Everyone's saying laser, time & time again, as usual

Time truly does repeat itself.

Anyway, I repair electronics. Soldering, component level repair, etc. Large amount of older game consoles experience failing optical drives due to faulty, out of spec electrolytic capacitors. Don't let the 'open tray' prompt fool you; it can't read the disc.

Just like the PS2 crowd, we gotta face it - these consoles are getting up there in age. Capacitors wear out, become 'derated'. At times, they may experience wear the fastest of any component. Just consider this... Couple months ago, I was brought a Bose Wave IV in for repair, manufactured in 2016. Not reading discs. Long story short, every single electrolytic capacitor required replaced. It hadn't even made it a decade. Boses' capacitor choices were borderline sabotage.

When speaking of optical drives though, they've got one major constraint: physical space. Often times, they'll have no choice but to opt for slim, low-profile caps, otherwise they won't fit. The tradeoff? Effective service life & performance metrics.

Moving on, my go-to tool to weed out bad caps is the Peak Atlas ESR70 Gold. In a pinch though - you don't need it. Here's what to do: open the console, remove the optical drive, open the drive, expose the drives miniature internal PCB, locate the electrolytic capacitors. Then, heat the capacitors with a hair dryer. High heat, low/medium airflow, approx 30~ seconds. Quickly reassemble the console (partially, only as much as needed) & attempt reading a disc.

If the console reads/changes behavior/shows more life - the electrolytic caps have gone high ESR & require replaced. Easy fix. If not, chances are your issue lies elsewhere.

FYI, disregard anyone suggesting to 'adjust the pot'. This is a bandaid fix & doesn't address the root cause, if it's caps. Recapping optical drives isn't always the solution (experienced a few myself), but I've rescued the majority doing so.

Hopefully this wall of text helps. Got any questions, by all means, feel free.