GTA 3 keeps crashing

[Katawutt]

I bought a gta 3 for ps2 and played it. It keeps crashing. Everytime the game is started, there will be an amount of time before the roads start becoming transparent and the text "Error reading disc" pops up, making me restart it. It isn't because of scratches because it starts crashing the moment I first played it, I've played discs that have way worse scratches and they work fine. It isn't because of the ps2 either because its well maintained and every other single game I have works perfectly.

I tried cleaning the disc over 7 times already using various methods including the toothpaste method. Refunding isn't an option either since the store I bought it from closed down.

Please is there a way to fix this without buying a new copy?

If not at least tell me why this is happening.

 

[Dennisch]

One scratch in the wrong place can destroy the disc. Have you tried putting the ps2 vertical? That usually works for me.

 

[e rikkie]

or maybe it's the drive that's getting faulty

 

[STI9]

You could try getting one of those laser cleaning disks for your PS2. It has little brushes. I remember way back it worked for me a few times.

 

[Katawutt]

A friend of mine suggested me to clone the disc. I'm trying it.

 

[Aggserp4]

Unless you have a modded ps2 a cloned disc won't work.

 

[Nurburgthing.]

I'm going with the drive being faulty, happened to me with GTA games. There is so much to process and if the drive is the slightest mm out, it all goes wonky. Try another PS2 before trying another copy.

 

[Katawutt]

I did, I just went and completed another GTA game. It went smoothly.