A quick look inside my old Sony PS one. This particular console has some history attached to it because I modchipped it myself a long time ago, when I was still in high school. Taking it apart now means I get to inspect my own ancient soldering rather than somebody else’s. Ahh, memories!

The PS one is quite easy to open, with six screws underneath holding the top cover in place. Once those are removed, the case comes apart without too much trouble. The CD drive isn’t held down by another collection of screws either; it sits inside the case and connects through a couple of cables, which are reasonably sturdy but still deserve some care when disconnecting them.

I had a look at the optical assembly while it was out. The mechanism has a KSM-440 marking, which is useful to record in case I need to identify the drive arrangement again.

Underneath the shielding is where things start getting interesting. There’s my old modchip installation, complete with a little forest of wires running across the motherboard. I probably used more wire than was strictly necessary, but the connections have survived all these years, and the soldering doesn’t look too shabby for something I did in high school.

The PS one is considerably smaller than the original full-size PlayStation, so there’s less room to work with when installing anything internally. Looking at those old solder joints now, I’m rather surprised how well they’ve held up. I suppose I was doing something right back then!

This isn’t intended as a modchip installation guide, just a quick internal look and a chance to revisit some old handiwork. The important thing is that the modification worked, and the little PS one has survived long enough for me to pull it apart and admire it again.