PS2 problems.

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I know it's not cab related, but i'm hoping someone here can help. I was playing mushihime-samma this morning and my ps2 (A modded ceramic white japanese model which was new last year I don't know what mod it is though) was working fine.
I had a go this afternoon, and now it doesn't work.
It just goes into the option screen, where you can go into your browser or system configuration. It's done this with all types of disks now not just Mushihime-samma.
I thought it might be a dirty lense, but it doesn't go to the infamous "Disk read error" message. Just the options screen. However it's just not reading the disks.
I opened it up to check it out and give the lense a clean, but still no go. The drive works as the disk spins. Could it be a dead laser? When I power it on I can see one quick flash of red from the lense, and then it's gone. Is it supposed to do that?
I'm missing playing mushi, Sad so if anyone can help, that would be great.
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