PS3 hardware failure

That's remarkable considering how unreliable they were compared to the PSP and PS3 (comparing Sony platforms in general).

 

The BD-ROM drives have unique keys that are "mated" to the motherboard, don't they? I'm not sure a direct drive swapout will work unless you port over the main logic PCB as well.

 

Right, the PCB on the drive itself would have to be carried over onto the new one to work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qztw_aUBQhI

 

What does it mean when my PS3 gives three short beeps?

I was playing LBP when the game locked up today (music started skipping and the animations froze, couldn't hold the PS-button to turn off). I pushed the power button and got three short beeps. It wouldn't physically turn off after five minutes, so I unplugged it from the wall. After rebooting I put in a different game (Ninja Gaiden Sigma) and that loaded fine... so I tried LBP again and the machine froze a second time.

After this I turned it off for a few hours. When I turned it on, I got a message saying my file system had corrupted. It seemed to fix itself so I tried booting a game and got the three beeps again before the system rebooted itself. I've turned it off (normally this time) but what is the issue here?

For reference this is a Slim, about three months old.

 

Three beeps I associate with 'frozen,' but normally it's something I'll hear when I attempt a hard reset/turn-off when something has frozen right before actually turning off rather than something I would hear as a direct result of the freeze itself. Do you have any PSN games to try? Attempt that, and then go back to trying a BD game, and try a DVD, and I think slowly you'll begin narrowing the field as to what the culprit might be. Of course best case is that it all just works itself out.

 

Is it just with LBP? Maybe the save files or install files were corrupted, try a clean format. If it happens with other games too then I would send it to Sony since it's still within the warranty, you don't wanna wait till the game disc got stuck in there after the warranty expires like my old 60giger.

 

By clean format, do you mean the whole partition, or just delete and reinstall the LBP install data? I really, really don't want to lose all my saves Plus my downloaded games would need to be re-downloaded, which isn't terrible but seeing as I'm in Australia and pay per-GB I'd prefer to not to have to spend real money on this if possible.

Does the "backup" feature just let me put my saves onto a disc? Does it work with all games, or am I likely to lose my progress in some of them?

As an update - I tried a couple of PSN games last night and they all worked but they were dreadfully slow to load. Stardust took about 2 minutes to get to the title screen, while Eden took about 1 minute. Does the PS3 come with any disk-check/defrag type tools?

 

It does sound like your Harddrive needs a full format since some files might still be corrupted, I've never used the back up function myself but I presume it would save the files to an external storage if given the option. Still I'd rather loose all my data than having a unstable PS3, chances are it might exacerbate things over time if left as it is. I totally understand the expensive quota in AU as I live in Melbourne, but hey sometimes shit happens mate, all the luck.

 

He's not alone.. I never had a single problem with my PS2, and after years of owning it, was surprised to find out that it had a reputation for unreliability.

My PS3, on the other hand.. twice dead. General Hardware Failure, commonly known as the Yellow Light of Death. I reflowed the CPU and GPU, which fixed it temporarily, but then it died again. At least the second time, it didn't have a disc in it when it went. It's well out of warranty, I'm not sure when I'll pick up a replacement.

 

I still have a working Japanese launch model myself, and my PS3 is a little over 3 years old now and still ticking. Actually, the only system that has given me problems at all was the Dreamcast; 2 lens replacements and the third one just died, forcing me to get a second hand unit.

It's widely agreed that the PS3 is Sony's most reliable console to date, but it's naturally not perfect. Overall, the PSP has been their most reliable format I believe.

 

My UK launch machine died on Christmas day. I performed the solder reflow YLOD fix two days later. No problem with the machine so far. The original thermal paste was nearly all evaporated and the machine was pretty dusty.

I have two more 60GB PAL PS3s, one is 26 months old, the other is 18 months old. I am going to open them both up and give them a good clean and replace the original thermal paste.

From what I read on google it would not surprise me if all launch PS3s fail within the first 3-5 years. The problem being the wear on the lead free solder caused the high running temperature of the CPU/GPU.

 

I think the problem is the poor application and the quality of the thermal paste itself. If the unit is not cooling properly, you're going to have problems especially with added dust that hinders the cooling itself. Seems that you had that problem.

I replaced mine nearly 2 months ago when the fan started going on immediately at the simplest applications. Much to my surprise, some of it was on the motherboard itself and the quality... well, it looked and felt like chalk. Nowadays, it's whisper quiet and I typically make a habit of cleaning all my electronics at least once a month.

 

How difficult is servicing the PS3 - removing the casing, getting to the heatsinks and changing thermal paste? What's the special Torx required?

 

Not that difficult, but it's certainly more convoluted than other consoles since you'll have to completely disassemble it. I followed this guide myself:

http://www.llamma.com/PS3/repair/PS3_disassembly_tutorial.htm

If you ever attempt to do it, be careful with that metal shielding. I forgot to take off a screw and bent the back part where the I/O ports are accidentally, though ironically the HDMI cable now plugs in perfectly.

The thermal paste looked like this on mine, with a lump of it stuck on the motherboard:

http://www.llamma.com/PS3/repair/disassembly/DSCF0401thumb.jpg

EDIT: You'd need a Torx T10.

 

Is there any way to prevent dust to enter the case at all? placing a filter over the air intake?

 

That would depend on whether the airflow was designed with a filter in mind. If not, putting a filter over the intake could be as bad if not worse than actual dust accumulation.

Regards,
SB

 

When I opened mine after about 2.5 years, there was some dust but not a lot. I made a habit of vacuuming the vents regularly (once a week) so you needn't worry.

 

Where is the intake vent on the Slim one? I've got pets. With lots of fur. Hopefully a thin mesh draped loosely over it (except the back vent) won't heat it up. But yea, when the warranty runs out, opening it for a clean would be the best.

 

Well, learning from others past experience on losing game-saves, I decided to finally get some backups done over the weekend.

To my surprise however, I had to note that quite a few games have copy-prohibited game-saves that can not be backuped to a external USB/Harddrive device. Here are some examples:

KillZone 2
Tekken 5
Tomb Raider: Underworld

I think there are more, but over a list of about 50 titles and over 200 game saves (thank you WipeOut for making about 70 game saves!), I didn't have the time nor patience to write them down.

I must say I am quite disturbed by the fact that some games do not allow the backing up of game-saves. The only other way I could think of to back-up all game-saves is through the "backup utility" under settings - however, to use that, I would need a very large external harddrive or delete a lot of video/picture/music/game content to free up space (I've got a 160GB harddrive pretty much filled up with data in my PS3).

 

I'm pretty sure Tekken 5 DR can be backed up as I have one myself. RE5 could've prior to the last patch but SFIV is still copy protected for some reason.

Dan, I'm no that familiar with the slim but I'm assuming that the back vents are the intake much like the fat models.