Now the PS2s are blowing up

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 September, 2005

Global recall of slimline PS2 AC Adaptors after some melt.

Sony has announced a global recall of certain AC adaptors supplied with the black slimline PlayStation after ascertaining that they may overheat and cause injury.

The company has blamed subcontractor for supplying a component to the AC Adaptor manufacturer that was vulnerable to overheating – so much so that in severe cases, reported in North America, the AC Adaptor actually melted.

Sony Europe says it knows of four cases in its territories of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania and described the incidents as minor with no severe consequences. The recall is a "precautionary measure", it said.

The AC adaptors in question were manufactured between August and December of 2004 and supplied with PS2 models SCPH70002, 70003 and 70004. Sony has launched a special website, www.ps2ac.com to help you check whether yours needs replacing. You can find details of numbers to call on the same site and they will also be published in national newspapers tomorrow.

Replacements will be made available free of charge, and Sony advises anybody with an affected unit to avoid using it again until it's replaced. The replacement will arrive with a prepaid postage label so that you can send it back to Sony to be disposed of.

Sony has declined to comment on how much the recall is likely to cost, although all those prepaid packages and replacement AC Adaptors aren't likely to come cheap. Sony may have had trouble supplying PS2s to retailers during the run-up to Christmas last year, but it wasn't because it manufactured less units; they simply took longer to make it to market.

It's not the first problem of its sort we've encountered this year, either. In February Microsoft announced that it was voluntarily replacing 14.1 million Xbox power cables after a similar fault was uncovered, only to admit a few months later that the number was actually larger than initially thought.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • space_ace #1 7 years ago

    ps2: now with realistic, lifelike explosions

  • trevd72 #2 7 years ago

    is this only for the slim black pstwo of the silver one as well?
    Edited by 1 at 13/09/05 @ 09:31

  • Retroid #3 7 years ago

    O_o;;

  • zErOb_cOOl #4 7 years ago

    "The AC adaptors in question were manufactured between August and December of 2004 and supplied with PS2 models SCPH70002, 70003 and 70004."

    I knew there was something fishy about the heat coming off the Slimline PS2 though. I thought the console itself got far too hot, never mind the power adaptor! So glad I didn't wait and buy one.

  • tengu #5 7 years ago

    I bought my Yank PS2 in January, so I'm assuming it's one of the screwed ones, yes? Wonderful, no doubt they'll give me great service seeing as it's a foreign model I need sorted :\

  • drumbaby #6 7 years ago

    /strokes chubby silver PS2

  • OnlyMe #7 7 years ago

    /strokes slimline silver PS2

    I bought my slimline PAL PS2 on the day of release. They're not affected.

  • DocFreak #8 7 years ago

    Huh... what's up with that website? I selected the data in the three drop-down menus... now what? There's no CONTINUE button or any feedback. This viral marketing or what??

    Anyone got this sorted out? I don't wanna burn to death in my sleep.

  • chronom4n #9 7 years ago

    what's this. could this be the first ever case of consoles commiting suicide bombings?!!!!!!!
    looks like well have to shooot on sight then!!!!!!!!!!

  • Blerk #10 7 years ago

    /has silver slimline model
    /unplugs it anyway, just in case

  • DocFreak #11 7 years ago

    Have to use IE, DocFreak. Sony hates Mozilla.

    I'm on a Mac, so that's just another inconvenience they caused.
    At least they apologize. And I'm not gonna burn. Not before hell, at least.

    Thanks, jaspoid.

  • brombeer #12 7 years ago

    /Glad I went for silver

  • Bangaioh #13 7 years ago

    Similar to Apple 12" Power Macs... Some actually blew up.

  • renzo #14 7 years ago

    /has silver slimline model

    Since when? Did your old one pack up?

  • Seifer #15 7 years ago

    I swear to god if my slimline dies I will never buy another peice of sony crap in my life! Not bein funny but this is my third Ps2 (all replaced because of dodgy drives/poor or no dvd playback apart from my last one wich just decided to completely die a few weeks ago) I just dont get it, arent sony meant to be THE electronics giant but even after ten or more years of making playstations they are still giving us poorly made (probably in taiwan) crap! I am really not happy about this as I've never had to re-purchase a console and I've had them all why are sony so useless? *not happy*

  • trevd72 #16 7 years ago

    the above post is the reason why sony can say they sold x million ps2's. I have had three myself.

  • Blerk #17 7 years ago

    Since when? Did your old one pack up?

    The arrival of very occasional 'disc read error' messages created the sudden need to trade the old one in for a new model before it packed up completely. :-)

  • renzo #18 7 years ago

    I got those 'disc read errors' as well on my old one, but I managed to fix it following a guide I linked to ages ago on the forum. Eventually GTA:SA finished it off though, and it just went dead. :(

    The slimline model is very nice though. Small and quiet. Did you manage to muster up the courage to tinker with the Swap Tool to play imports though?

  • Blerk #19 7 years ago

    Not yet, I've only had it a few weeks.

    I'm a lot less worried about non-Euro releases now, though. :-)

  • OnlyMe #20 7 years ago

    I've actually never bought a Sony products that's failed. Why everyone else is having problems with them is beyond me. Am I just being extremely lucky?

    I've bought two TVs from Sony, both of them the most successful tv-purchases I've made. Philips is supposed to be cream of the crop, but I'm more satisfied with my Sony tvs.

    I bought the original PS1 back in '98 or '99, modified it almost immediately. Runs like hell even today. Let a family member borrow it, and bought myself the remake, PSone later. Modified very quickly. Still runs as new. Bought my first PS2 four months after the initial PAL release. Runs perfectly today. Bought an american PS2 some months later, along with FFX. This is my current PS2 for import games. Bought a silver slimline PS2 earlier this year, on the day of release. Needless to say, this still works as good as new too.

    Do people thrown their PS2s in the walls or anything, 'cause all of mine have been incredibly resilient.

    Oh, both my Discman and MD Walkman are in perfect condition, technically. And most recently, my PSP. I don't think I've ever had a dodgy Sony product.

  • renzo #21 7 years ago

    True, most of the games I want to play get released in PALand. It's just the wait for some of them which annoys me.

  • jiveguy #22 7 years ago

    If I owned several of the same console I'd throw one of them at the wall, just for the crack like.

  • renzo #23 7 years ago

    Mine was fine for a long time until I was stupid enough to mount it vertically to 'save space'. A few months later it started giving me trouble.

    Obviously you should never mount something vertically when it wasn't designed to be mounted that way in the first place.

  • Tomo #24 7 years ago

    I wonder if Sony would have done this for free if it wasn't for Microsoft giving free replacement cables during their fault?

  • Markusdragon #25 7 years ago

    *looks around for the Ps2 fanboys that were saying that Xboxes kill people when Xbox had the recall*

  • tengu #26 7 years ago

    Yeah, this'll learn those BS2 lamers for daring to laugh at the Xbox!

  • Blerk #27 7 years ago

    I wonder if Sony would have done this for free if it wasn't for Microsoft giving free replacement cables during their fault?

    Of course they would, you lump. You can't flog dangerous stuff and then refuse to replace it.

  • Artemus #28 7 years ago

    I bought one at Xmas but had to replace it in January so thankfully I'm not affected. Took their sweet time to let people know.

  • smelliot #29 7 years ago

    Haha, I've now had to replace both my PS2 and Xbox cables!

  • RabidMonkey #30 7 years ago

    "Haha, I've now had to replace both my PS2 and Xbox cables!"

    Yes, as have I. Kind of makes you feel special doesn't it?
    Edited by 1 at 13/09/05 @ 16:49

  • brombeer #31 7 years ago

    I feel left out. Both my PS2 and Xbox didn't qualify.

  • Nillsens #32 7 years ago

    How many people who have had to replace their consoles are smokers I wonder? I'm pretty sure my awful habit and the lifespan of my first Xbox were connected.

  • tengu #33 7 years ago

    My PS2 was alright, whoopee. Now I just have to wait for it to start throwing up Disc read errors. GO SONY WORKMANSHIP!

  • Seifer #34 7 years ago

    I never really though about it before but the combined cost of me replacing dead Ps2's since its uk launch has been like £600 ,£300 for the first one ,£200 for the second one and £100 for my slimline ,kinda makes you wonder if Sony do it on purpose. In the three or so years Ive had an XBox not one single prob,it's my most used music&dvd player aswell. To me it just makes the Xbox360 seem even more apealing. I will never be a fanboy as it's all about the games but Sony dont half make it easy to hate them.
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/05 @ 01:06

  • brombeer #35 7 years ago

    For me it was the other way around. My THIRD Xbox in two years, my PS2 was from launchday, and still works (in the bedroom uhum) like a dream and bought a slimline because the Xbox took up all the space. The Xbox is explainable because I threw many a joypad on it in pure frustration and since you can't miss it, I wrecked every harddisk in it. The PS2s, I missed and still work. Perhaps there's the connection we seek and needn't blame Sony but ourselves?

  • Seifer #36 7 years ago

    Hmm I can't say the same rules apply to me brombeer as I tend not to attack any of my consoles,all are treated the same and looked after, I know a few have had probs with the XBox but I dont think it's on anything like the Ps2 scale of things, I have friends who have shared the exact same problems as me , so I'm afraid I still veer towards blaming Sony for poor (probably on purpose) workmanship.

  • brombeer #37 7 years ago

    Err, ok Seifer. You honestly haven't thrown a controller once, not even near your console?

  • Seifer #38 7 years ago

    no mate I havent, I'm not a rich guy so I wouldnt break my 300 quid console on purpose.
    Edited by 1 at 15/09/05 @ 05:47

  • Repsode #39 7 years ago

    Sony workmanship at its best, I am now on my 4th PS2 now, (all three died of disc drive failure, just within warranty, thank god!) Seriously if it wasn't for the industry's dependance on PS2 i'd have quit after that. I am SO envious of those who had no problems with their PS2s. You, my lucky friends seem to be in a minority. I now behave like an overprotective mother with my Sony consoles(PSP alert!).
    But surely all this faulty power adapter stuff (which my Gamecube has been free of) is indicitive of end of generation cutbacks?