Warning To Those Using the Slide-Card Cog-Swap Method on your PS2!!!!!!
ok, i had a brilliant experience with a friend's ps2 that im sure you all want to avoid.
from this day forth, i no longer recommend you using the Slide-Card method on your PS2. for those whom have been away, this method involves using a knife, cog, or card to open your PS2 tray and insert a backup (for educational purposes) into your PS2 to boot without your PS2 knowing it.
versions 4+ of the PS2 have a small pipe thing under the screw of the front tray. in the early versions, this pipe was pretty stable.. apparently in these versions it is not. if you unscrew the front cover, the pipe will come unhatched.
what happens is, it works fine for a while, then when you start doing stuff the pipe will get locked under the tray. if your lucky, you'll just be able to push it back in. what happened to me was that the pipe got locked without me knowing it, i pushed the tray in, starting playing, then turned off the ps2. when i turned it back on and pressed the eject button it appared the pipe was actually caught under the tray and it had hit some sort of spring in the back and completely fucked it up. the tray was diagonal, therefore it could not eject. we took the pipe out, but the spring was still fucked.
i'm now paying for his new PS2 (not because i have to, because i feel responsable), so i do not recommend using the swap method with a later ps2. thats all i have to say.