PS3 hardware failure

[Rotmm]

I wasn't implying they look similar, just that they similarly toy-like and not fitting for a high-end media centre.

Of course now that I discovered the Slim prefers to 'lie down', the point has become very moot for me.

I woudln't know, all of my consoles (with the exception of a Wii I had a short time) have lay down. I'd feel guilty making them stand to attention for all time

 

[corduroygt]

Arwin, what was on the sticker of your internal hard drive? When I pulled mine out, I found that it's a horrible Toshiba drive that's rated for 5V and 1A = 5W. That's insane, since other 5400 rpm drives only draw about 0.6A for 3W total power use. I put a 320GB 7200 rpm drive, which speeds everything up considerably, and even that burns 0.8A at 5V for a total of 4W. Play Fallout 3 or Killzone 2 with a 7200 rpm drive, load times are almost halved.

 

[Billy Idol]

All in all, I just wish my old 60GB (320GB) PS3 hadn't died. I liked its USB ports and memory card slots. And Sony, a deal with Steam to have savegames
in the cloud wouldn't be a bad idea at all ...

Arwin did I get something wrong?
Why can't you just put in the HDD of your old PS3 into your new PS3 Slim?
Then you should have all the content and save games available on your Slim, right?

 

[Rotmm]

Why can't you just put in the HDD of your old PS3 into your new PS3 Slim?

No. The data on the hard drive is written in a way that it is tied to that particular console, and then if you put that same hard drive into a new PS3 then the first thing it wants to do is format it. It's unlike the 360 in that way,

The only way to transfer data is to use the PS3 backup utility and then restore it to a new PS3. Unfortunately, this is unable to be done when you have a dead PS3, which is why it makes sense for Arwin to have his current PS3 repaired.... even if only to get back all his old save (for those games where the save file isn't "locked" to the original console anyway) games and to be able to re-sync trophies, etc.

 

[goonergaz]

The only way to transfer data is to use the PS3 backup utility and then restore it to a new PS3.

There is another way, the data transfer basically does a 'ghost-esq' copy of your HDD from one PS3 to another. Of course you still need a working PS3 (I fixed mine and did this) at least this way the PS3 is like the way it was before...altho as mentioned sometimes it's good to get a fresh start.

Sony should def allow you to just swap a HDD, even if it only allowed access to the gamesaves so you could back them up to a stick (and remove all game-save protections)

 

[Arwin]

Yeah, there's an option to do it over the network. With 1Gbit network ports, that's a pretty good option (if only the HDD were fast enough to actually use that bandwidth ).

The only real bother for me right now (apart from having trouble convincing some games that I have the full version rather than the demo) will likely be the Singstar songs. You need to call Sony support for this I think.

 

[Billy Idol]

No. The data on the hard drive is written in a way that it is tied to that particular console, and then if you put that same hard drive into a new PS3 then the first thing it wants to do is format it. It's unlike the 360 in that way,

The only way to transfer data is to use the PS3 backup utility and then restore it to a new PS3. Unfortunately, this is unable to be done when you have a dead PS3, which is why it makes sense for Arwin to have his current PS3 repaired.... even if only to get back all his old save (for those games where the save file isn't "locked" to the original console anyway) games and to be able to re-sync trophies, etc.

Ah, okay...did not know this - thanks for the explanation!
Now, I am really nervous about my ol PS3 (Europe launch model as well)...

 

[Rotmm]

Do a regular backup, once a week or month depending on how much you play.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Is it possible to get a dead PS3 deactivated from your account so it doesn't take up one of your 5 uses?

 

[goonergaz]

The only real bother for me right now (apart from having trouble convincing some games that I have the full version rather than the demo) will likely be the Singstar songs. You need to call Sony support for this I think.

yes, even using the data xfer - the singstar songs were the only sticking point - a phonecall to sony sorted it out but it does take a day or 2 IIRC

 

[goonergaz]

Is it possible to get a dead PS3 deactivated from your account so it doesn't take up one of your 5 uses?

I believe a phonecall to Sony would do the trick, they managed to know what machine my singstar songs were attached to, so it should be easy for them to just deactivate the machine for you

 

[Arwin]

By the way, the Slim is strange in terms of sound (others have mentioned this). It is really, really silent, but at the same time you can hear the BD and the fan very clearly now and distinctively. It's partly because the one no longer drowns out the other, but there's obviously more going on. I think the main piont here is that the new fan has a sound output that is focussed in a smaller bandwidth, so it stands out a little more.

 

[rabidrabbit]

By the way, the Slim is strange in terms of sound (others have mentioned this). It is really, really silent, but at the same time you can hear the BD and the fan very clearly now and distinctively. It's partly because the one no longer drowns out the other, but there's obviously more going on. I think the main piont here is that the new fan has a sound output that is focussed in a smaller bandwidth, so it stands out a little more.

Is yours the latest 2104 series?
I've been thinking of replacing my EU launch PS3 with a Slim, even though it's still working perfect, mainly for Slim being less noisy in Blu-ray viewing.
The other option is getting a standalone BR player, but if the latest PS3 Slim is as silent as standalones, I might just get one before the good old fatty breaks.
On the other hand, I'd use the BR player or PS3 as a CD player too. The PS3 is not the most convenient CD player, whereas a standalone would be much more well suited to that task. The main thing that bugs me with the PS3 as a CD player is that it won't output sound thru HDMI if the display is off (standby), though I'm not sure if Blu-ray players are different in that matter..

If I back up the PS3 to a USB HDD, can that back-up be transferred to a new PS3, or is the transfer utility only between an old PS3 <-> new PS3?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

On the other hand, I'd use the BR player or PS3 as a CD player too. The PS3 is not the most convenient CD player, whereas a standalone would be much more well suited to that task.

Why play CDs when you can rip them to HDD? That's a very nostalgic use of the shiny discs!

The main thing that bugs me with the PS3 as a CD player is that it won't output sound thru HDMI if the display is off (standby)...

Why do you want to? Are you going HDMI into amp into TV? If that's how you have it set up, I'm surprised that PS3 won't output to the receiver with the TV off, as that's a separate component down the chain, although I appreciate the HDMI handshaking that goes on. Sony updated the firmware to allow multiple audio outs, so you could take the optical out and connect that to your receiver to use audio even when the TV is off.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Why play CDs when you can rip them to HDD? That's a very nostalgic use of the shiny discs!.

I'm already 40Gigs free of my 320GB HDD inside the PS3. Also, I have a front projector as my display, I don't want to turn it on everytime I want to listen to ripped CDs.

Why do you want to? Are you going HDMI into amp into TV? If that's how you have it set up, I'm surprised that PS3 won't output to the receiver with the TV off, as that's a separate component down the chain, although I appreciate the HDMI handshaking that goes on. Sony updated the firmware to allow multiple audio outs, so you could take the optical out and connect that to your receiver to use audio even when the TV is off.

Yes, HDMI from PS3 goes thru AV receiver to the projector. I guess it's some HDMI HDCP copy protection thing. As soon as I turn the projector completely off from the main switch, I get sound. If the projector is in standby - no sound.
I don't want to lose DTS and Dolby HD sounds for movies, I think if I enable multiple audio out, the HD will be downgraded to plain old DD and dts.

 

[Arwin]

I'm already 40Gigs free of my 320GB HDD inside the PS3. Also, I have a front projector as my display, I don't want to turn it on everytime I want to listen to ripped CDs.

Yes, HDMI from PS3 goes thru AV receiver to the projector. I guess it's some HDMI HDCP copy protection thing. As soon as I turn the projector completely off from the main switch, I get sound. If the projector is in standby - no sound.
I don't want to lose DTS and Dolby HD sounds for movies, I think if I enable multiple audio out, the HD will be downgraded to plain old DD and dts.

That's weird. This is not how it works on my receiver/tv combo. I can put the TV into standby mode no problem while listening to any kind of music, CD, DVD or BluRay. You do notice that it switches off very shortly, but then it switches on again. It may be a receiver thing?

Multiple out doesn't downgrade your main audio. The secondary audio (.e.g. the optical out) will be limited to stereo though if I remember correctly.

 

[upnorthsox]

I'm already 40Gigs free of my 320GB HDD inside the PS3. Also, I have a front projector as my display, I don't want to turn it on everytime I want to listen to ripped CDs.

Yes, HDMI from PS3 goes thru AV receiver to the projector. I guess it's some HDMI HDCP copy protection thing. As soon as I turn the projector completely off from the main switch, I get sound. If the projector is in standby - no sound.
I don't want to lose DTS and Dolby HD sounds for movies, I think if I enable multiple audio out, the HD will be downgraded to plain old DD and dts.

Have you tried turning off the Control for HDMI in the system settings? Also turning on the Disc Auto-Start so that the CD will automatically start playing?

 

[rabidrabbit]

That's weird. This is not how it works on my receiver/tv combo. I can put the TV into standby mode no problem while listening to any kind of music, CD, DVD or BluRay. You do notice that it switches off very shortly, but then it switches on again. It may be a receiver thing?

Multiple out doesn't downgrade your main audio. The secondary audio (.e.g. the optical out) will be limited to stereo though if I remember correctly.

Yeah, might be a display thing too, you never know with HDMI. I thought getting rid of SCART was great, but HDMI's brought more problems than a clumsy connector
That's great if the main audio isn't downgraded, I always thought there'd be a compromise for HD audio. Is dts 24/96 also still playable? I don't know if there actually are any BR movies that use 96 khz DTS-HD MA, though.

 

[Arwin]

Yeah, might be a display thing too, you never know with HDMI. I thought getting rid of SCART was great, but HDMI's brought more problems than a clumsy connector
That's great if the main audio isn't downgraded, I always thought there'd be a compromise for HD audio. Is dts 24/96 also still playable? I don't know if there actually are any BR movies that use 96 khz DTS-HD MA, though.

It's definitely a receiver thing - I now remember that I couldn't turn my TV off if I played CDs back when I didn't have my receiver yet. Very annoying. The secondary out would have solved that problem for me back then (only had dolby pro-logic 2, so a stereo out was enough), but that came with a later firmware.

So I'm guessing its my receiver that gives the correct signal back to allow it to keep receiving audio.

 

[goonergaz]

If I back up the PS3 to a USB HDD, can that back-up be transferred to a new PS3, or is the transfer utility only between an old PS3 <-> new PS3?

Yes you can xfer from one PS3 to another, however the back to external device is far more limited to the "data transfer utility":

Data xfer utility = complete HDD copy from one PS3 to another
Backup = backup of limited things on the HDD (IIRC no singstar/rockband/other DLC or games/demos and some game saves)

Backup is ideal for making sure if your PS3 dies you can at least continue your games without having to start again...and full backup all personal files.