Two problems remained:

• The inherent design of this model can cause the ribbon cable to scratch the disc.
• The disc wouldn’t spin unless I applied a bit of pressure to the lid.

I fixed the first problem by following this great tutorial and printing some parts to hold the ribbon cable below the disc.

I followed the tutorial and, voila, it worked nicely!

The disc not spinning was caused by one of the two sensors that detect whether the lid is closed not working properly. The one by the power button works fine, whilst the sensor at the back less so. My solution i found, here.

Here we have to remove the sensor and solder the pads together for a persistent connection, so the PS2 thinks the sensor is always "on".

Sooo, sodering. Not one of my great skills. :()

But HEY!!! it works!!! Until i drop my PS2 a centimeter and it comes loose... But i will cross that bridge when i get to it.

And bam! Now its ready.

I got my memory card with FMCE (freeMCboot) which allows me to run homebrew, and a upscaler so i can use it on modern tvs.

I also setup OPL (OpenPS2Loader) which allows me to run PS2 games from various sources (USB, HDD, SMB.) I configured SMB and since we have two routers, i can move the PS2 around the house and get my games streamed to me from my PC, in case i want to use the big TV.