Thanks for the reply
Well, at least I know it\'s not just me. I\'m pretty sure SSX is also CD-ROM based. I think it\'s just the way the PS2 reads CD-ROM based data. Here is what I think:
DVD drives and CD-ROM drives both have comparable spin rates...meaning a 24x CD-ROM drive is literally 6 times faster than a 4x DVD-ROM when it comes to spinning, not data reading.
Since the PS2 has a 24x CD-ROM drive, the game spins at a much higher rate in order to achieve the load times of the slower DVD-ROM drive, which causes it to get much louder. This is completely normal.
The reason why a 4x DVD is so much quieter than a 24x CD-ROM is simply because of the spin rate. DVD\'s are pressed with highly dense data, so it can read a lot of information at one time, meaning a 4x DVD can easily outperform a 24x CD-ROM in terms of loading, even at the lower spin rate.
This also happens in my computers DVD-ROM drive.
This entire "humming" is probably just an entire CD-ROM based issue, and not an actual problem with the PS2.