PS3 getting louder and louder. Any solutions?

Not as easy as it might seem I'm afraid...

I opened up my PS3 over a year ago to do some cleaning and it can get daunting fairly quickly; the problem is that you have to physically disconnect essentially everything - connectors as well as physical components - in order to get to the fan, which is on the reverse of the system and not immediately exposed when you remove the top slipcase.

For myself, from the limited dust build up relative to what I expected that seemed to be the case at the time, as well as my increasing trepidation at disconnecting the BD drive connections and handling the unit itself, I backed away from the project.

I can assemble a computer fairly quickly and am fine with any/every number of PC parts, but some of the proprietary connectors and the manner in which the components are so super-tightly spaced/placed gave me pause in terms of my hopes of a 100% system rebuild... and anything less than 100% would have been fairly disappointing for some efforts against dust.

Robert I'd go with some low-level vacuuming and hope for the best if I were you!

 

It really doesn't look that hard:
http://www.llamma.com/PS3/repair/PS3_disassembly_tutorial.htm

 

Again it's not disassembly, but reassembly that comes off as daunting when you begin the process. I'll tip my hat to whoever undertakes the process; I'm not trying to dissuade, just to relate what my own feelings on it were when I commenced.

 

I dissembled my PS3 3-4 times now, none of them was nearly problematic as replacing its HDD first time. I couldn't find my precision screw driver at the time and had to fight with two of the screws, to the death. I also cleaned BD lens once.

I'd say general disassembly is easy thanks to smart engineering in physical placement, and all the little arrows that tell you what to remove at what point.

My problem was that dense placement makes thermal paste replacement a little tricky because you cannot evenly distribute the paste using heatsink, and it's difficult to get feedback once you put the heatsink back.

 

I just blew air from lungs through the intake vents, dust everywhere. Someone once told me that Vacuuming was an absolute nono since it had the risk of building up static electric?

If i had compressed air i would use that.

 

Well well then, making me look weak!

Maybe I'll re-attempt it if you found re-assembly to be not bad. My hope last time was that I wouldn't have to delve 'deep' to get to the fan blades, but with those launch units you really do have to make a decision to commit early on since they're on the reverse of the motherboard; or rather the motherboard is flipped relative to 'up' on the console.

I found HDD replacement to be extremely simple, so a tale of two tasks I suppose. I don't think I'd be touching the lens array though either way, just for worry that I might slightly shift default alignment.

 

What betan failed to mention is that he likes to juggle razor barbells while solving 1000-piece all-black jigsaw puzzles with his feet.

 

Ok sorry I should have mentioned you need to use a special battery powered vacuum cleaner that's designed to do this and prevent static electricity from building up, as you're right that regular vacuum cleaners can be harmful. Compressed air can be harmful in several conditions also, however. If you can get one of these special vacuum cleaners, they are almost always the safest and most efficient way of doing the job I think.

But plenty of good websites on the subject. Check this one:

http://www.computerhope.com/cleaning.htm

 

I haven't cleaned my PS3 since I got it a few months after launch. I dread having to open it up and take apart but I know I'm gonna have to do it soon. Hopefully it's not too much more complicated compared to taking apart a 360 (did that just fine).

 

Well, you're luckier than me. My 60 GB PS3 got YLOD.

Anyways, be sure to clean the dust off the vents often with a low-powered vacuum. That's what I'm going to do from now on.

 

Vacuuming naked electronic components is inadvisable, but vacuuming the vents of an enclosure is harmless. There's simply too big a distance between the nozzle and the innards for a discharge to strike any components. Besides, there's a metal shield inbetween anyway...

 

But are you sure it is not the summer weather and increased air temp that does it?

 

Source: http://www.ps3vault.com/how-to-kill-a-ps3-console-1975

Most of the troubles I heard are Blu-ray read failures. My launch 20Gb PS3 ran 24-7 for close to a year (including a hot summer) before I traded it in healthy for a 60Gb using BestBuy's extended warranty.

 

Use a weak vacuum cleaner to clean the vent holes as instructed by the user's manual.

 

Seems like my Blu-Ray drive just died. After 10 to 20 minutes of watching a BD movie (haven't tried disc based games yet) the image freezes every time, but the system doesn't. I can still back out of movie mode with the circle button and play all my games from the PSN.
What a bummer.
That's the only thing I infinitely prefer about PC gaming: exchanging broken parts is easy.

 

I used a bit of compressed air on mine too and it effectively did make a difference. Now I can at least watch BRD again without thinking I forgot to switch off the vacuum cleaner.

I don't expect the joy to last long though.

 

I vacuumed my PS3 as well. This seemed to have a good effect on my PS3 as well. Hadn't done it in a fair while too (probably at least a year) so I think the effects will last for a fair bit.

 

Mine died in a similar way as well, but the shop where I bought it from said they and Sony would fix it.