PS3 hardware failure

[RenegadeRocks]

and i tried this hair dryer temp solution twice, it did not work for me. I just want to switch it one once to deactivate my accounts and if possible, get my saves out.

And I used a lot of heat the second time I tried, used a heater +a Hair dryer for around 35 mins and cooled it for 2 hours after that. No luck !

Since this temp fix isn't working at all, does this mean its a faulty power adapter and not the usual solder issue?

 

[Rotmm]

Did yours suffer from YLOD too? or some other issue?

RLOD, which I thought related to a power supply. Same fault some months later (can't remember exactly how long, but around 6 months) and tried a home repair with a bought-from-ebay PSU but it didn't fix it. Also, when I opened it up the PSU looked far from new, so I guess it was the original and the fault was something else.

The Sony repair customer service personnel are extremely reluctant to tell you what the fault was, when though you've paid nearly £150 for it to be repaired.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And I used a lot of heat the second time I tried, used a heater +a Hair dryer for around 35 mins and cooled it for 2 hours after that. No luck !

I can't see that fixing a reflow. The YLOD fix requires a heatgun of something like 300 degrees C. That sort of temperature from an external heat source will melt the plastic long before it melts the solder!

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I can't see that fixing a reflow. The YLOD fix requires a heatgun of something like 300 degrees C. That sort of temperature from an external heat source will melt the plastic long before it melts the solder!

But then everyone else is able to temporarily fix it with this hair dryer technique. after this process, ps3 last for about 15 minutes or so,letting u de-activate accounts and stuff. Longer heatgun fix requires you to open th eps3 and last longer, but not enough either from what my repair guy says.

But mine is not booting up even for a second after doing the Hair-dryer drill. making me wonder if its a power supply issue like th e guy in this video says.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

RLOD, which I thought related to a power supply. Same fault some months later (can't remember exactly how long, but around 6 months) and tried a home repair with a bought-from-ebay PSU but it didn't fix it. Also, when I opened it up the PSU looked far from new, so I guess it was the original and the fault was something else.

The Sony repair customer service personnel are extremely reluctant to tell you what the fault was, when though you've paid nearly £150 for it to be repaired.

Whats an RLOD? My ps3 shows me a yellow light and then a red light keeps blinking. and the guy in the youtube video I linked says that it could be a power supply issue or the standard solder issue.

 

[Rotmm]

It's been awhile so I can't quite remember, but as far as I can recall I didn't get a yellow light, just a flashing red light. Twas fixed and died again with the flashing red light. However that's all in the past and offers you no help with your current situation.

 

[goonergaz]

I'm sorry but you need to face the harsh reality most of us have (I have with all 3 this gen)!

You need to decide how important your game saves are - forget deactivating (for now - you will be able to phone/do that online at some point). Now put a price on those saves/data on the HDD.

Come to the conclusion if it's worth the risk.

As things stand you have a console worth what? £20? Or 30% off a new one.

If you attempt a gilksy repair that will cost about £15 for the gun & you can still stick it on eBay explaining it's been repaired.

You really should confirm with Sony the amount they will give you off & how important the seal is.

 

[-tkf-]

So my PS3 launch throws a blinking red light, i fiddle away with a few options, change the harddrive blabla... after 20 mins i give up, and an hour later i am updating a new Slim PS3 (popped in a 500GB) and restoring my backup from november 2011

THANKS PS PLUS for my saved GT5, funny how something that had a "ok" value just made it worth every dollar and more..

Bought 23 march 2007 was on pretty much every day until it died 13 march 2012.. gonna get it repaired i think.

 

[-tkf-]

and restoring my backup from november 2011.

And the restore failed, amazing job there from Sony, a quick google puts me in the same boat as others

Whoever made the backup routine should be fired, not just based on my experience but others as well, it´s clear that they did not make the backup robust in anyway.

So now i need to get the FAT repaired (was my plan but i had no rush to spend more money) so i can try a "transfer" of all data..

 

[-tkf-]

And the restore failed, amazing job there from Sony, a quick google puts me in the same boat as others

Whoever made the backup routine should be fired, not just based on my experience but others as well, it´s clear that they did not make the backup robust in anyway.

So now i need to get the FAT repaired (was my plan but i had no rush to spend more money) so i can try a "transfer" of all data..

Start Blog update.

The Data Transfer Utility is as useless as the backup option is.. hurrrray!

Got the fat repaired, pretty easy to find people that do that, ended up paying $140 , i could have gone with half price but this was a real repair shop and i got 6 months warranty on the repair.

Getting the data transfer to just work took some time, there is plenty of guides, secret handshakes and suggested re-coloring schemes out there. Most important tip is patience, when you connect the 2 PS3´s with the ethernet cable and start the utility there is a few minutes where NOTHING happens.. you have no idea if the thing died, but after maybe 5-10 minutes something does happen. And after a quick format the transfer starts. For my 200GB the suggested time was 3+ hours. I just went to bed.. when i got up, it was stalled at 80%.. So i just went ahead and did another try.. froze again.. at the same point..

So i read more guides, more secret handshakes, paints throwing salt at the screen etc.. and deleting 125GB of data, video, MP3, Pictures etc.. everything i could to reduce the transfer and maybe get lucky.

I have 100GB now and estimated time is.. 2+ hours. I did not delete all game data as is suggested by many, the reason why i am even doing this is to save game data, primarily from GT5, there is a years worth of replays in that game data. If this transfer fails i will reactivate the old PS3, spend some hours on exporting replays from GT5 and then simply copy the saves i have left on the old PS3 to the PS+ Cloud.
And then start from scratch with the new PS3.

There is no way around it, this is pure shit from Sony, considering how much time and energy people use on these machines and the way it´s marketed and used as a center of entertainment there has to be more robust and solid ways to save your data. The next gen is most likely to have even more to offer, and there will be more to lose as well. And the worst/best part of it is the games i bought from the PS Store. It confirms all my fears and doubts about digital purchases. I have nothing physical, i will have to go through download lists in order to find everything again, hopefully it will be there. But had this been a PS3 10 years into the future those games would most likely be completely lost..

Not to mention the hell of re-patching all the games, which most likely wont load save games without the newest patch...

End Blog update for nau

 

[rabidrabbit]

Start Blog update.

The Data Transfer Utility is as useless as the backup option is.. hurrrray!

Got the fat repaired, pretty easy to find people that do that, ended up paying $140 , i could have gone with half price but this was a real repair shop and i got 6 months warranty on the repair.

Getting the data transfer to just work took some time, there is plenty of guides, secret handshakes and suggested re-coloring schemes out there. Most important tip is patience, when you connect the 2 PS3´s with the ethernet cable and start the utility there is a few minutes where NOTHING happens.. you have no idea if the thing died, but after maybe 5-10 minutes something does happen. And after a quick format the transfer starts. For my 200GB the suggested time was 3+ hours. I just went to bed.. when i got up, it was stalled at 80%.. So i just went ahead and did another try.. froze again.. at the same point..

So i read more guides, more secret handshakes, paints throwing salt at the screen etc.. and deleting 125GB of data, video, MP3, Pictures etc.. everything i could to reduce the transfer and maybe get lucky.

I have 100GB now and estimated time is.. 2+ hours. I did not delete all game data as is suggested by many, the reason why i am even doing this is to save game data, primarily from GT5, there is a years worth of replays in that game data. If this transfer fails i will reactivate the old PS3, spend some hours on exporting replays from GT5 and then simply copy the saves i have left on the old PS3 to the PS+ Cloud.
And then start from scratch with the new PS3.

There is no way around it, this is pure shit from Sony, considering how much time and energy people use on these machines and the way it´s marketed and used as a center of entertainment there has to be more robust and solid ways to save your data. The next gen is most likely to have even more to offer, and there will be more to lose as well. And the worst/best part of it is the games i bought from the PS Store. It confirms all my fears and doubts about digital purchases. I have nothing physical, i will have to go through download lists in order to find everything again, hopefully it will be there. But had this been a PS3 10 years into the future those games would most likely be completely lost..

Not to mention the hell of re-patching all the games, which most likely wont load save games without the newset patch...

End Blog update for nau

If I remember correct, when I transferred my old data (I think it was some 100 Gigs) from my old fatty to new slim, it took an awfully long time.
At times it looked like it had frozen but I just let it running to see if it eventually would finish. The HDD lights were flashing so it seemed something was happening, and the percentage would advance 1% every hour or so
I think I started the transfer in the evening, around 5-7 PM, left it running overnight, in the morning it showed completion somewhere around 80-90%, so I left it running while I went to work. I'm not sure if it had finished when I got home or if it was still running, but anyway that evening it was complete.

So I wouldn't be surprised if the transfer took 24 hours if one has over hundred gigs of data!

I had deleted all my music, left a couple of movies (around 1 gigas each) and all my PSN games and saves were there. The transfer, when it finally finished, went well. All PSN games and saves were transferred nicely.

But really, it shouldn't take so long as it really seemed the whole process had stalled at times. The estimated time really is a joke, mine must've estimated it around 3 hours too, only it took almost ten times as long

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I have to say, it's a major reason for keeping things simple. What little content on my PS3 is duplicates of content I have on PC, so I can copy it over by USB HDD if needs be. I only keep a few downloaded games on there and I can generally live without them. I always have the option of downloading again later. It's basically quicker and easier to redownload patches and stuff as needed than trying to back it up. It also highlights that media content should be on a NAS. Perhaps in part this is why Sony ahven't really looked into supporting proper backup and restore options on PS3, because they realise it's a dead-end? Although I was wrong about them dropping support for the browser so who knows?!

 

[-tkf-]

If I remember correct, when I transferred my old data (I think it was some 100 Gigs) from my old fatty to new slim, it took an awfully long time.
At times it looked like it had frozen but I just let it running to see if it eventually would finish. The HDD lights were flashing so it seemed something was happening, and the percentage would advance 1% every hour or so
I think I started the transfer in the evening, around 5-7 PM, left it running overnight, in the morning it showed completion somewhere around 80-90%, so I left it running while I went to work. I'm not sure if it had finished when I got home or if it was still running, but anyway that evening it was complete.

So I wouldn't be surprised if the transfer took 24 hours if one has over hundred gigs of data!

I had deleted all my music, left a couple of movies (around 1 gigas each) and all my PSN games and saves were there. The transfer, when it finally finished, went well. All PSN games and saves were transferred nicely.

But really, it shouldn't take so long as it really seemed the whole process had stalled at times. The estimated time really is a joke, mine must've estimated it around 3 hours too, only it took almost ten times as long

I got an error message , so my transfer did die

I have to say, it's a major reason for keeping things simple. What little content on my PS3 is duplicates of content I have on PC, so I can copy it over by USB HDD if needs be. I only keep a few downloaded games on there and I can generally live without them. I always have the option of downloading again later. It's basically quicker and easier to redownload patches and stuff as needed than trying to back it up. It also highlights that media content should be on a NAS. Perhaps in part this is why Sony ahven't really looked into supporting proper backup and restore options on PS3, because they realise it's a dead-end? Although I was wrong about them dropping support for the browser so who knows?!

The music, video, pictures on my PS3 are all from the PC, the real issue for me is the games and the saves. Especially GT5, the replays, pictures, dlc etc is all "hidden" in Game Data. A 18GB folder.

The problem i have with Sony´s piss poor support is that they actually provide the tools, describe them in the manual. If they present it as something that you can do and that should work, then they better make sure it does. The damage for me is limited, so far it just lots of wasted hours and money on repair. But i can easily imagine someone with way more "problems" than me, considering my limited gaming and usage without backups.

I just hope that when i at some point can start playing with the PS3 again, and not just use them as expensive heaters, that the re-download will be painless..

 

[-tkf-]

Succes! or should i said, the aggravating pain of using Sony´s built in software solutions is over.. until next time. So i can confirm that you can transfer game data (one of the myths is that you can´t) since my 18GB GT5 data was transferred.

I now have a download list with 200+ items in the Playstation store, i could use a "download all"

Before transferring i ended up deleting all profiles (.jp .de .au .usa .hk) all pictures (they are on PC) all music (some of it was ripped on the PS3, will have to rerip) all movies, of which some of them goes back to the launch. All save games that weren´t super important. All gamedate that i didn´t need.

And all games that i don´t play right now or can download again. Just the cleanup process took 1.5 hours
As a note, my first downloaded game, the GT demo was transferred.

Before that i did the other stuff that is suggested, de-activated all acounts/profiles, disable media sharing, internet connection.

Just 4 days since the Fat died..

 

[Nesh]

I think my PS3 HDD is dying partly due to some file mess from GT5's installation and partly due to something that went wrong with the last two Firmware updates.

So I have been trying to back up my stuff and format my HDD hoping this would fix my HDD, but the back up always came with an error at around 80%.

The issue seems to be the fact that some game save data are protected to prevent from copying to memory stick and transferring. For some idiotic reason this prevention also counts when backing the data up! And I believe this is also the reason why transferring from two PS3 models also fails.

So I bought a PS+ subscription, saved all my games there, and deleted the game saves that were copy protected.

Voila.

Back up worked!

This copy protection generally makes the back up and transferring option useless and I found many people having issues with the same error and dont know how to work around it.

It is a painful procedure to make it work. It is not user friendly at all. It should have been something simple.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You could have individually copied over save games to USB HDD, dropping the (insanely, pointlessly, frustratingly) copy protected ones.

 

[Nesh]

You could have individually copied over save games to USB HDD, dropping the (insanely, pointlessly, frustratingly) copy protected ones.

I didnt want to lose my progress in the copy protected saves
I wanted to save them somewhere

 

[Arwin]

Until playstation plus came around with cloud storage support, transferring between two PS3s was the only way to copy protected saves. So that shouldn't be the reason. Personally I have heard far more success stories than failures with this, but the longer the process runs, the more likely it will fail at some point even just due to some communication timeout/error. And it can take insanely long, or just 45mins. I also wonder if you should do some of the special system menu checks beforehand particularly on a repaired system, but most probably do that. Perhaps there are bad sectors messing things up? Deleting files could have helped with that.

In general though I agree protected saves should be banned, they're just not worth it.

 

[Nesh]

Until playstation plus came around with cloud storage support, transferring between two PS3s was the only way to copy protected saves. So that shouldn't be the reason. Personally I have heard far more success stories than failures with this, but the longer the process runs, the more likely it will fail at some point even just due to some communication timeout/error. And it can take insanely long, or just 45mins. I also wonder if you should do some of the special system menu checks beforehand particularly on a repaired system, but most probably do that. Perhaps there are bad sectors messing things up? Deleting files could have helped with that.

In general though I agree protected saves should be banned, they're just not worth it.

Cant say for sure about transferring from console to console.



But for backing up your content I think the newer protected saves are causing the problem. Games like Killzone1 didnt impose a problem despite being copy protected but the newer games do.

I found others that resolved the issue by deleting some copy protected games too

 

[-tkf-]

Until playstation plus came around with cloud storage support, transferring between two PS3s was the only way to copy protected saves. So that shouldn't be the reason. Personally I have heard far more success stories than failures with this, but the longer the process runs, the more likely it will fail at some point even just due to some communication timeout/error. And it can take insanely long, or just 45mins. I also wonder if you should do some of the special system menu checks beforehand particularly on a repaired system, but most probably do that. Perhaps there are bad sectors messing things up? Deleting files could have helped with that.

In general though I agree protected saves should be banned, they're just not worth it.

I did a "Restore File System", didn´t change anything. It was my random cleanup and deleting files that made a difference in my case.

But any game that saves "stuff" in the game data folder is a problem, even with Cloud Saves. I used GT5 as a perfect example, even it´s photomode pictures are in there, you have to export them in order to get them "out". And i am sure that other games have the exact same problem.

When i did my upgrade from 60GB to 250GB with a Harddrive swap i just did a simple backup/restore with a USB harddrive, that worked just fine. It was with that in mind i thought that this would be a non issue. I was very wrong.