Hi,
I just spent like $200 to get a used PS2 (fat older model v7), Fliptop, Swap Magic 3.6, 2 Guitar Hero Controllers, and a Network adapter. I have an 80 GB Maxtor IDE hard drive too (works fine in my pc).
Using Swap Magic 3.6, I can get all ELF's to boot (and all DVD based backups, however they lag terribly).
Basically, I want to use HD Loader. I have tried all different versions of it. Including The Original Clean, 0.7c, 0.8B, 0.8C, and HD Advance.
All of them Freeze at the Splash Screen. I have tried 3 different hard drives in correlation to my network adapter.
I know the hard drives all work (I tried them in PC). On the 80 GB Maxtor (the one I want to use), I used WinHiip to install 4 game images (Custom Guitar Hero's and the Original's to speed up load times, since my backups lag terribly).
I don't understand why it freezes at the splash screen. All other ELFs I have run (including SNES Station and Execute FTP) have worked. So it's not a problem with the Swap Magic 3.6 not being able to boot them properly.
I have also tried my setup in my friend's PS2, and that does not work either. He can boot all the ELF's on my flash drive except all the HD Loader versions freeze at the splash screen.
I want to say that I bought the Network Adapter 2nd Hand on Craigslist.
It is the official Sony with Modem and Ethernet and the Model Number is:
SCPH-10281. My serial # is: 0538408.
I don't know if that makes a difference, but from pictures I have seen of the network adapter online, my serial # seems really low, so I don't know if my Network Adapter is incompatible with HD Loader or what.
I am fairly certain the network adapter is the problem. Also, I tried using Need for Speed Underground 2 to setup online (just to see if I needed a network configuration file on my memory card for it to access my harddrive), and when it was plugged in, it said Please Connect Hardware and restart configuration. I had the Network Adapter plugged in, but no ethernet cable. Hope this helps some.
To give as much detail as possible as to what happens when I use HD Loader. Once I boot up HD Loader, the PS2 sounds like it reboots and an orangish LED comes on inside the PS2 (to the right of the usb ports). It freezes there.
