 The floor may not be in the robot. God damn it, Scotty. That's not the right intro. But, Sam, I actually thought it was the right intro. No, it was not. It's because that intro was made one year ago in 2021, with the old design. Get the right 2022 intro, which has the new design, or else you'll fucking regret it. Alright, God damn it, Sam and Mike. Such choices. And don't ever call us buses. Just to let you know that this is still the new era. The floor may not be in the robot. I want to begin this story by saying I am a person who loves software and consoles, and I will always be a fan of them. The world of technology and gaming was always so fascinating to me, to the point I dedicated myself into making software myself, having developed a few applications and also repairing hardware issues, mostly on consoles which is my specialty. However, one issue turns out to be the reason why from now on I see this work in a much more cautious way as of now. It all started when my then-13-year-old cousin, Harry, who lived quite close to me, called me about an issue regarding his PlayStation 2 console. Apparently, he had replugged it after some time of not using it, I remember it, we had played many games together, and after some time, it started to have apparent issues regarding a malfunction. I immediately started, as I knew it would be another issue to learn about, and also, Harry saw me as an inspiration, as then I was just beginning to thrive in this sector, and he saw me as probably an idol as we played many games together. And also, I had assisted him, every time he had a problem with his consoles. 20 minutes in, I arrived at Harry's house, where he immediately greeted me, and talked to me about the issue with his PS2. I decided to go and turn up the PS2, as Harry had reported me about a red screen showing up when he booted it up. I knew what he was talking about, it was the infamous red screen of death many people dread, and I admit I was creeped out by it as a child myself. Nevertheless, I turned on the console, albeit without a disc in order to see how it boots. I clicked the start button, opened the TV, and saw the normal blue PS2 startup screen, although it took much longer for it to fade away. Then the red screen showed up, but unlike the normal please insert a format disc text, it showed a text I had never seen before. Your PlayStation 2, SCP H-39000, has malfunctioned and cannot boot properly. Please power off the system unit before more damage can be done to the internal components. Press X to turn off the console. I was shocked to see this message, as I had no idea on how would this message appear. There is no way that such damage could be done to the internal components of it, as Harry told me it was just five months the time he did not use it, and then it functioned perfectly. He also told me that it was yesterday, when it appeared and there were no signs of it, including not even overheating, as normally a console would react to this scenario. After hearing this, I ignored the message about turning off the console, and I rebooted it manually after clicking the start up button twice. The start up screen showed up for a second time, but this time it glitched before fading away. The red screen again popped up, this time with this message. It is important to turn off your PlayStation 2 console, or else more damage will be done to the system's components. Please power off the system and don't turn on the console after the shutdown. Press X to power off the console. This time it looked more vocal in its warning, but I still assumed that it was a fraud, and Harry agreed with this, although he looked somewhat frightened at the thought of his beloved PS2 having terminal hardware failure. Still, I convinced him it could be just an issue, that it could be repaired easily, and I rebooted the console for a second time. The start up screen however, glitched immediately after showing up, and it took more time for it to fade away. The red screen popped up again, but this time will get more blurry, and with a far more serious message regarding the issue. If you continue ignoring these warnings, your PlayStation 2 may suffer a reversible damage caused to its internal components. It is strongly advised to turn off your system units by following the instruction below. Press X to power off the console. Now this is where stuff began to be actually serious. I immediately turned off the console and unplugged it, as it was apparent that the hardware could have major damage for real. Luckily, I had got tools with me, which I picked up from home, which means I could examine the hardware of the console, and see what it is run. After taking the PS2 to a table, I opened and saw the internals of it, and to be fair I was shocked. I analyzed every single component of the console, especially with internet assist, and also calling some friends of mine, who knew more about consoles than me at the time, and gave them descriptions of the condition of each component. They told me that there is no way they are damaged, and they could not believe about the screens we got. Harry also talked to the phone, and told them exactly the messages he received from the console, but they could not believe us, as they had never seen a red screen of death showing those error messages. Even when he told them it referred to the model code of the console, the entire SCPH thing above. However, they did help with giving me useful information about the hardware of the PS2, and how would they look if there was any damage on them. The hardware had actually no visible damage on them, neither the console had picked up dust from the internals. It didn't have some, but I cleaned it. Also, I searched on my phone about the errors we received, but for some reason, the only search results on Google were about only the normal red screen of death. There was no actual info about the ones we saw, and I became even more confused. Still, having seen that the hardware were in fine condition, I decided to plug again the console and reboot it, hoping it was just a sick joke by Sony, or something. Harry was a bit off after this, but he did persuade me to reboot it. However, when we rebooted it, something really strange happened. The startup screen showed up, but the Sony computer entertainment letters were in red. And the two was in a somewhat lower pitch. The screen also took much more time to fade out, and the lower pitch, along with the fact there were a few red details on the screen and nerd me, and Harry looked at me with a very worried look in his face. But it was just the beginning of what we saw. The red screen popped up for yet another time, but this time it went from simply creepy to genuinely unsettling. The red part of it was even more red, as in more of a red shade, rather than the pinkish shade it normally is, and the pitch of its two was also more low. The message showed up again, and it said, Powering on your PlayStation 2 puts it at a high risk of an irreparable corruption to the system's basic input-output system. We are encouraging you to turn off your system unit by following the instructions shown below this warning. Press X to power off the console. Okay, if the situation was just weird at first, now it was getting really intimidating. I did not know a PlayStation was capable of this in case of potential damage, and even worse, as I saw before, there was no way I could figure this out, especially with no information available on the internet. I immediately took a photo of this, in order to prove it happened. Harry, meanwhile, was becoming even more anxious, as not only he still had the fear of losing his beloved gaming data, but also due to the inerving messages that were showing up with each successive reboot. I thought momentarily to find a way to extract the basic input-output system from the console, but I did not, as it seemed to corrupt, allegedly, as of now. There was no other choice, and I could not simply just trust a message I had never seen before on an existing PS2 model, so I just rebooted the system. It is also worth noticing that when I pressed X to power off the PS2, before clicking the startup button, the PS2 button effect was also under a lower pitch. Rebooting it turned out to be a really bad idea, as now the startup screen was covered in static. I could faintly see the Sony computer entertainment text. This time however, instead of just fading away, it glitched up, making the typical glitch sound. And the red screen of death appeared, this time however, in its most satanic variant. The entire background was red, and the cubes were light but barely visible. The music also had changed, this time to a more hellish tone, instead of the whoosh we heard before previous times. Harry just looked at me, clearly petrified and unable to even speak at what he was seeing. The message that showed up this time, seemed like the console was talking to us, and warning us to prevent its apparent death. You need to turn off your system unit, or else the basic input-output system will be corrupted permanently. Listen to this message, and don't power on your PlayStation 2 after turning it off. Press X to power off the console. After the last phrase, which was on every single error screen we saw, showed up. I tried to press X as soon as possible, as I realized that this is way more serious than it seemed, and was an error that was way more severe than I had ever seen in my life then, and even now. Both Harry and I decided to turn off the system permanently, and just take it to a local shop, in order to analyze it further. But before I could just press X and shut it down for good, the screen made a glitch noise, and turned pitch black by itself. However, the console had not shut down. After waiting for a few seconds staring at the black screen, both confused and shaken of what we saw now. This message showed up, which actually gave us a small ray of hope that the PS2 would not die in its fullest, and could at least save some data. Your PlayStation 2's basic input-output system is corrupted, and it couldn't start. The only option to continue using your console is to enter into recovery mode. Just follow the instruction below. Press O to enter into recovery mode. Recovery mode? I did not know it existed. It looked like it is the safe mode we see in Windows operating computers, and allows you to salvage data and fix issues within a damaged system. Harry was happy to see there could be a way out of this, and not lose the entirety of his gaming memories, and persuaded me to enter the recovery mode. I was happy for this option to exist, even if I had never heard it before, and without a second thought, pressed the circle on the controller. The recovery mode menu showed up, with two options, either enter inside it or quit it. I did not want to quit it obviously, as the system would die instantly, so I just entered it. The screen showed up the message, entering recovery mode. Please wait, alongside the blue circles that show up on the menu, when you don't insert a disk in, and access your memory card data. We just waited, hoping that it would potentially restore the console to at least a usable state. After approximately 8 seconds, the screen went again black, and we waited to see if any message would show up, regarding any way to see how recovery mode worked. It was our last chance to save the console, and we were hoping something positive would happen. Sadly, it did not happen. In fact, the opposite happened, and in a way that has scared both me and Harry for life. The screen popped up the message, fatal error, with the background flashing between white and red, with the letters remaining pitch black. Heavy static also accompanied the screen. But the scariest thing was the sound we heard. The volume felt like it was turned up to maximum by itself, and an extremely loud noise, something between static, damaged software sounds, and even human-like screams started to play. It was the horrendous thing I had ever witnessed in my life. It felt like the console was outright screaming at us for its death, and to this day, I still hear the noise in my mind from time to time. Harry was scared to death, and began screaming and crying at what he saw. I wasn't able to calm him down, as the entire ordeal made me freeze like a statue at the mere sight of it. The screen flashed for like 8 to 10 seconds, but it felt like an eternity, due to how disheartening it was. After that, the screen went pitch black, and the console started to beep. Despite me shaking like a fish out of its water, due to what happened the second before, I just turned off the system for good, realizing it just died. Harry was still crying after seeing his favorite console, both dying and emotionally traumatizing him. I tried to calm him down, despite me still being unable to recover from the ordeal, and we sat for some time, saying nothing, before I left the house and came back home. I wasn't able to sleep that night, I had a nightmare of the fatal error screen, throwing the blood curdling static scream sound towards me again. I had the same dream for several weeks, costing me valuable days of good sleeping, and while those nightmares were gone after some time. I still felt uneasy when seeing PlayStation 2 models ever again. Meanwhile, Harry decided to reluctantly throw away the PS2, deciding that he wanted to do nothing more with it, as he was clearly scarred from the incident, and it actually took him even more time than me to fully recover from it. We never talked to anyone else about this, as nobody would believe us and think it was a hoax. Which is what people thought, when I posted the solo image I took on my phone on a forum the day after this. I did post the error message, but people replied, citing that it was impossible that such an issue would show up, and that the PS2 would simply not boot up, if it had got a fatal basic input-output system error. To sum it up, I never talked about this kill screen, as it turned out to be ever again to anyone, especially Harry, who still flinches every time he gets anything to remind him is in his mind. After some time, I just moved on, and decided to become even better at fixing devices and developing software. And soon I became what I am now, a determined person, ready to assist for any issue. However, about this kill screen, there is still a question I have yet to find an answer for, even with my more advanced hardware and software knowledge. What caused this issue? Is it possible to happen in any PS2 model, and if yes, why did Sony would make such an intimidating kill screen for a console, popular to every age group and mostly children? To end this story up, nobody will ever get an answer on this.