Actually I have as well. I bought the Ps2 when it first came out. I had the same long booting problems, as well as troubles reading the disks. Fear not, as Sony repairs these problems for free, as long as you are recieving the Disk Read Error Screen. I Called them up and discribed the problems, as long as you havent voided your warranty i.e (installing a mod chip) they fix these even when the warranty is long expired!

If you do a Google search for PS2 disk problems, you see just how many people have had this exact same issue. There are tons of sites out there that give the info on how to fix it. It has to do with the voltage for the laser getting out of whack. Here is a good article on how you can fix it. My buddy did it to his when it started happening and it's worked perfect since.

http://www.techtv.com/xplay/features/story/0,24330,3516150,00.html

I am going to use a lens cleaner disk and see if that helps.

Popping the console open and getting in there and cleaning the read laser eye by hand fixed the same problem for me. I still have my walkthough left on the shattered remains of my website:

http://insanedavid.tripod.com/eventsfeaturesIMPORTPS2cleaning.htm

I tried using a lens cleaner CD before all that but it didn't work.

I tried using a CD cleaner, but it had problems reading that, too. Ironic, eh? But I called Sony, had me do a couple things with it, and gave me the info to send it in. I was without a PS2 for about two weeks, but I pulled out my old Dreamcast and still had fun with it.

My ps2 is the old noisy fan model (awful for DVDs) and it was haveing trouble reading discs and then couldn't at all/ new lens laser thingy and shabam! fixed. but, the tray is still noisy and slow coming in & out. apparantly the ps3 won't have a fan at all and is a mushroom shaped blue/silver design. I heard it can hold more than disc too like a CD stacker. Cool, eh?

p.s I like oranges 'cause the're tasty

My ps2 is the old noisy fan model (awful for DVDs) and it was haveing trouble reading discs and then couldn't at all/ new lens laser thingy and shabam! fixed. but, the tray is still noisy and slow coming in & out. apparantly the ps3 won't have a fan at all and is a mushroom shaped blue/silver design. I heard it can hold more than one disc too like a CD stacker. Cool, eh?

p.s I like oranges 'cause the're tasty

The PS3 will have a DVD-Rom so it can play PS2 and PSOne games but not much is known about it and hard facts are not out there.

This same crap is happening with my damn Xbox. I know that all Laser disk devices can and most likely will be knocked out of alignment. Supposedly alignment is adjustable, but not exactly easy to get to or do. I wish we'd move away from spinning mechanical media and go back to something more stable like rom chips. We now have Flash cards that are the the size of a quarter and hold a gig or more. Ultimately cds and dvds are cheap, but are flawed by there mechanical nature. We'll all have the games ten years from now, but will we have any systems to play them on? I know my Sega CD doesn't work anymore. =(

I don't have a Turbo Grafx 16 but I do have the PC Engine emulator Magic Engine with CD support so I can play a Turbo CD game that I borrow from BBQ. I could see the day when ISO file made from a rip of a game CD could be used in a emulator of an old game system like the Sega CD. So in five years or so we will all be able to play Sewer Shark and Night Trap in emulation on our cell phones. Scary when you think about it.