My PS3 is dead... Long live my PS3!

GothPunk

There comes a time in every gamers life when their system of choice dies on them. For me, yesterday was that day. My PS3 was last seen shining green, than yellow, before finally blinking a sombre red.

Yes that's right, my launch model PS3 has died.

Myself and the OH use the thing for about 6-12 hours every day, so I'm guessing it's just a wear and tear issue, I figured this day would come eventually (I say that and yet my last back-up is from October :rolleyes:).

So the purpose of this thread is to ask some advice of you merry lot.
Where would be the best place to get my PS3 repaired? Are Techminders in the GPO Arcade (Dublin) any good? Or should I go with what I know, consolerepairs.ie, despite being harder for me to get to (as they are in Bray I'd have to get the DART). I'm going to ring them now and see how much each place charges and what kind of a guarantee their repairs come with.

I'm thinking that once I get my PS3 repaired, I might just buy a PS3 Slim and a PS2. I have a friend who works in a gaming place who might do me a favour and if I give her the money buy the consoles for me with her staff discount, so it wouldn't cost me too much. Then I'd trade in my repaired old PS3 to make up some of the difference. I'd also have to buy a PS2 memory card adapter for the old PS3 so that I could transfer over my many PS2 saves to the new PS2. (I may be able to get a PS2 for free though from the OH's family).

I don't want to send it off to Sony as it'll cost more, take longer, and the disc that is stuck inside the console (Demon's Souls) may get lost.

Advice would be appreciated.

peejay1986

Well personally I think it's a disgrace that a console costing so much on launch date can only be expected to last 3 years. I paid €650 for mine on launch day and last night mine developed an issue after updating to fw3.15. I don't think it's merely a coincidence that many others are having the exact same issue after updating to 3.15.

GothPunk

peejay1986 wrote: »

Well personally I think it's a disgrace that a console costing so much on launch date can only be expected to last 3 years. I paid €650 for mine on launch day and last night mine developed an issue after updating to fw3.15. I don't think it's merely a coincidence that many others are having the exact same issue after updating to 3.15.

That's very true. If I wasn't so dependent on my PS3 for entertainment I'd ring up Sony and see if they'd do me a favour with a repair or something considering, as you say, it could be FW 3.15 that is to blame. Like I said in the OP though I won't be going with Sony for a repair.

peejay1986

GothPunk wrote: »

That's very true. If I wasn't so dependent on my PS3 for entertainment I'd ring up Sony and see if they'd do me a favour with a repair or something considering, as you say, it could be FW 3.15 that is to blame. Like I said in the OP though I won't be going with Sony for a repair.

You're right not to. If my console is actually broken then there's no way Sony will get my money. Three years lifespan from my PS3 is not acceptable. Neither is the 1 year warranty.

Best of luck with your search. Maybe you could try asking in the 'Services' section of Adverts.ie?

noodler

Dude, I am sorry to hear it. Don't forget to take the HDD out!

There must be a way to get DS out!

Personally, I would feel safer with a slim and a PS2 then a repair. Problem with the YOLD (as far as I can tell) is that you can't be sure off the bat what caused it.

It'll have to be 360 gaming now, eh?
Time to finish off some bsg me thinks!

CombatCow

Uuugh that sucks, but id do the same if it happened to me ie. trade the repaired ps3 for a slim .You could try to turn the ps3 upside down and "shake" the disk out of the drive, or as milltown did, attach some sellotape to a knife and try pull it out, either way is a bit dodgy I know, but may be worth a chance. sorry for your loss :pac:


CC

ongarite

Sorry for your loss, saw you playing LBP POTC pack last night!

You could try the hair-dryer method on your PS3 to try and get the PS3 to boot, eject the disc, copy game saves to USB & de-authenticate your PSN account.

Other option, if you are anyway technically minded is to get a heat-gun and try a reflow of the CPU, GPU yourself. This is all the repair companies will be doing anyway.

WhiskeyGoblin

He was a brave PS3 loved by all and shall be sorely misse on a side note SLIM and a PS2 is a good option when my PS3 dies (lets be honest it will happen eventually ) i shall be investing in a Slim already have my PS2 , well yeah bummer anyway seeing how its just about christmas and all

Inquitus

GothPunk wrote: »

There comes a time in every gamers life when their system of choice dies on them. For me, yesterday was that day. My PS3 was last seen shining green, than yellow, before finally blinking a sombre red.

Yes that's right, my launch model PS3 has died.

Myself and the OH use the thing for about 6-12 hours every day, so I'm guessing it's just a wear and tear issue, I figured this day would come eventually (I say that and yet my last back-up is from October :rolleyes:).

So the purpose of this thread is to ask some advice of you merry lot.
Where would be the best place to get my PS3 repaired? Are Techminders in the GPO Arcade (Dublin) any good? Or should I go with what I know, consolerepairs.ie, despite being harder for me to get to (as they are in Bray I'd have to get the DART). I'm going to ring them now and see how much each place charges and what kind of a guarantee their repairs come with.

I'm thinking that once I get my PS3 repaired, I might just buy a PS3 Slim and a PS2. I have a friend who works in a gaming place who might do me a favour and if I give her the money buy the consoles for me with her staff discount, so it wouldn't cost me too much. Then I'd trade in my repaired old PS3 to make up some of the difference. I'd also have to buy a PS2 memory card adapter for the old PS3 so that I could transfer over my many PS2 saves to the new PS2. (I may be able to get a PS2 for free though from the OH's family).

I don't want to send it off to Sony as it'll cost more, take longer, and the disc that is stuck inside the console (Demon's Souls) may get lost.

Advice would be appreciated.

If its the solder issue, which is the most common YLOD cause, then you can get it reflowed. Issues with this are, once the warranty seal is broken, your ability to sell it on is severely hampered, solder reflow is only really good for a few months at best, and once it re-occurs, that's it.

Theres 3 options, none are great -

1) Reflow it and break the warranty seal and hope you are lucky and get more than the avg 2-3 mths out of it.
2) Pay 160 yoyos and get a refurn off Sony with 6mths warranty but the same inherent design flaw.
3) Sell it on ebay for 70-100 yoyos (if you can get it) and use that to part fund a slim purchase.

GothPunk

Thanks guys, I feel better now after feeling pretty bummed this morning. My Dad sent me some money (Ah parents ) so I think I'll be going with the Slim purchase sooner than I thought. I'll then get my PS3 repaired, transfer my PS3 and PS2 saves, trade it in to GameStop* and get a PS2 from them. What the hell are my PS2 games going to look like now when they won't be upscaled? :pac:

I think I might open up the PS3 to get the disc out. I'm interested to see what it looks like inside anyway. I'm fairly comfortable with minor repairs but I wouldn't be confident in my ability to solder anything. :pac:

*I realise this is kind of a mean thing to do on whoever buys my second hand console, but at least they'll have a warranty.

WolfForager

Oh no... My friend's launch console broke last week and now this?? I'm really starting to get paranoid now!

If i happened to be in that situation i'd probably just buy a Slim and keep the old PS3 in the hopes that in a few years people might shell out ridiculous loads of cash for it

Hope to see that little blue dot beside your avatar soon buddy

robbie_998

terrible to hear. I'll add you later to my psn list

but is this only the launch Consoles that are breaking down with YLOD ?

i mean i bought mine in Augest in Curry's, should i expect that to go in two years time ?

GothPunk

WolfForager wrote: »

Hope to see that little blue dot beside your avatar soon buddy

*sniff* Me too dude, me too.

Super Sidious

Did ya try turning off the PS3 at the back then holding the eject button and switching it back on?

Thats how I got my Disk out when it YLOD...

Also you could try hair dryer trick but its a last resort cause it ****s up the inside of the PS3...

Its relatively easy to open up PS3 and resolder the GPU and CPU...

I bought a heat gun from Aldi for 13euro and some Artic silver thermal compound for 10 euro...

Plenty of youtube guides of dismantling PS3, make sure to follow all steps!

Even just to get your save files!

ianflynn

starting to worry about my launch model now
thankfully i didnt updatw to 3.15

Grayditch

That sucks, dude. Hope you get it sorted soon.

GothPunk

I bought a Slim PS3 yesterday, so I'm sorted pretty much (Thanks to my Dad, he's a gamer too so maybe that's why he was so quick to help me out. Trading in my old PS3 once it's repaired will mean that I won't be out of pocket too much). I'm going to open up my old PS3 today and try and get out my precious Demon's Souls disc. Luckily my last back-up was recent enough that I have a lot of my very important saves and with a few new games coming my way tomorrow it won't matter too much that I don't have my Uncharted 2 save (even though it's double XP soon). I'll loose my Demon's Souls save (had 30 or so hours put in ) and my Killzone 2 save as well as they're copy protected I think.

The holding the eject button whilst I turn on the PS3 doesn't work as it's a 60GB model. It literally turns on for about 2 seconds anyway so I don't think that's long enough for it to register a button press. As cool as I think those touch buttons on my old PS3 are, they're not very practical. :pac:

I would try repairing the PS3 myself but I want to trade it in and make sure it runs for long enough for me to do back-ups and copy my PS2 saves to a PS2 memory card. I'd be worried I'd mess it up and then be left with big black beast that's worth nothing.

I can't get over how quiet the Slim is, and Bravia Sync is kinda cool I guess. Most of all I just like how I can use a PS3 without it freezing on me in the browser or crashing in games. It's made me realise how much crap was wrong with my old PS3 and I had kind of just gotten used to it and accepted it as normal. I had to ask my mates who had my PSN account on their PS3 to deactivate it on their system so that I could redownload some of my more recent stuff (like the LBP POTC level pack ) and one of them did it this morning so now I have a lot of my stuff back.

Thanks again guys, you really do care! *sniff* :pac:

WolfForager

GothPunk wrote: »

I bought a Slim PS3 yesterday, so I'm sorted pretty much (Thanks to my Dad, he's a gamer too so maybe that's why he was so quick to help me out. Trading in my old PS3 once it's repaired will mean that I won't be out of pocket too much). I'm going to open up my old PS3 today and try and get out my precious Demon's Souls disc. Luckily my last back-up was recent enough that I have a lot of my very important saves and with a few new games coming my way tomorrow it won't matter too much that I don't have my Uncharted 2 save (even though it's double XP soon). I'll loose my Demon's Souls save (had 30 or so hours put in ) and my Killzone 2 save as well as they're copy protected I think.

The holding the eject button whilst I turn on the PS3 doesn't work as it's a 60GB model. It literally turns on for about 2 seconds anyway so I don't think that's long enough for it to register a button press. As cool as I think those touch buttons on my old PS3 are, they're not very practical. :pac:

I would try repairing the PS3 myself but I want to trade it in and make sure it runs for long enough for me to do back-ups and copy my PS2 saves to a PS2 memory card. I'd be worried I'd mess it up and then be left with big black beast that's worth nothing.

I can't get over how quiet the Slim is, and Bravia Sync is kinda cool I guess. Most of all I just like how I can use a PS3 without it freezing on me in the browser or crashing in games. It's made me realise how much crap was wrong with my old PS3 and I had kind of just gotten used to it and accepted it as normal. I had to ask my mates who had my PSN account on their PS3 to deactivate it on their system so that I could redownload some of my more recent stuff (like the LBP POTC level pack ) and one of them did it this morning so now I have a lot of my stuff back.

Thanks again guys, you really do care! *sniff* :pac:

Great stuff! What's the story with that Data Transfer thing that was added with FW 3.15? Shouldn't you be able to transfer everything from your old PS3 to your new one with that?

GothPunk

WolfForager wrote: »

Great stuff! What's the story with that Data Transfer thing that was added with FW 3.15? Shouldn't you be able to transfer everything from your old PS3 to your new one with that?

Yep, but because my HDD in my old PS3 is 320GB, I'm going to have to delete some stuff off it and then do the data transfer. Then I'll have to make a back-up on the Slim (from the 120GB HDD) and then swap in the 320GB HDD, re-format it and then restore the back-up made from the slim to the 320GB HDD. A bit of a pain in the ass but shouldn't take me too long to do and is totally worth it for all my stuff.

I wonder if I play Uncharted 2 online will I be level 1 again? I wanna play as Santa Drake but I won't have my boosters. :pac:

WolfForager

Ah fair enough, didn't realize it was such a tedious process!

Nah, your U2 rank is stored on the Sony servers.

GothPunk

WolfForager wrote: »

Nah, your U2 rank is stored on the Sony servers.

Aww yeah! That's awesome news. Think you'll be playing for double XP?

WolfForager

I'm 160k away from the Genghis Khan skin so i'll probably be playing alot

dasilverfox

mine died in october, sent it off to console repairs in bray. got it fixed for 40yoyo, it died again a month later. i brought it back hoping i could get it fixed so i could trade it in for a slim, got a call yesterday to tell me it can't be fixed. i've loads of music and photos on the hard drive that i can't retrieve now. also my uncharted 2 game's inside. my 2 year old xbox 360 elite died 3 weeks ago too, but that was returned from microsoft repair centre yesterday. why can't sony offer a service like that? i'm starting to regret not taking the 160euro refurbished model from sony now. i'm out of work at the moment so i can't afford a new ps3 slim for a while. anyone any ideas please? i should have backed up all my files too. rather strange it died after the last couple of firmware updates too. p.s. a guy in the console repair place in tallaght told me they have new hardware that can make it a permanent fix. what ye think? talking through his rear?

noodler

GothPunk wrote: »

Yep, but because my HDD in my old PS3 is 320GB, I'm going to have to delete some stuff off it and then do the data transfer. Then I'll have to make a back-up on the Slim (from the 120GB HDD) and then swap in the 320GB HDD, re-format it and then restore the back-up made from the slim to the 320GB HDD. A bit of a pain in the ass but shouldn't take me too long to do and is totally worth it for all my stuff.

I wonder if I play Uncharted 2 online will I be level 1 again? I wanna play as Santa Drake but I won't have my boosters. :pac:

WolfForager wrote: »

I'm 160k away from the Genghis Khan skin so i'll probably be playing alot

My PS3 is officially a year old so I will be living in fear for a while.

I am thinking of starting Uncharted 2 tonight, I need a break from Demons Souls - can be a little annoying to play it for 3+ hours and make no story progress.

Should U2 be played on normal difficulty or is that too easy?

knuth

I would advise putting in for a claim in the Small Claims Court going from previous experience.

noodler

lordlame wrote: »

I would advise putting in for a claim in the Small Claims Court going from previous experience.

How did it go for you?

WolfForager

noodler wrote: »

Should U2 be played on normal difficulty or is that too easy?

Hard definitely. I played it on normal first time and then had to complete again after that on hard to unlock Crushing Mode, then yet again to get my platinum >_>

noodler

WolfForager wrote: »

Hard definitely. I played it on normal first time and then had to complete again after that on hard to unlock Crushing Mode, then yet again to get my platinum >_>

Cool, played too many games that were too easy on normal.

Cheers

witnessmenow

Hey Goth, man thats a serious bummer!

If you want to send me a Pm we might be able to organise a repair, I've done a few at this stage and so far so good. At very worst you'll get demon souls back safely and get your HD backed up too (although i dont think all your save files work on the slim )

Let me know anyways.

GothPunk

witnessmenow wrote: »

Hey Goth, man thats a serious bummer!

If you want to send me a Pm we might be able to organise a repair, I've done a few at this stage and so far so good. At very worst you'll get demon souls back safely and get your HD backed up too (although i dont think all your save files work on the slim )

Let me know anyways.

Hey thanks I opened up my PS3 already and got my Demon's Souls out, it wasn't hard to open up once I found the right screwdriver. The only thing I'm wondering about are the two little grey plastic teeth that stop another disc entering the tray, do you know is it normal for them to remain in the up position? I'm going to guess yes considering the drive hasn't been ejected per se. I'm just worried I broke something.

I would much prefer to give money to a fellow Boardsie but I'm looking to get it repaired before the 28th, because I'm completely obsessed with Demon's Souls and there's an online event happening that only lasts until that date. I'm going to head into town tomorrow and get Techmenders to do it.

I also found out that if you use the new ethernet cable data transfer utility that was included as part of the 3.15 firmware update, you can transfer copy protected saves from one PS3 to another. So all going well I won't loose any saves.

tbaymusicman

There is faults built in to them so they fail after a certain period of time most electronics have this :(:( especially anything from microsoft

WolfForager

tbaymusicman wrote: »

There is faults built in to them so they fail after a certain period of time most electronics have this :(:( especially anything from microsoft

Proofs please

Leiva

tbaymusicman wrote: »

There is faults built in to them so they fail after a certain period of time most electronics have this :(:( especially anything from microsoft

Cunny-Funt

marko93 wrote: »

when my PS3 dies (lets be honest it will happen eventually )

Fuck that, I still have my Ps1 and it still works!! And its not like I have it in storage, its on the ground in my messy room. I may have to turn it upside down to get a game running mind you

GothPunk

Looks like most of the repair places are closed until the 29th or thereafter. I'll have to get WWT in Demon's Souls the hard way.

yusufmc

hi when you turn on your ps3 it goes green then yellow then red! its wat kown as ylod as title says above.

what causes this is the power adaptor is under the mother board and melts the solder on the main chip, it comes detached and dies,

u can fix this your self or get a company in wicklow to fix it for you cost about €300 (not worth it).

but it will keep happening to the ps3

regards joe

WolfForager

Eh it'll cost 40-120 euro...

eddhorse

Sorry to hear the bad news Gothpunk, maybe its a glitch when you get too many platinums !
I paid around 750 for my launch model ! Eek im worried now.

macpac26

My 60gig launch console packed in last night just after clearing Assassins Creed 2. The disc is stuck in it and the fan method of ejecting the disc doesnt work.

I'll be bringing it out to console repairs in bray, anyone had any experiences with them?

clint111

hey gothpunk sorry to here you're havin trouble,

all the advice you've gotten so far is all solid info so i couldn't add any more of a guidline than the previous posters have given (heatgun, isopropyl, thermal paste and ten minutes worth of youtube vids).

that said the reason i'm posting is because i'm actually lookin to buy a broken ps3 ( for myself, not to sell on for profit ). i can offer my ps2 slim into the bargain aswell if you like.

pm me if your interested. if you're not its cool.

best of luck what ever ya decide to do

johnny_adidas

my launch model has frozen twice this week while playing worms, to say im worried is an understatement

macpac26

Towards the end i noticed ripples coming down the screen occasionally when i played blu rays and dvds, i guess i should of seen it coming!

dasilverfox

macpac26 wrote: »

My 60gig launch console packed in last night just after clearing Assassins Creed 2. The disc is stuck in it and the fan method of ejecting the disc doesnt work.

I'll be bringing it out to console repairs in bray, anyone had any experiences with them?

as i said in a previous post. i got mine fixed in bray, it lasted a month. can't be fixed again. it's completely fooked. pay the 160euro to sony would be my advice. all i have now is a worthless brick.

dasilverfox

clint111 wrote: »

hey gothpunk sorry to here you're havin trouble,

all the advice you've gotten so far is all solid info so i couldn't add any more of a guidline than the previous posters have given (heatgun, isopropyl, thermal paste and ten minutes worth of youtube vids).

that said the reason i'm posting is because i'm actually lookin to buy a broken ps3 ( for myself, not to sell on for profit ). i can offer my ps2 slim into the bargain aswell if you like.

pm me if your interested. if you're not its cool.

best of luck what ever ya decide to do

i'll sell ya mine. without the hard drive of course. i'm hoping of finding a way to retrieve my files.

noodler

I have to agree. If Console Repairs only offer a one month warranty on their work then that is pretty telling to me regarding their own confidence in their work.

WolfForager

While i'm here and extraoridnarily paranoid... Is it usual to hear a sort of ticking noise coming from the PS3 when it's accessing the HDD? I'm getting it during game saves in Dragon Age...

macpac26

noodler wrote: »

I have to agree. If Console Repairs only offer a one month warranty on their work then that is pretty telling to me regarding their own confidence in their work.

Popped into Console Repairs last night, he checked it out and said its the RSX thats the problem and can only guarantee a month of it working. At least he was honest with me about it,40euro im getting it repaired and going to get all the data backed up and transferred to a new slim. Plus i need my AC2 disc out of it anyways. Im not paying 160 odd for Sony to fix it. I have my PS2 so im not bothered about losing backwards compatability.

Only problem is there is a 3 week wait! OUCH!

Couldnt help but notice the sheer amount of PS3s and 360s in the shop! He's a busy man!

Leprechaun77

My 60gig launch model died coincidentally after the 3.15 update. I only use the console once every few weeks, but it started freezing and then would not read discs. Seemingly it's the blu-ray laser. Dropped it into ConsoleRepair during the week. €100 lids...ouch...(from reading other threads, it was €80 last year )..will be a couple of weeks waiting. The amount of XBox's there for repair was unreal.

OxfordComma

My 40GB model pretty much stopped working after the 3.15 update (don't know if that's just a coincidence). Now it won't play DVDs or Blu-Rays. Games only finish loading about 25% of the time, and when they do, they eventually freeze, and will completely stop working if I press the PS button.

I bought mine a year and four months ago so the warranty's up. :mad: Absolutely outrageous. A 400 euro console should be capable of lasting five years plus, never mind only one. :mad: No way am I shelling out 160 euro to repair it; I always kept it in good condition. I shouldn't have to pay to fix something that's Sony's fault.

gstar

im having a minutes silence for all the PS3s that are no more may they rest in peace

Im dreading the day my ps3 dies, its only ever powered off when im at work or sleeping (weekends not included lol) im feeling very vulnerable to it giving up the ghost. while i was online nite before last a mate messaged me to say there was a system update (FW 3.15) which apparently was optional. when i went into system on the xmb, it was already installed on my system. Im a bit scared now! i upgraded to a 320 gb as i was out of space on my 80 gb so i defo dont want anything happening now. I'll b backing up when i get home !! Does anyone know what the issue was with fw 3.15 for sure?

Super Sidious

Yea... I got YLOD after 3.15 update BUT I think my PS3 was giving me signs it was on its way out anyway... randomly turning off, freezing etc.

Maybe 3.15 was a type of euthanasia?!