for initial setup or as a backup as it's slower than FMCB from my experience.

OSDMenu exists which is meant to be a replacement to FMCB/FHDB. It also is known to work with modchips the best.

https://github.com/pcm720/OSDMenu

 

[Vultix93]

OSDMenu exists which is meant to be a replacement to FMCB/FHDB. It also is known to work with modchips the best.

https://github.com/pcm720/OSDMenu

Oh thank you. Didn't know about this. haven't touched my PS2 in years so I'm a bit out of the loop. As I have an original HDD network adaptor is it better to use OSDMenu or PSBBN Definitive English Patch? PSBBN seems way easier to install just by reading the guide

 

[SylverReZ]

Oh thank you. Didn't know about this. haven't touched my PS2 in years so I'm a bit out of the loop. As I have an original HDD network adaptor is it better to use OSDMenu or PSBBN Definitive English Patch? PSBBN seems way easier to install just by reading the guide

If you have many PS2 and/or PS1 games you'd like to transfer and want a nice interface, as well as OPL and Neutrino bundled, then PSBBN is your best bet. I recommend watching the latest videos from CosmicScale which will give you an idea as to what new features are added. Otherwise, for something a lot more basic and want to retain the feel of Free MCBoot, then use OSDMenu and PS2 Basic BootLoader.

 

[fvig2001]

I already have a Slim PS2 with a FreeMCBoot memory card, I was sideloading the games using SMB using a Raspberry pi 3 but I really don't like that setup so I bought a Fat PS2 thinking on putting FreeHDBoot on it.
The PS2 is model SCPH-39004 and I paid €45 for it. It came with a bunch of accessories and a Network Adaptor that I thought at the start was one of those off brand ones, like the Game star knock off compatible with SATA drives. When I opened it, it seems to be a genuine one? Now, IDE drives are hard to find and most of them have little capacity for the massive cost they have and I really doubt their reliability. This kind put a wrench in my plans because I may have to buy a SATA adaptor for it.

Another thing is that I put a disc to check if the disc drive/laser is working. While loading the game something was written on the screen IIRC loading Modbo Chip. Now I'm completely lost.

Searching online it seems to be a modchip (apparently until V4 are made by a company, then a v5 was made by an entirely different one) but I have no idea what version I have, what can it do and more importantly if it will create issues with FreeHDBoot. There was no mention of it in the listing when I bought the console.


What do you guys recommend I do?

Yeah you would need to buy a SATA adapter like the one made by BitFunx.

Modchips only have an effect on PSBBN afaik. I personally had to remove mine when I installed PSBBN.

 

[esmith13]

I already have a Slim PS2 with a FreeMCBoot memory card, I was sideloading the games using SMB using a Raspberry pi 3 but I really don't like that setup so I bought a Fat PS2 thinking on putting FreeHDBoot on it.
The PS2 is model SCPH-39004 and I paid €45 for it. It came with a bunch of accessories and a Network Adaptor that I thought at the start was one of those off brand ones, like the Game star knock off compatible with SATA drives. When I opened it, it seems to be a genuine one? Now, IDE drives are hard to find and most of them have little capacity for the massive cost they have and I really doubt their reliability. This kind put a wrench in my plans because I may have to buy a SATA adaptor for it.

Another thing is that I put a disc to check if the disc drive/laser is working. While loading the game something was written on the screen IIRC loading Modbo Chip. Now I'm completely lost.

Searching online it seems to be a modchip (apparently until V4 are made by a company, then a v5 was made by an entirely different one) but I have no idea what version I have, what can it do and more importantly if it will create issues with FreeHDBoot. There was no mention of it in the listing when I bought the console.


What do you guys recommend I do?

just throwing it out there as an option for you even though it's not what you are really asking about.
I have personally moved away from using my Phat PS2 and really only use slims with a 2.5" SSD and a micro router. This setup is cheap and can be 100% powered by the PS2 itself. Micro router connects to ethernet and a USB port on the PS2 for power. 2.5" SSD is powered by the micro router (if you use a 2.5" HDD you'd need a power splitter to plug into micro router and the second PS2 USB port for more power). There is no Pi or computer involved. The router boots faster than the PS2 slim and the SSD is available just as fast. The micro routers are just over 2" square.

Here's links to two models I have personally used for myself or helping get others setup this way:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TSK26W
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00634PLTW

EDIT: forgot to mention that someone even took the shell off of the TP Link model I posted and got it to fit internal to the Slim itself. There's soldering involved in this method but the result looks like a plain slim with a 2.5" SSD plugged into it via an extra USB port added on the back side. Pretty slick if you can solder well.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Whatever method helps get you gaming is what's right for you.

 

[Fien]

If there's a Modbo modchip installed, you probably can't use FreeHDBoot at all. It will boot, but launching every application results in a black screen except if you disable the chip each boot.

I have PS2's with Modbo 5.0 and original Matrix Infinity modchips and they are not compatible with FreeHDBoot.

FreeMCBoot should be fine.

A major drawback of PSBBN is that it uses APA-Jail (exFAT) to store PS2 games. Making it mandatory to remove the HDD and connect it to a PC each time you want to install new games. While the "old" HDL tools can reach up to 6-7MB/s when installing games over the LAN to the HDD, mounting exFAT using NBD over the LAN barely hits the 1MB/s, making it quite useless for game installing.

Also, the PSBBN installer was hard-coded to put PS2 games beyond the 128GB of the HDD. Making it impossible to use a smaller HDD's (which reasonable priced P-ATA HDD's probably are). I don't know if this is changed in newer versions of the installer.

 

[SylverReZ]

Yeah you would need to buy a SATA adapter like the one made by BitFunx.

Only downside is that an unofficial adapter will not work with PSBBN as it was designed to work with the official Sony HDD adapters only. There's currently ongoing discussions with Kaico to develop a compatible adapter for PSBBN, so far not heard much.

If you have an original Sony HDD adapter, buy a SATA modification kit and it's also recommended to get a Kingston SSD which is known to work best with PSBBN.

 

[Vultix93]

Happy to report that just installed the sata adapter and installed PSBBN and everything seems to work fine.

 

[cearp]

A major drawback of PSBBN is that it uses APA-Jail (exFAT) to store PS2 games. Making it mandatory to remove the HDD and connect it to a PC each time you want to install new games. While the "old" HDL tools can reach up to 6-7MB/s when installing games over the LAN to the HDD, mounting exFAT using NBD over the LAN barely hits the 1MB/s, making it quite useless for game installing.

So we can add data to the exfat partition over the network, but it's slow? Better than nothing I guess

 

[Fien]

So we can add data to the exfat partition over the network, but it's slow? Better than nothing I guess

Yes, you can use it over the network. But it took 1 minute to mount it and the transfer speed was 550KB/s. That's too slow to be really useful.

I still prefer HDL with it's 6-7MB/s.