Flip ya ps2 upside down when loading its the only thing that works for me lol

If the air max action replay does not work you should pay £2.00 at the game store to fix it or you can buy a new one.

Time to use one of those swirly disk scratch removing kits I'd say mate...

Solution:
1 Bad Disc - Get a disc cleaner and clean as instructed OR go to the likes of GameStation (if they still do it) to get the disc cleaned.
2 Laser - Get a lens cleaner and use it after which immediately put in the AR Max CD then reset your console (Cleaners don't require MMC access making resets safe OR just to be extra cautious remove MMC for this)

I have had this issue with some PS2 games, Midnight Club 3, GTA San Andreas... and this helped.

Mine isnt a sulution but help plz i have action replay disc 01 for ps2 i put it in and ps2 goes to this red vortex thing and say "please insert playstation or playstation 2 format disc plz help me"