Disabling Playstation2's Parental Level Control

Came across my PS2’s parental level setting for the first time last night. A quick googling revealed the odiously complicated procedure of disabling it, as aquired by whimzywim straight from the horse’s mouth, the Sony tech support. I tidied it up and wrapped it in to a list to make it a bit easier to follow.

  1. Turn off your PS2.
  2. Turn it on and insert the DVD.
  3. When you are notified of the parental controls being set, choose Yes.
  4. It then asks you for your password; hit select. It should now say delete password.
  5. Enter password 7444.
  6. You are asked to create a new password; make it 0000 (and re-enter it when it asks for confirmation). It then should say registration complete and will continue to DVD menu.
  7. Start playing the movie.
  8. Once the movie begins playing press select.
  9. You should now have a bunch of icons on the screen; click on the stop icon.
  10. Bring up the icons again by pressing Select.
  11. The stop icon should be grey even though you are highlighting it. If it is still blue, press it again.
  12. Once the stop button is grey, even though you are highlighting it, click on the icon underneath the 7 – the one that looks like a briefcase and is called Setup.
  13. Hit the right directional button until you are at the custom setup screen.
  14. Hit the down directional button until you are on the parental control setting.
  15. Hit the right directional button.
  16. It should ask for your password; enter 0000.
  17. Press the down directional button until you are at Level.
  18. Press the right directional button.
  19. Press up on the directional button until you reach the desired level; off is at the very top.
  20. Click X.
  21. Go back to the original icon list and press play.
  22. Play the movie to make sure it plays. Do NOT turn off the PS2.
  23. Once the movie is playing, press the eject button, remove the DVD and close the tray.
  24. Once the tray is closed, turn off the PS2 by using the switch on the back of the console.
  25. Wait at least 5 seconds.
  26. Turn your PS2 back on and insert the DVD.
  27. The settings should now be saved and you should be able to play DVDs without the annoying parental controls.