Little things that irk you.. (no swearing please)

[ETC]

My cooker blowing up the same ****ing day I finally get my kenwood pro chef balls

[Spatial]

my kenwood pro chef balls

Pro Chef Balls. When only the best is good enough.

[ETC]

Pro Chef Balls. When only the best is good enough.

Damn right

[Fader209]

It will happen to all Ps2s one day, first the Blue Discs and PS1 games won't play, then boom.

Don't say such hurtful things!

Crazy amount of hours spent on that machine, ah well...time to grab the slim PS2 I have as back up from my Dads house

[dataDave]

The whole concept of buying concert tickets is now a joke. Eddie Vedder tickets on sale at 9.00am, all gone by 9.02am and eBay and Get Me In are selling them for stupid money. It's just so wrong.

Hmm. Yeah. That's the problem with Internet booking. Back in the day you had to queue before you could speak to some old dear.

[Breadboy]

Don't say such hurtful things!

Crazy amount of hours spent on that machine, ah well...time to grab the slim PS2 I have as back up from my Dads house

It may just be dust buildup after all these years. Why not open it up and try giving the laser a clean, or adjusting the cog at the back of the drive?

And even if the lens really has died, there is no set order in which discs stop playing (contrary to what EvilBoris posted), as there are two parts to the laser, for CD and DVD. It simply depends on which media type wore its corresponding laser part, for example if you used DVDs exclusively and hardly any CDs (as most people would), you could expect the CD side to still function even after it won't play any more DVDs.

[JazzFunk]

PS2 'blues' not playing/taking aaaaaages to get recognised. Took me about twenty attempts for it to read Bloody Roar 3, longer than I actually ended up playing it.

What's even weirder is that when it finally reads a 'blue', then it's locked-in, 100% reliable. It'll read scratched-up 'silvers' 99% of the time, but they'll usually f*ck up at some point, usually on FMV bits or on load screens, and refuse to work. I like the fact that once a blue's been 'allowed', I'll have no probs at all, unlike DVD games.

Funny, that.

[randombs]

Try using the console upside down. It's worked for me in the past. Gravity pulls the laser down a teeny bit which helps it focus.

I wonder if the laser needs a bit of an adjustment(those tiny screws, one for CD and one for DVD)? If you get the top off - I'm assuming it's a fat PS2 and not a slim - you can remove the magnet from the lid of the DVD drive, then put your disc in and put the magnet on top. You'll probably find it spins and stops, spins and stops, while it tries to focus on the disc, after which it'll play. When you adjust the power, you'll find it spins up and focuses a lot more quickly.

Laser adjustment is boring, though.

[Kieran76]

Hmm. Yeah. That's the problem with Internet booking. Back in the day you had to queue before you could speak to some old dear.

I remember queuing from 5 am to get front row Metallica tickets. At least you stood a chance, these days you don't even get a chance to get tickets.

[JazzFunk]

^I've tried that to some degree of success, though it seems a bit fiddly for a regular setup (current "setup" is a Crystal Xbox with a phat PS2 on top, then a 360, with a Wii on top of that, with a PS3 atop them all...and LOTS of wires behind!!!!) When I get around to it, might have another fiddle with that toothed white spindle near the laser...

Wish you get an uber PS2 that had a top-quality DVD drive that played everything you chucked at it. Forever.

[randombs]

It'd be hilarious if the massive PSX did exactly that

I've heard different things about the spindle - some say it works, others say it's rotated automatically so adjusting it doesn't really do anything. I sort of believe the latter because a) I've never had success using it and b) it's got teeth which makes me think some gear is controlling it although I didn't go looking to see if it's connected to anything. The teeth could've just been a coincidence.

[randombs]

I got a 4S on Vodafone in mid-Feb from CPW. Signal was crap at home so took advantage of their no-fuss signal guarantee returns policy after a week and a half. Disconnect was processed, and got a new 4S on O2. Everything's been dandy, signal-wise. Noticed Vodafone took ?37 for the first month's rental and figured I'd call them up this weekend and get them to gimme some back, seeing as I hadn't used the whole month(and because the CPW guy said I'd only be charged for my usage up to that point).

Just got a letter from Vodafone this morning saying "sorry to see you go, and here's your bill":

?674.38 wil be taken by DD on 28th March.

And here I was ready to make a massive breakfast feast comprising waffles, eggs, and other such delicacies but I'll be on the blower to CPW now.

Hilariously, it's meant to be ?703.23 but they've reduced it by ?25.76 which is the refund for the unused rental that I was worried about. Every cloud, eh?

[EvilBoris]

What a ball ache , looks like they charged you for the phone.

[noobish hat]

And here I was ready to make a massive breakfast feast comprising waffles, eggs, and other such delicacies but I'll be on the blower to CPW now.

I would just be on the blower to the bank to cancel the DD. Job done.

[randombs]

@EB: Yep, it's basically the 24-month contract minus three weeks

@noobish: I could just do that from my online banking but I'd rather just sort it first and see what happens because things seem to get annoying when we wantonly cancel DDs.

I spoke with someone from CPW who's sorting it out now and she said Vodafone's requesting a conference call because they can't find me on their system. It seems the issue could be because I cancelled the Vodafone and then ported my number to O2 while the disconnection was taking place.

I wouldn't usually mind as it's obviously just some kind of error and is pretty much my fault because I ported my Orange number to Voda, but didn't tell the CPW guy I wanted to port again until after he'd disconnected it(I got worried there'd be some kind of clause saying if you port your number then it implies some kind of binding agreement, you know what small print is like). If I'd told him first, he would've got me to port the number to O2 before he cancelled the Vodafone contract.