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Funeral for my PS3

Today we've gathered to pay final respects to my PlayStation 3.

shizuoka-1111.jpg


Its story begins on a fateful Saturday morning in Japan. It was a sleepy, rainy day in Shizuoka Prefecture as the bright morning sunlight permeated the drizzly, overcast rainclouds, gradually turning them a brilliant white. With the growing light outside, I slowly awoke and pushed off the 7 layers of blankets I'd used to keep warm overnight -- Japan can get pretty cold in November and central heating wasn't to be had. Although the thought of camping out in Akihabara the night before had a certain appeal, the thought of simply abandoning my friends whom I'd travelled all the way from Florida to see seemed foolish in light of the prospect of sitting outside in the cold for hours to fight the yakuza and all the hired Chinese nationals for a system at the absolute earliest second. My camping experience, I decided, would be sufficient if done vicariously through Internet and magazine coverage.

yodobashi.jpg


Yes, all reports indicated that it was a madhouse and all of the systems got snapped up by eager customers either lined up or crowded around electronics outlets like Yodobashi-Akiba pictured above. Anticipation for the system had reached a fever pitch, and despite its hefty pricetag even in the Japanese market (50,000 yen or $430 for the 20GB), a total sellout seemed inevitable given the reports of Sony falling behind on manufacturing due to a shortage of Blu-Ray diodes.

So what's a game otaku in Japan for the PS3 launch to do? Although I'd gotten up at about 8 that morning, I was in no hurry to get out the door and rush on down to a game store in the rain only to be met with empty shelves. I debated with myself over a traditional Japanese breakfast consisting of bowls of steamed rice and Choco Puffy. My temporary roommates for those two-and-a-half weeks all had work that day, and the Shizuoka University Festival wasn't scheduled to take place until the following weekend. Since I wasn't to return to the States until after Thanksgiving and the PS3 launch there, it'd surely be totally impossible to find one without paying exhorbitant prices on eBay, I thought. Plus, Kutaragi-san had announced a pre-emptive pricecut on the 20GB model for Japan, bringing it in line with the 360 Premium pricing in the States. Despite the risks of importing and lack of any killer-apps until Heavenly Sword and FFXIII, it was hard to resist picking one up to fiddle around with.

So, at about 9:45 on launch morning, donning a jacket and with a standard black umbrella in my clutches, I was out the door on my way down to the nearest bus stop on Ooya-kaidou. It was far too rainy out and the PS3 far too bulky to simply ride my borrowed bike to the store and back, so it made for a leisurely hike. Riding the bus towards downtown and along Kanebou-doori parallel to Shizuoka-eki, I spotted my destination, the A-Too outlet at Magarikane.

a-too.jpg


As I walked in, I was somewhat struck by the eerie calmness of the scene. There were no bustling crowds at this local game shop, no hullabaloo whatsoever for launch. In fact, just the opposite: there were maybe 2 or 3 other customers quietly perusing the shelves in the narrow aisles. Undeterred, I walked up to the counter and asked if there were any PlayStation 3 systems, to which the clerk replied by asking if I wanted a 20GB or a 60GB. It wasn't sold out. I was in shock. I asked how much they were charging for a 20GB... 50,000 yen. Out came my wallet and five Fukuzawas (it's all about the Fukuzawas, baby...). At 10:24 that morning, I was a new PS3 owner.

Unfortunately, the launch lineup left much to be desired. I wasn't particularly inclined to shell out upwards of 7200 yen on Ridge Racer 7, Gundam: Target in Sight, Genji: Days of the Blade, or Resistance: Fall of Man, so the hardware alone was what I carried back with me as I attempted to keep the box out of the rain and under the umbrella.

Without any games, an HDTV and Blu-Ray movies, or ethernet port near the TV, my PS3 remained safely hidden beneath my bed for the remainder of my visit to Shizuoka. It wasn't until the eve of my departure back to the States that I finally decided to try hooking it up in my hotel room at Nippori for a sanity check. It wouldn't do to leave the country without at least making sure it worked, and it did to my no great surprise. The XMB was as advertised, though there was nothing I could really do with it. The journey back to Orlando was bound to be fraught with peril for my PS3, as I had little alternative to packing it in with my checked luggage and hoping for the best. Amazingly enough, it arrived in pristine condition when I received it at customs in Detroit. My biggest hassle there was over a convenience store pastry called pizza-mahn, which apparently contains meat. But that's another story. Now fairly confident with transporting a PS3 by air, I was fairly appalled to discover that the Detroit airline crew lacked the white glove approach of the good folks in Japan, inflicting several sizeable dents in the once-pristine box. Fortunately, the system arrived intact.

Hooking the PS3 up upon my return here to Orlando, but now with the network connection at the ready, I promptly downloaded all of the movies and game demos I could. What's some free entertainment after shelling out for some expensive hardware? As it turns out, you get what you pay for... The filler content ran out of gas rather quickly, so there the PS3 sat.

mysetup.jpg


The next time it saw a good deal of action was when I flew home for the break between Christmas and New Year's, PS3 in tow. As a custom carrying case ran $60 at retail, I instead opted to carefully transport it in a backpack stuffed with grocery bags for padding. For Christmas, I received a 100GB 3.5" SATA hard drive, for the express purpose of installing in the PS3. Surely it would last beyond the lifetime of the console. How right I would be... Upon connecting the PS3 to my father's home theater setup, the system really came to life. The graphics on each of the demo titles was sharp and clear, as were HD trailers and rented Blu-Ray discs Ice Age: The Meltdown and Silent Hill. However, comparing it with HD-DVD discs on the same setup, no discernable difference picture quality could be noticed. Yellow Dog Linux was installed. This same week, I had some friends over to watch a movie and try out the PS3 for a bit. The GTHD and Resistance demos got some quality game time in, as did the NBA 07 demo when another friend visited.

In late February, I downloaded flOw and chilled out with it for a few game sessions. A purchase of Virtua Fighter 5 was contemplated, but ultimately passed upon in light of news of a later 360 version in addition to Soul Calibur III remaining in its factory shrinkwrap on my shelf.

In late March, the Folding@Home client was finally released. I immediately awoke the PS3 from its hibernation to install the new app, setting it to the good work and contributing to my score on Team NeoGAF. Night and day it folded, crunching numbers at a shocking clip in the name of science. The PS3 was finally being truly put through its paces.

wu-100.jpg


For over 6 weeks, the PS3 folded almost non-stop... Until it had completed 130 work units. On the morning of May 7th, I flipped the switches on the TV to check on the folding progress to find a frozen screen. This was fairly alarming. Resetting the system, the same problem occurred about 5 minutes after firing it up. This was bad. Attempting to run another application, I finally tried playing the Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo... which froze up after a short while. This was very bad. Now what's really odd about this picture freezing issue is that it seems the rest of the system is still rolling along in the background, music playing or XMB menu clicking in the background in response to controller input. All the same, a video game console is worthless without video output, and therefore the call was made to Sony this past Sunday despite my system's questionable warranty status. Although I knew the risks going in, I dread having to pay SCEA $150 to replace my system. Yes, that's the price to replace a PS3 out of warranty, which is absurd since there's a 1-year warranty and we're only 6 months from launch.

So, my Japanese launch PS3 may be gone, but it will not be forgotten. Its coffin will arrive from SCEA on Friday. This eulogy will be updated with the results of the customer service request for a replacement, be it a North American or Japanese system, covered under warranty or not, or simply returned in its broken state having been refused.

Cheesemeister's PlayStation 3
11/11/2006 - 05/07/2007


R.I.P.

Update 05/19:

coffin.jpg


Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.
 
marvelharvey said:
So what's going on with your warranty? Are SCEA still umming are ahhing over what to do?

We'll see what SCEA does when they receive my Japanese system with a copy of the receipt. You'd think a serial number not conforming to the North American format would've clued them in. They didn't specifically ask during the conversation, so here's hoping.
 

RSTEIN

Comics, serious business!
I can't understand how you can have all three next-gen consoles yet own a shite television.
 
RSTEIN said:
I can't understand how you can have all three next-gen consoles yet own a shite television.

I can afford an HDTV, but choose not to buy one since I'm thinking about moving to Japan in the not-too-distant future. That and getting a big ol' 1080p set for less sounds more appealing. I've hooked the 360 up to my 17" 1280x1040 monitor at home, which gives 720p native resolution... to mixed results. Tomb Raider, I'm looking at you.
 

Goldrusher

Member
I suggest you contact the folding team about it. Their program broke your PS3.

And a get-well-soon to marvelharvey.
 
I Am Error said:
I think there are people on NeoGAF who have had their PS3s on since launch.

wow, PS3 is a tank and all but this is stupid. I mean my PC is water cooled and I turn it off before going to bed.

Isn't leaving electronics on for such a long duration very risky?
 

1-D_FTW

Member
Raist said:
Dying after 45 days of 24/24 7/7 100% CPU usage.

Who's up to set a new record ?

not me

The GPU was probably working at 100 percent too. It's actually pretty impressive.
 
Doom_Bringer said:
Isn't leaving electronics on for such a long duration very risky?
You would think that corporate computer servers usually have insane uptimes and are under heavy workloads, so not really. It is usually the mechanical components, like HDDs for example, that you have to worry about due to ware and tear.
 
I Am Error said:
You would think that corporate computer servers usually have insane uptimes and are under heavy workloads, so not really. It is usually the mechanical components like HDDs that you have to worry about due to ware and tare.

dude those servers are a placed in air conditioned and dust free rooms
 
Doom_Bringer said:
dude those servers are a placed in air conditioned and dust free rooms or is the super computers?
I was just giving an example of electronics that could be left on for a long time and are not so "risky". And like you are saying home conditions are not very ideal for electronics so it would not be wise to leave electronics on for extended periods of time.
 

1-D_FTW

Member
Doom_Bringer said:
dude those servers are a placed in air conditioned and dust free rooms or is the super computers?

Exactly. The entire operation is designed for that heat. Air conditioning and case fans are at a premium. And even then, are those things really operating at 100 percent all the time? I would ignorantly assume there's some major spikes where they have some breathing time.
 
actually, constantly turning computers on and off all the time is more of a problem then anything, constantly jump starting the fan, chips, cards into motion isn't the best thing to do to your computer, but granted it isn't that big of an issue. my computer is rarely turned off, i think it's been going for a solid 2 weeks now. but my computer is made to me kept on for extended periods of time. i don't think many consoles these days are made for that kind of wear and tear and heat.
 

maxmars

Member
Tyrannical said:
Wow, you left a console on for 6 straight weeks. Jesus, that must be some kind of record.

Uh my Wii has been on since Dec 7th, I only turned it off to move it somewhere else.

Also, Marvelharvey, good luck with that. Hope you're better now.
 

Cdammen

Member
Great read Cheesemeister! And I'm sorry for your loss :(

maxmars said:
Uh my Wii has been on since Dec 7th [...]
Why? Why do people leave things switched on consuming power and getting hot?
 
Cheesemeister said:
We'll see what SCEA does when they receive my Japanese system with a copy of the receipt. You'd think a serial number not conforming to the North American format would've clued them in. They didn't specifically ask during the conversation, so here's hoping.
Hopefully karma will grant you a kind SCEA employee to overlook your replacement deal. Good luck dude!
 

PS360

Banned
Mine's been folding for about 3.5 weeks now with gaming in between and only two reboots...no actual shutdowns. My 360 is very jealous.

Anyway, I'm sorry for your loss but if they end up making you pay I won't be too surprised, nor do I find that ridiculous. SCEA cannot be expected to deal with broken imported systems. I know it'd be really nice and cool, but if you were in charge it would be a no-brainer to enforce the policy.
 
Gekkonidae said:
Sweet Hyrule shield. Can we get the story of that?

I picked it up alongside a replica of the Master Sword from a Pakistani merchant at a local anime convention. It's not licensed, as you can well imagine, and I'm a bit nonplussed at the shield's non-adherence to spec; the sword itself was very accurate. I've since given the Master Sword to my youngest brother as a HS graduation present and have yet to get another one.
 

herod

Member
TemplaerDude said:
actually, constantly turning computers on and off all the time is more of a problem then anything, constantly jump starting the fan, chips, cards into motion isn't the best thing to do to your computer, but granted it isn't that big of an issue. my computer is rarely turned off, i think it's been going for a solid 2 weeks now. but my computer is made to me kept on for extended periods of time. i don't think many consoles these days are made for that kind of wear and tear and heat.

Agreed

xxxx@dmz:~$ uptime
4:58PM up 158 days, 18:50, 2 users, load averages: 0.00, 0.02, 0.02

:)
 

tanod

when is my burrito
shattyboombatty said:

I don't see why not. 1 year warranty. If it's gonna break, it's not gonna break because it overheats. Plus, PS3 has overheating protection where it will turn itself off if it gets too hot.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
I remember the good old days of consumer electronics. You could leave something on pretty much forever with no fear of it breaking and without ecoterrorists blowing up your local power station.
 
maxmars said:
Uh my Wii has been on since Dec 7th, I only turned it off to move it somewhere else.

Also, Marvelharvey, good luck with that. Hope you're better now.

uh..leaving your wii "on" and having the Ps3 folding at 100% capacity for six solid weeks isnt even in the same ballpark, it's in a completely different league.
 

SleazyC

Member
I'm at 56 days of just about non-stop folding and haven't noticed anything too bad except for one odd incident.

I had my XMB set to 1080i for playing Sigma and went to load up the Hot Shots Golf demo and it reverted to 480i since it doesn't support 1080i. The game went slow as hell for some reason, like massive slow down. Not sure if this is an ill omen of signs to come but after finals week I'll try some gaming to see what else happens.

RIP Cheesmeister's PS3, RIP.
 

KTallguy

Banned
R.I.P.

I try to fold a few nights a week, but I just turn it on when I go to bed, and turn it off when I wake up...

I hope that SCEA helps you out!
 

Rugasuki

Member
Mine has been running 24/7 since the folding launch and it is still running fine. I have never turned the ps3 off since the folding launch. I did play God of War 2 on it over the course of a long weekend and installed the folding update but those are the only times it hasn't been running the folding application.

Marvelharvey, I'm on chemotherapy right now and will be having my second surgery in August. I found out I had an advanced stage of cancer last September. So I too am hoping the ps3 will be able to do some good.
 
So you basically spent your money for the PS3, your time and resources (power, transportation costs, etc...) to donate it all to science and cancer research.

TAX WRITE OFF!!!
 

Umino

Because certain people need something to talk about.
Should have used the Nyko fan... Your PS3 would be folding at 800% CPU usage right now.
 
Cheese,

Thanks for taking one for the Folding Team. Hope everything works out with the PS3 and that you participate and have fun in the Halo 3 beta while waiting.

You're a good man, Cheesemeister Brown!

Cheese-1.jpg


Rugasuki said:
Mine has been running 24/7 since the folding launch and it is still running fine. I have never turned the ps3 off since the folding launch. I did play God of War 2 on it over the course of a long weekend and installed the folding update but those are the only times it hasn't been running the folding application.

Marvelharvey, I'm on chemotherapy right now and will be having my second surgery in August. I found out I had an advanced stage of cancer last September. So I too am hoping the ps3 will be able to do some good.

marvelharvey said:
I had a cancer operation last week, I'd like to personally thank your PS3 for sacrificing itself so that I could live.

To both of you, best of wishes. The Gaming Gods are behind you; Believe.
 

Tailzo

Member
Rugasuki said:
Marvelharvey, I'm on chemotherapy right now and will be having my second surgery in August. I found out I had an advanced stage of cancer last September. So I too am hoping the ps3 will be able to do some good.

I pray that all goes well for you both.
 
That's one thing that sucks about import systems, when they break you're SOL... Hope I don't go through that any time soon, but I have no plans of folding because I'm a selfish bastard...
 

spwolf

Member
I Am Error said:
You would think that corporate computer servers usually have insane uptimes and are under heavy workloads, so not really. It is usually the mechanical components, like HDDs for example, that you have to worry about due to ware and tear.

servers are never at heavy loads...
 
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