V12 Modbo modchip installation diagram

The very first revision of the slim PlayStation 2 was the V12. They were found in most of the SCPH-7000x and all SCPH-7001x models. They retain full PS1 backwards compatibility, and require some form of a laser fix. Matching console model numbers and board numbers are listed below.

You can find the model number on the sticker on the bottom of the console, and the board number is printed on the PS2 main board if you take apart your console. Note that there can be multiple board numbers within a specific model number.

  • NTSC-J (Japan):
    • SCPH-70000 (GH-035-11)
    • SCPH-70006 (GH-035-11)
    • SCPH-70007 (GH-035-11)
  • NTSC-U/C (USA)
    • SCPH-70011 (GH-035-21)
    • SCPH-70012 (GH-035-21)
  • PAL
    • SCPH-70002 (GH-035-61)
    • SCPH-70003 (GH-035-61)
    • SCPH-70004 (GH-035-61)

Note that there are multiple versions of the Modbo modchips available, but the installation diagrams are all the same. Some example versions are Modbo 3.0, Modbo 4.0, Modbo 5.0, and Modbo 750.

For more information about Modbo modchips click here, for more information about PS2 modchips in general click here.

V12 Modbo installation diagram

Modbo modchip pinout

V12 Modbo installation diagram

V12 laser fix diagrams

There was a defect in the design of the V12 console that can cause the laser to burn out when playing back games once a modchip has been installed. There are three main fixes out there. I recommend installing the summ0ne’s fix at a minimum, but ideally you’d want to install the PIC fix. I don’t recommend the diode fix.

  1. summ0ne’s fix
    V12 summ0ne's laser fix diagramThis fix involves soldering two resistors to your PS2’s main board. Read the label on the resistor marked R:{303,683,01D}. Based on that value install the corresponding Rst resistor, and then install the 4.7k-ohm Rsf resistor.It’s a very easy and cheap fix that reduces the maximum power doing into the laser preventing burnout.The disadvantage to this fix is that it can reduce the effectiveness of a worn out laser (because the laser may actually need a higher voltage as it wears out).
  2. Matrix PIC fix
    V12 Matrix PIC laser fix diagramThis fix involves soldering a programmed PIC12C508 chip, along with a 1.5k-ohm resistor, to your PS2’s main board. The PIC will sense when the disc mechanics (mechacon) controller crashes, and shut off the system when that happens so the laser won’t get burned out.This is a great fix, since it only interacts with the system when things go wrong, and not all the time. The disadvantages to this fix is that it costs the most, and it could potentially shut off your system when you’re playing a game. It can also be more time consuming to find the right resistor value if the 1.5k resistor doesn’t work.To test the PIC fix installation connect pin 4 to GND instead of point K. If the system turns on and then off about 3 seconds later then the installation is good. If the system never turns on (or the red system light doesn’t even turn on) then that means the resistor value is too low (try a 2k resistor). If the system doesn’t turn off then you might need to try a lower resistor value, or you might have an issue with your chip or installation.
  3. Diode fix
    V12 diode laser fix diagram
    This fix involves soldering a couple of 1N4148 diodes to your PS2’s main board. It works by reducing the voltage of the signal coming from the CD/DVD controller, which in turn reduces the amount of voltage going to the laser.I’ve heard of many cases where a system’s laser will still burn out even with the diode fix installed. Because of that I do not recommend the diode fix. It can also reduce the effectiveness of a worn out laser (because the laser may actually need a higher voltage as it wears out).

Installation tips

Here are some tips I have for you when you are soldering your chip into a V12.

  • Using 30 AWG solid core wire works well for most of the points.
  • Use some thicker wire for the 5V and ground wires.
  • Make sure wherever you are putting your chip won’t cause any issues when putting the system back together, PS2 slims fit together very tightly.

Example installations

This section has photos of some successful installations which you can use to get a better understanding of how everything is wired and positioned. Leave a comment and I’ll add your installation to the list

  1. William Quade (me)

V12 Modbo modchip example installation

62 Comments
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lgk
lgk
May 16, 2019 5:12 PM

Thanks for the useful infos.
PAL SCPH-70004 GH-032-31, you can add this revision here because it worked fine.
Just a tip, I think that’s better to place the chip on the right near “caution”.
You have to use more wire but there is more room when reassembling the console.

John
John
July 13, 2020 5:05 PM

Hello
Thanks for your info !
I put a picture of mine ps2
V12 ps2 Modbo 5.0 with summ0ne’s fix

John
John
July 30, 2020 7:57 AM
Reply to  John

picture

IMG_20200707_201017.bmp
tommy
tommy
November 8, 2020 11:14 PM
Reply to  John

After I modified my 70006 with summ0ne’s fix, the laser motor do not spin, do you have same issue? how to solve it? thanks.

Charles
December 11, 2018 3:54 PM

Hello! Thanks for all these guides, you site is awesome! I have a PS2 slim SCPH 70010 should I follow this diagram? Thanks!

david
david
February 24, 2019 11:37 PM

Hello, where can i pick up a programmed PIC12C508 chip on a PCB as shown in install videos I have seen?

david
david
February 25, 2019 5:58 PM
Reply to  William Quade

Sent you an email. Thanks!

迪奧
迪奧
March 13, 2019 12:46 AM

Hello, about the two resistors rst and rsf of sommOne, which are mostly wattage, thank you

迪奧
迪奧
March 13, 2019 8:05 AM
Reply to  William Quade

Thanks, your article has taught me a lot of experience.

JaNoZ
JaNoZ
December 10, 2019 11:25 AM

Hi Guys, i have the SCPH-70004 GH-032-31 that is a V13 right, the laser resistor section looks the same as the V12, with R=683.
Does the V13 need the two resistors for laser voltage fix yes or no? and could i use SMT resistors intead or are they too light wattage for use.?

JaNoZ
JaNoZ
December 13, 2019 9:42 AM
Reply to  William Quade

I did the mod on V13 with SMT and the drive acted weird and could only read original DVD video, the rest was a failure.
The mod removed again, so a few ps2 discs and a few copy’s do work now, but most do not at all and keep loading long and make strange seek pickup noises.
I think the laser is a bit snafu.

Zach F.
Zach F.
January 21, 2020 10:53 AM

Hi William! Thank you for all the hard work you did putting this diagrams together. I’ve got my slim PS2 modded now thanks to the diagrams. An interesting note though: I have a V12 Slim PS2, model number SCPH-70012 (NTSC). The motherboard, however, did not have a GH-035-XX format motherboard. The motherboard revision was GH-032-12, which is listed as a PAL version of the V13 series. The layout was identical to your V12 diagrams so I used that, and it works perfectly. Anyway, I can share a photo of my *egregiously* bad soldering job if you want to add it… Read more »

rd
rd
January 28, 2020 12:02 PM

Does this installation method will work on (GH-035-72) board??

rd
rd
January 28, 2020 12:07 PM
Reply to  William Quade

thanks….one more thing can u plz make a blog on how to add hdd on this board !!

Justin
Justin
February 20, 2020 11:20 PM

Do you sell Matrix PIC fix?

muzzmobile
muzzmobile
March 4, 2020 1:56 AM

Is there an alternative point for solder point M. Mine is damaged and won’t take any solder

muzzmobile
muzzmobile
March 4, 2020 1:33 PM
Reply to  William Quade

Thanks for that William. Point M has basically completely gone will this create an issue? I’m thinking it’s broken the circuit. Cheers

muzzmobile
muzzmobile
March 4, 2020 10:54 PM
Reply to  William Quade

I’ve just put it all back together without the modbo so back to stick and there is no video or audio. Any idea if that pad may have been the cause? Cheers

Tristin Leonard
Tristin Leonard
March 24, 2020 8:13 PM

was able to use this to mod my V12 board thanks a ton

Bud
Bud
April 20, 2020 1:38 PM

Thanks for all these guides you’ve made for various systems and chips. You’ve done an amazing job cataloguing all of this in one place. You also have the absolute BEST teardown guide for 700XX slims!

On to my question – I was curious if the PIC fix file could be written to a 12C509 instead of a 12C508, just like the MM3 can be for PS1? I haven’t worked with these chips before and want to make sure I can use a 12C509 for both before I buy a few. Thanks!

Mike
Mike
May 2, 2020 10:27 PM

I lifted the pad at cx on the board is there another spot I can solder to on the ps2 board

Jackson Young
Jackson Young
May 28, 2020 6:23 AM

The Rsf one of my boards is a 303. It is not a 01D. Should I use a 560R?

John
John
July 18, 2020 10:58 AM

Hello
thanks for your useful infos
i have a problem
i installed the modbo 5.0 on my v12 succsefully
when i play a backup game after the ps2 heat the game start freezing some times it doesnt load or says “please insert a playstation format disc”
can you help me about?
thanks !!!

John
John
July 20, 2020 12:41 PM
Reply to  William Quade

i change the laser but nothing after 5-10minutes of game start freezing..after reset the ps2 maybe not load the game

titifayls
titifayls
July 22, 2020 10:35 AM

Hello , possible to have the HEX for PIC Fix send on my mail ? thank you
my mother board is GH-035-21 but on shell the model is scph-70004 PAL ,
must be fixed even if not USA model ?

Last edited 4 years ago by titifayls
Tom Cadero
Tom Cadero
September 8, 2020 9:17 PM

I’m dumb..I ordered the chip without the board..

Tom Cadero
Tom Cadero
September 13, 2020 8:17 PM

So, I just finished my install of Modbo 5.0 with Matrix fix on V12. I think I may have killed it, but that’s ok. I was doing this for fun and for the soldering practice. However Just wanted to mention what it’s doing incase this sounds like it could be fixable. One I plug power in the light turns red. If I hit the power button it goes green for about 5 seconds then goes back to red. You ever hear of that? Once the fan started spinning then stopped. Still same behavior. I had trouble with some of the… Read more »

Tom Cadero
Tom Cadero
September 13, 2020 10:22 PM
Reply to  William Quade

Interesting. I’ll check it out. I might remove the resistor temporarily just to see if things work, but not run it long. Unless you don’t recommend that. How long does it take to cause the laser to burn out without the PIC fix?

Johan
Johan
October 30, 2021 9:38 AM
Reply to  Tom Cadero

I have the exact same issue on a 70004. Did you solve this problem? I have only installed the modbo 5.0, didnt install any laser burnout fix. I have previously done this mod successfully so i dont know why it doesnt work this time. The other ps2 slim that i installed a modbo 5.0 in was another version and the only thing i noticed was that the place where you solder the 3.3volt connection was a bit different. The one that doesnt work looks like william quades (marked 202) and the one that works is marked 50 like on the… Read more »

Tom Cadero
Tom Cadero
November 1, 2021 11:42 AM
Reply to  Johan

Nope I never successfully got any of these installed. I did have a bit of fun attempting it though. I ordered a memory card that you can boot from and do almost all of what you could do with the chip, which worked fairly well, but I apparently damaged my disk reader during the dozen times I uninstalled it and reinstalled it so I couldn’t read disks any longer. My bad. Haven’t really messed with it since last year when I was working on this.At the time I was laid off from my job, so I had a lot of… Read more »

Johan
Johan
November 1, 2021 4:30 PM
Reply to  Tom Cadero

Too bad that you never found out what the problem was. I am suspecting that i might have killed the fuse where i soldered the 3.3v connection… I get really strange readings when i try to check its resistance. So I’ll try to find the correct smd fuse somewhere online and switch it out.
If thats not it i really dont know.
I’ve really enjoyed these mods, Great fun soldering all those tiny connections 🙂

Emrah
Emrah
January 8, 2021 10:50 PM

I love you. I’m from turkey.. greetings from Turkey

Shenmue
Shenmue
January 17, 2021 12:52 PM

SCPH-70012 is GH-035-11 not GH-035-21. Seems like a copy-and-paste error. I was looking for 5V point on this board for a different type of project and your article helped me out! Thanks!

Last edited 3 years ago by Shenmue
Sergio
Sergio
March 16, 2021 6:04 AM

After sucsessfull intallation of the modbo 5.0 on a V4, i’d like to modify a V12.

I see there is the need for a PIC chip. How do i get one of those?

foldor
foldor
March 24, 2021 1:12 PM

Any opinion on the SubZero fix, or Comsoft v4 over the Matrix PIC fix?

Enes Gündüz
Enes Gündüz
June 5, 2021 5:00 PM

Hello everyone, i have spch-70004 gh-032-31 board. this board already have messiah chip and diode fix, but i want to upgrade modbo. Firstly i tried remove diode fix but, after this proceses this laser work, but not disc spiner running and laser engine just vibrating, laser don’t goes any where. I didn’t break any compenent on board and i couldn’t find any missing compenent, maybe diode fix broke any component ?

RoCKyGamer
RoCKyGamer
July 18, 2021 3:08 PM

hello a question the chip to fix the laser so that it does not burn eh seen that it has the same pic12C508 number as a ps1 chip, would an MM3 be used for the V12 laser ??? that chip would fix the ps2 slim V12 laser problem thanks

Rockygamer
Rockygamer
July 19, 2021 1:25 PM
Reply to  William Quade

ok thanks, where could i get that chip for the laser thanks

I’ve been looking for it for a long time and I’m out of luck

Zach
Zach
July 19, 2021 4:13 AM

Hey, thank you for these guides. So i did the install on a v12 board and i get the matrix logo and all the menus are working. However it will not read discs at all. I even tried disabling it witth the start button still nothing. It read them fine before i did the install. What should i check? The only thing i can think of is i lifted the I via on accident and was barely able to get the wire soldered. Is there another point i can solder to for I?