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My PS3 died and I’m trying to live to tell the story

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
This gen has taught me a lesson.....system warranties are no longer useless, they're a requirement!!

I still have my 60GB launch PS3, and i get nervous when i read these threads. Believe it or not, I did end up having to replace my Wii which was a first ever.....actually having a Nintendo system break on me.

If a Nintendo system can break, then to me, warranties are no longer optional on console purchases.
 

Q-bert

Banned
ThirstyFly said:
I'm kind of considering that right now. A new one is what, $400? I don't what to have to drop $170 CDN and lose all my locked game saves every year and a half if this is what it's going to be like to upkeep my 60GB.

I'd like to keep a system with BC, but honestly, I don't really use it and I'd rather have a system that's going to be more reliable.

I wasn't paying attention, but apparently nowadays you can only buy 80gb or 160gb models, so yes $400. Looks like SONYSTYLE.COM has a credit card gimmick to get $100 quasi-rebate, but I dont know if I'll go there.

Losing BC isn't really a concern for me either, still have my PS2.

And, to be fair, I put some serious miles on this PS3. If I wasn't playing it, it was running Folding at Home 24x7, I basically did not shut it off. I'm thinking I might not do this next time around.
 

R0nn

Member
So just now my PS3 refused to display any image on screen. The tv doesn´t receive a signal anymore. Fuck, does this mean that my PS3 has died or is it more likely a faulty cable?
 

Menaged

Member
My 80GB ps3 (MGS4 bundle) is strating to get noisy. After around 10-15 minutes of play, the fans starts to get louder. I vacum the vents every 2 weeks, so I doubt it's dust.
Should I start to get worried and prepare myself for the worst? :(
 

Q-bert

Banned
Menaged said:
My 80GB ps3 (MGS4 bundle) is strating to get noisy. After around 10-15 minutes of play, the fans starts to get louder. I vacum the vents every 2 weeks, so I doubt it's dust.
Should I start to get worried and prepare myself for the worst? :(

I picked up a 80gb platinum hits version from Target yesterday. I have only been able to use it about 2 hours, but one thing that I really notice is that it's both quieter and cooler than the 20gb that died and it is replacing. When on but not playing a game, the exhaust vents are cool to the touch whereas the 20gb was always warm.

So.. if your PS3 has the fans running full bore a lot, and if it's out of warranty, you might want to consider disassembling it and giving it a real good cleaning. If you do that though, I understand that Sony wont take it back for repair if you break the seals.
 

Menaged

Member
Q-bert said:
I picked up a 80gb platinum hits version from Target yesterday. I have only been able to use it about 2 hours, but one thing that I really notice is that it's both quieter and cooler than the 20gb that died and it is replacing. When on but not playing a game, the exhaust vents are cool to the touch whereas the 20gb was always warm.

So.. if your PS3 has the fans running full bore a lot, and if it's out of warranty, you might want to consider disassembling it and giving it a real good cleaning. If you do that though, I understand that Sony wont take it back for repair if you break the seals.

It's been 8 months since I got my PS3 and only now it started to get noisy. Before it was super quite.
Unfortuantly, I don't have any warranty. I bought my PS3 at the US and I live in Israel, but if you say that Sony won't even repair it, so maybe I'll just hope for the best. This gen is so scary, especialy beacuse it's so expensive.
 

Integra

Neo Member
Menaged said:
It's been 8 months since I got my PS3 and only now it started to get noisy. Before it was super quite.
Unfortuantly, I don't have any warranty. I bought my PS3 at the US and I live in Israel, but if you say that Sony won't even repair it, so maybe I'll just hope for the best. This gen is so scary, especialy beacuse it's so expensive.

Sony should be able to repair it. you just gotta send it back over to the United States since thats where you bought your PS3 originally. I'd say call the tech support in the U.S. to see if it is possible to send it in or not and what you need to do from there.
 

Autofokus

Member
My 60GB PAL died today while playing Fallout 3. YLOD, my disc is still stuck in, my last backup is 3 months old, I´m out of warranty and they want 230€ (~310$) for the repair.

fucking great day.
 

Q-bert

Banned
Menaged said:
It's been 8 months since I got my PS3 and only now it started to get noisy. Before it was super quite.
Unfortuantly, I don't have any warranty. I bought my PS3 at the US and I live in Israel, but if you say that Sony won't even repair it, so maybe I'll just hope for the best. This gen is so scary, especialy beacuse it's so expensive.

What I meant was they wont repair it if you break the seals.

It may be expensive for you to pay to have it repaired, so if you know now that you aren't going to repair it, I would say go ahead and break the seals and give it a thorough cleaning to maybe get some more life out of it.

Good luck.
 

y2dvd

Member
I am going through hell with Sony atm. If yall recall I reported my PS3 having the YLOD a few months ago. Those guys claim to not have found my game in the system when i sent it in. I tell them how do I take a game out of a system that won't even turn on. I had to fax over a proof of purchase. Now I have to wait weeks for them to send my game because it's 3rd party. I really needed that game to pratice for a major upcoming tournament.

3 out of 4 times Sony's customer service was rude. I'm probably gonna write a letter to a publication about my story dealin with Sony.

Save yourselves the headache and get warranty if you don't already have it.
 
Menaged said:
It's been 8 months since I got my PS3 and only now it started to get noisy. Before it was super quite.

My launch 20GB (now upgraded) is still going strong, but at this point it is much louder than it used to be. I'd say that once it really cranks up it is just as loud if not more so than my newer Jasper 360 when I'm playing from the HDD. The noise really doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't break. I've vacuumed out the vents and everything but it doesn't seem to help. I think the bearings in the fan wear and just get louder over time.
 
My Ps3 doesn't even have the common decency of dying properly. It seems to be basically overheating, with static or flashing red (sometimes green) pixels on the screen, in varying numbers. There are also stretched vertices and flashing textures in games, especially after long stretches of play. I suspect something is wrong with the cooling system as the fan never seems to go into high gear.

If I send this in to Sony, do I get the same system back, or do they send me some other crap? It's an original 60GB, so it'd be nice to get it back.
 
AltogetherAndrews said:
My Ps3 doesn't even have the common decency of dying properly. It seems to be basically overheating, with static or flashing red (sometimes green) pixels on the screen, in varying numbers. There are also stretched vertices and flashing textures in games, especially after long stretches of play. I suspect something is wrong with the cooling system as the fan never seems to go into high gear.

If I send this in to Sony, do I get the same system back, or do they send me some other crap? It's an original 60GB, so it'd be nice to get it back.
Dying/broken GPU, similar to the problem that just killed my 60GB. I don't expect to get my original back since it's a mobo issue, and you probably shouldn't expect to either.
 
As I feared, then. I might have to give them a call to clarify, but if that's the case, I might just try to sell it "as is" and live without a PS3 for a while. Bummer.
 
AltogetherAndrews said:
As I feared, then. I might have to give them a call to clarify, but if that's the case, I might just try to sell it "as is" and live without a PS3 for a while. Bummer.
You'd still get a 60GB back, I believe, just not your own.
 

Q-bert

Banned
AltogetherAndrews said:
My Ps3 doesn't even have the common decency of dying properly. It seems to be basically overheating, with static or flashing red (sometimes green) pixels on the screen, in varying numbers. There are also stretched vertices and flashing textures in games, especially after long stretches of play. I suspect something is wrong with the cooling system as the fan never seems to go into high gear.

If I send this in to Sony, do I get the same system back, or do they send me some other crap? It's an original 60GB, so it'd be nice to get it back.

This is exactly what my PS3 was doing before it ultimately died.

The flashing pixels is the earliest stage. It did this for about 2 months.

It progressed to entire polygons (triangles, rectangles) not rendering. Games that didn't use to crash would crash. It did this for about 2 weeks.

In it's final days, what would happen would be it would turn on and run great for anywhere from 10 seconds to about 90 seconds, and then the screen would freeze. The hard drive would still keep on going so I think it's just the graphics screwed up. It depended on how hot it was how long it would run.

My last day was spent trying to get a full backup done. I would turn the system on and try to quickly navigate the menus and start the backup. Took about 4 tries, turning it off for 20 minutes between tries. Finally got it to start the backup and the screen froze, but the hard drive kept going. Let it sit overnight, and the backup was complete.

So I bought and 80gb and restored, and let me just say what a total waste of time that was. I dont think anything I was actually interested in got restored.
 
I just dropped off my 60gb to get fixed today. There was someone else bringing in theirs as I was leaving too. The empty space in my entertainment center saddens me.
 
Q-bert said:
And, to be fair, I put some serious miles on this PS3. If I wasn't playing it, it was running Folding at Home 24x7, I basically did not shut it off. I'm thinking I might not do this next time around.

You know, I was pretty active with folding way back in the day (for Rage3D I think circa 2002?), but FUCK NO am I doing that to my PS3. I wouldn't do it to a small media center PC either. The cooling systems are just not made for that sort of punishment.

EDIT: shit, here I am.

My PCs were weak as hell. I must have had some old work PC chugging away into 2005, because it sure as hell wasn't one of my home PCs. :lol
 
Q-bert said:
This is exactly what my PS3 was doing before it ultimately died.

The flashing pixels is the earliest stage. It did this for about 2 months.

It progressed to entire polygons (triangles, rectangles) not rendering. Games that didn't use to crash would crash. It did this for about 2 weeks.

In it's final days, what would happen would be it would turn on and run great for anywhere from 10 seconds to about 90 seconds, and then the screen would freeze. The hard drive would still keep on going so I think it's just the graphics screwed up. It depended on how hot it was how long it would run.

My last day was spent trying to get a full backup done. I would turn the system on and try to quickly navigate the menus and start the backup. Took about 4 tries, turning it off for 20 minutes between tries. Finally got it to start the backup and the screen froze, but the hard drive kept going. Let it sit overnight, and the backup was complete.

So I bought and 80gb and restored, and let me just say what a total waste of time that was. I dont think anything I was actually interested in got restored.

Yep, only music, videos, photos, and none-protected saves are restored. Game installs, copy-protected saves, and PSN downloads are only put back if you restore on the exact same system. I got my PS3 replaced by a brand new one from Sony recently and couldn't get any of that stuff to restore from my backup... I was especially saddened by losing my RE5 save.
 
Houston3000 said:
Yep, only music, videos, photos, and none-protected saves are restored. Game installs, copy-protected saves, and PSN downloads are only put back if you restore on the exact same system. I got my PS3 replaced by a brand new one from Sony recently and couldn't get any of that stuff to restore from my backup... I was especially saddened by losing my RE5 save.

That's what's pissing me off so much about this, losing my RE5 save. Screw the $190 CDN, I was only like 4 trophies away from my first platinum! What I had left was things like beat it on Pro, upgrade all weapons, etc. Stuff I can't quickly rush though to get, so it's like starting from scratch again.

I don't want to have to do all that arcade mode garbage in SF4 either to unlock all the characters again. Death to protected saves!
 
Question for Canadians that got their PS3 fixed at MTC:

I understand they slap a sticker on it saying if you break the sticker it voids your 90-day repair warranty. Where do they put the sticker?

I hope it's not over the HD slot. I want to stick in my 250gb HD and get back to RE5 right away, but I won't be able to if that's going to void the warranty.
 

Menaged

Member
Thanks for the help.
I think that for now, I'll leave my ps3 alone and let it do it's thing. If it will get even louder, I'' open it and see what's happening inside.

It's not the noise that bothers me, obviously, I'm just scared that the noise increase is the first symptom leading to death.
 

Hinomura

Member
So, since shop and service (...) didn't honour warranty, I've decided to purchase via ebay a refurbished optic group with both laser lens. Checked some offers (price/reliability), and ordered one from Hong Kong for about 60€, EMS shipping included..

It's been a while I "serviced" myself something and I put a couple hours efforts in, but PS3 is reading discs again, and I didn't spend three times the cost I've sustained to get a random furbished console with a couple months of warranty.
 

Clipper

Member
ThirstyFly said:
Question for Canadians that got their PS3 fixed at MTC:

I understand they slap a sticker on it saying if you break the sticker it voids your 90-day repair warranty. Where do they put the sticker?

I hope it's not over the HD slot. I want to stick in my 250gb HD and get back to RE5 right away, but I won't be able to if that's going to void the warranty.

Replacing the hard drive is officially condoned by Sony. The instructions to do so are in their manuals. Go for it.
 

Zoe

Member
Not my own, but my friend sent in his 40GB PS3 for a dying BD drive last Tuesday, and it came back in today. I certainly wasn't expecting such a quick turnaround.
 

35v6

Member
Has anyone had this problem? I have a 20gb Jap PS3.

While playing a game my PS3 would turn off with 3 beeps and a flashing red light, no yellow light.

This appears to only happen to games with a HDD install. I played and finished KZ2 and Folklore without this happening. I tried Far Cry 2 and GT5 and it happens. I have a 120gb HDD but, it also happens on the original 20gb.

I formatted the HDD and performed a hard reset, no luck. This is the first and last time I import. Sony Australia won't look at it as it is an import.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Having a weird and annoying problem. Just started recently.

Basically, when I try to launch LittleBigPlanet, quite frequently now I get no video output. The screen's just blank. The game is clearly launching in the background and running, I can hear all the audio etc. Just no video.

Further, this seems to actually 'lock up' my monitor. I can't turn it off. I can't switch the video source (to my PC which is also connected to the monitor). I have to turn off my PS3 and then plug everything and back in again to restore my monitor.

It doesn't happen ALWAYS, but it's happened two out of the three last times I've tried to launch LBP.

It hasn't been happening with WipeoutHD. Haven't tried any other disc..but I don't think it's a disc drive problem if the game is running OK, just with no video signal.

Does this sound familiar to anyone..?
 

Zoe

Member
^ Are you playing LBP in 720p and Wipeout in 1080p? I would try another 720p game to see if it's an HDMI issue.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Zoe said:
^ Are you playing LBP in 720p and Wipeout in 1080p? I would try another 720p game to see if it's an HDMI issue.

Of the three times I launched LBP recently, once was straight from Wipeout - and I got this problem. Once was after turning everything off and back on again, and it worked OK. Once turning things on from scratch, just now, and it didn't work.

My XMB is running at 1080p..

I'll try another 720p game and then try LBP..

edit - just tried a 720p demo, and launching straight to LBP from that, and that worked OK. Of course, it hits the XMB briefly in between, which is at 1080p...but it seemed to handle the resolution changes OK there.

Weird. I'm trying to think if this just started happening with 2.7 or not. Not sure..
 
Well, I just got my PS3 coffin, and there's apparently a 16.0 LB package coming from the same source. I haven't even sent my 60 gigger to them yet. Does this mean that based on my note to them they pretty much know my current one is fucked? Bleh. Hope the replacement is a refurbed 60GB or I'm going to get in a bit of a war with the repair folks (however nice they are).

edit: i'm dumb and it was the ups label for the return, included inside.
 

____

Member
badcrumble said:
Well, I just got my PS3 coffin, and there's apparently a 16.0 LB package coming from the same source. I haven't even sent my 60 gigger to them yet. Does this mean that based on my note to them they pretty much know my current one is fucked? Bleh. Hope the replacement is a refurbed 60GB or I'm going to get in a bit of a war with the repair folks (however nice they are).

edit: i'm dumb and it was the ups label for the return, included inside.

Yea, it'll be a refurb 60GB unit (based on my 2 exchanges and a few friends' exchanges).

And yea, the 16lbs is your ps3 + the coffin (even though I think the true weight is around 14+ lbs.
 

Turrican3

Member
My PAL 40GB just (apparently) died while trying to play Killzone2 online.

Strange noises come from the drive, it seems like it wants to "read" something but it fails, and keeps repeating the same seek/noise/seek/noise sequence, then after a while the console automatically resets and gives error code 80010541.

Tried to restore OS files via recovery console but this didn't solve the issue... I didn't make a full system restore/reset because it says it need 2.5 hours to complete the operation, will try tomorrow.

:-(
 
So I just got my PS3 back. They said they changed the BD-drive. I didn't know that caused the ylod, nor did I have any problems reading discs before it died. Even though I got back my system (same serial #), everything was wiped. I had to recreate my master account and everything.

The strange thing is though, the Mac address is now different. I couldn't get it to connect to my wireless router, so I checked everything, and found that the mac filter was blocking it since it's a new number. Anyone else have that happen with their repaired machines?

I hope it didn't change the system's ID too, because I want to pop my 250gb HD back in tomorrow and I don't want to lose all those saves.
 

Surfheart

Member
Tntnnbltn said:
Rang Sony about my PS3 today, sending it off tomorrow. Will report back as to how their service/turnaround was.


Yours died a little while ago didn't it?

Be interested to see how you go with the service for when the inevitable happens to my launch 60gig.
 

Angelcurio

Member
I think my ps2 definitely died on me, here are the things that it does:

* I power on the console.
* The console starts up normally for about 20-30 seconds,
* The console freezes on the main menu, then a yellow light appears for less than a second, and then the red lights start flashing.

Today was a very hot day over here, so i will leave my ps3 alone until tomorrow to see if it works. My biggest problem is that my console is a 60gb unit (december 2006) and i bought it from a friend who brought it from NY, so i cant send my console to sony for repairs.
 

____

Member
Angelcurio said:
I think my ps2 definitely died on me, here are the things that it does:

* I power on the console.
* The console starts up normally for about 20-30 seconds,
* The console freezes on the main menu, then a yellow light appears for less than a second, and then the red lights start flashing.

Today was a very hot day over here, so i will leave my ps3 alone until tomorrow to see if it works. My biggest problem is that my console is a 60gb unit (december 2006) and i bought it from a friend who brought it from NY, so i cant send my console to sony for repairs.


ps2 never had a yellow led :p
 

Tntnnbltn

Member
Surfheart said:
Yours died a little while ago didn't it?
Yeah, it broke two months ago. It wasn't a high priority for me to get it fixed because I have a large number of downloaded games (including Warhawk) which kept me happy.

Now was a particularly good time to get it fixed though because I'm visiting family in SA for a week, so wouldn't have access to the PS3 anyway.
 

Alf

Banned
I think my PS3 has died. It boots up with green and blue lights but I get no video or audio. It just keeps showing the video input screen. I've tried resetting it multiple times by holding the power button down but it's not working. Anyone have the same problem as i do? If I do need to send it to Sony, will they do a thorough clean up on the machine? Mine's pretty beaten up and wouldn't mind them buffering out the scratches.
 
Okay neoGAF, point and laugh.

My PS3 just died folding for GAF team. :(

When I attempt to boot I get three fast beeps and then a flashing red light.

I've tried re-seating the HD and that doesn't help.

I've yanked the HD out and will let it sit over night.

Google tells me this is a bad HD. Is this correct?

Oh well, Apple's fault really since I stuck the HD from my Macbook in the PS3 since it was larger. :lol
 

Angelcurio

Member
____ said:
ps2 never had a yellow led :p
Yeah, a mistake on my part.

Today i turned on the console. It kept wirking for about five minutes, but then it froze again,. the yellow light appeared and then it kept the red light blinking.

Does anyone know what kind of problem it could have, if its a HDD failure, a firmware failure or a HW failure?
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Angelcurio said:
Yeah, a mistake on my part.

Today i turned on the console. It kept wirking for about five minutes, but then it froze again,. the yellow light appeared and then it kept the red light blinking.

Does anyone know what kind of problem it could have, if its a HDD failure, a firmware failure or a HW failure?

Thought i remember reading that the yellow light error indicates a 'general hardware' failure...

**Hugs his 60GB unit tightly** PLEASE stay healthy, please stay healthy**
 

TTP

Have a fun! Enjoy!
Angelcurio said:
Yeah, a mistake on my part.

Today i turned on the console. It kept wirking for about five minutes, but then it froze again,. the yellow light appeared and then it kept the red light blinking.

Does anyone know what kind of problem it could have, if its a HDD failure, a firmware failure or a HW failure?

General hardware failure. Call Sony and say goodbye to your saves.
 

Angelcurio

Member
TTP said:
General hardware failure. Call Sony and say goodbye to your saves.
The only little problem is that i dont live in the states, even though i bought my console over there. So i am pretty much fucked up.

What i find most strange though, is that it actually works well for a couple of minutes. I will try to backup some of my save data.
 

TTP

Have a fun! Enjoy!
Angelcurio said:
The only little problem is that i dont live in the states, even though i bought my console over there. So i am pretty much fucked up.

What i find most strange though, is that it actually works well for a couple of minutes. I will try to backup some of my save data.

U don't have customer care in your country? I don't think they go check which region a given system comes from. They just toss it in the bin and send you a new one.
 

MightyKAC

Member
Angelcurio said:
The only little problem is that i dont live in the states, even though i bought my console over there. So i am pretty much fucked up.

It really matters not where you live. I had a US 60gig PS3 and I live in Japan. And while I did have to call them up on the hot-line as opposed to using the website, the lady assured me that as long as I have access to a post office I could send it in for servicing. Lo and behold I sent it in and got it back 15 day (roughly later).

Oh and btw you gotta be persistent about calling that hotline since 80% of the time that bastard's busy :p
 
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