Bypassing the disc tray lid sensor on a PSOne.

[Soluzar]

As you may know, playing imports on the first generation of PlayStation consoles is a relatively simple matter. All that is required is a bootdisc called "Breaker Pro" and some way to bypass the sensor for the lid of the disc tray so that the boot disc may be safely swapped for a game disc. The usual method is to use a spring for the larger grey model, or a self-adhesive strip of plastic for the smaller white model.

I have the smaller white model. I generally differentiate it from the larger, grey PS1 by calling it the PSOne, but I thought that I would clarify in order to avoid any confusion.

I'm tired of such kludges as a self-adhesive strip of plastic which is not always so strongly adhesive as it should be. In truth I'm not entirely happy about the need to use a bootdisc at all, but I doubt that I could find a modchip for the PS1 these days. Even if I could, I've always doubted my ability to install such a thing.

What I want to know is if it's possible to bypass the sensor for the lid of the disc tray permanently? I would imagine that this could be done with a relatively simple bit of soldering, but my knowledge of the PlayStation internals isn't up to much.

Can anyone explain to me how this is done? If so, can you provide pictures, and explain it in terms simple enough that I can understand it? I wouldn't say that I'm stupid, but electronics isn't a field I've delved into at all.

Last but not least, can you tell me if there's a reasonable chance that I can manage to do this with my minimal skills without destroying the PlayStation in question? I'd prefer that, if at all possible.

[Life of Brian]

Absolutely. If you open up your PSOne's case, you'll notice a small black switch that has a button that gets pressed down when the lid is closed. To permanently disable the lid detection, snap that thing off and solder a small bit of metal or wire (even a paper clip will work) between the switch's connections to the board. That way, the PSOne will always think the button is being pressed down. Voila!

[Kyosho]

Better to wire in a switch for it instead. Otherwise you might run into trouble with multi-disc games. It's what I did.

[17daysolderthannes]

Better to wire in a switch for it instead. Otherwise you might run into trouble with multi-disc games. It's what I did.

have you tested it with the switch "on" to see what happens (swapping discs)? I believe the "open lid" switch is more or less a kill switch of sorts and doesn't really have anything to do with multi-disc games, but I really can't confirm that. If you can test it, it would be nice to know.

[Kyosho]

Ah, sorry, my PSOneP no longer exists to test it. But, I seem to recall Metal Gear Solid being able to tell when the disc tray was open and when it was closed again, while changing discs, which is why I made the switch. But I might've been wrong about that. It's been a long time since I've played it.

[dragonball345]

in final fantasy it siad insert next disc you pop open the thing disc isnt spiining and replace this is for the the ps1 though.