S: Argh! Free PSP "this disc could not be read"

[OneKidOneDogMom]

My 9 year old son was given a used PSP from his Dad (my ex) on Thanksgiving - without the power cord and with no games.

We went to Best Buy today and bought a charger and a new game for him, came home and charged the battery and....

ARGH! All I can get is the dang "The disc could not be read" message. The PSP website is less than helpful in troubleshooting this and I'm not really a tech-type person.

Anyone want to try to troubleshoot this for me or point me in the right direction for getting it fixed?

FYI - everything else seems to work...it has a memory card and I have linked up to the internet. One thing that bothers me is that under the "Games" tab the User's Guide says there should be an icon for "UMB" - and there's not. Is that the problem? I've also done a network update today, too.

Any help, advice or even commiseration would be greatly appreciated.....

Thanks!!!

[Jah Rulez]

It may be the laser that reads the UMD or the UMD itself. You will only know if you put another game in there and it either reads or doesn't read. Also check the back of the UMD for smudges, scratches, etc.

If it is the laser you can find a replacement part on ebay for pretty cheap. I have replaced the LCD screen and laser on a few PSP's.

FYI, you will only see the icon for UMD if a game is in the PSP.

[OneKidOneDogMom]

Thanks for the info...

After clearing off all the porn and inappropriate downloaded games that were on the PSP (can you tell my ex is a gem?), I played with it for a while, powered on and off and - tada! It works!

I think it may have a touchy laser or maybe there's some lint or who-knows-what in/on the laser.

All I know is that my 9 year old is now happy that he can play with it...and I'm happy that all the trash is now OFF it.

Thanks again for the response :)

[Jenny]

Ah, glad it works! I was wondering. :D