My PS3 Slim (white FFXIII model) got the YLOD last summer while straining to run a DVD in 95-degree (35 C) weather.
I went out and got a heat gun and thermal paste and yesterday finally took the thing apart. Wiped the old paste off the processors, aimed the heat gun at them for a few minutes, then covered them in a thin layer of 6.5 watt-per-kelvin-meter silicon grease. Smoothed it out and waited a way, and turned it on for the first time this evening with great anticipation.
It powered up! As if it were just an ordinary crash, in fact; the calendar was still accurate and all I got was the warning that it had shut down irregularly last time and was going to check itself.
When that finished, I had the usual XMB and all my games, save files, and such. I had inserted a USB stick in order to move save files, and couldn't figure out how to move them, because pressing triangle when on a file in the save utility only offered to put it on the PS+ cloud, which I'm not yet a member of.
But then while I was doing that, perhaps an hour after turning it on, I get the message that the machine is running hot.
While I was googling that, it shut itself down.
I had already conceded that this PS3 is dying, but I'd at least like to get my save files off it and onto the other machine. What would be a good way to do this as quickly as possible, assuming that another YLOD is on the way and could come at any time?
There are only a dozen or so files that I really need to move. I have a couple of files that are locked to that console, such as my Assassin's Creed 2 saves, and I'll never get to that DLC I once bought if I have to start again from the beginning.
I have a PS+ code just waiting to activate. Can I activate that from my computer, then turn on the PS3 and have it see that I'm a Plus member now? Then I could quickly find and upload my saves before the PS3 conks out on me again. I was once a Plus member long ago and am using 132 of my 150 MB, supposedly. Can I browse what I've got stored before signing up again?
Can I prepare a USB stick in advance by creating a "PS3" folder on it, with "SAVEDATA" inside? For whatever reason, the PS3 couldn't see the USB stick that I had put in.
Any thoughts?