Topic: My PS3 "died" tonight...any way to fix it short of sending it in for repair?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Nintendo's very happy to not spend it.  Just swim in it.

[Chozo Ghost]

Hi everyone! Many of you can attest to the fact that the PlayStation brand has long been synonymous with the highest quality in engineering and design.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[broodwars]

Well, great...here I am again.  Almost 2 weeks ago, my PS3 suddenly experienced a rise in game crashes and eventually a full system shutdown (3 beeps).  Thinking it was a malfunctioning fan causing overheating, I brought it to an IT guy at work who thought he could fix it with replacement fans.  I just found out today that he had tried every method of fixing the issue, and had concluded that it was some issue with the motherboard causing this.  So now I'm looking...AGAIN...at having to send my PS3 in for repair with Sony because this issue is pretty serious.  Sorry, GP, but it seems I was right to be wary to purchase the PS3 from where I did, because with the money spent repairing this thing so far I could have bought a whole new system. 

[BranDonk Kong]

If the PS3 is actually overheating, it will tell you on the screen before it shuts down. Mine was overheating when I got it, because in shipping someone must have bumped the bottom pretty good, and it bent the bracket around the fan inside the bottom of the console and made the fan get stuck in place. I took it apart, straightened it out, and now it runs perfectly.

[Caliban]

Well, great...here I am again.  Almost 2 weeks ago, my PS3 suddenly experienced a rise in game crashes and eventually a full system shutdown (3 beeps).  Thinking it was a malfunctioning fan causing overheating, I brought it to an IT guy at work who thought he could fix it with replacement fans.  I just found out today that he had tried every method of fixing the issue, and had concluded that it was some issue with the motherboard causing this.  So now I'm looking...AGAIN...at having to send my PS3 in for repair with Sony because this issue is pretty serious.  Sorry, GP, but it seems I was right to be wary to purchase the PS3 from where I did, because with the money spent repairing this thing so far I could have bought a whole new system. 

Is it a slim?

[broodwars]

Well, great...here I am again.  Almost 2 weeks ago, my PS3 suddenly experienced a rise in game crashes and eventually a full system shutdown (3 beeps).  Thinking it was a malfunctioning fan causing overheating, I brought it to an IT guy at work who thought he could fix it with replacement fans.  I just found out today that he had tried every method of fixing the issue, and had concluded that it was some issue with the motherboard causing this.  So now I'm looking...AGAIN...at having to send my PS3 in for repair with Sony because this issue is pretty serious.  Sorry, GP, but it seems I was right to be wary to purchase the PS3 from where I did, because with the money spent repairing this thing so far I could have bought a whole new system. 

Is it a slim?

Nope, old 80 gb BC model.  I'm looking into local laptop repair places now to see if they might be able to replace the (presumably) broken motherboard, but I'm not optimistic.

[Caliban]

Ah. A friend of mine had the original 60GB, and it recently died, so he called Sony and they said it would cost... $180? $280? I can't remember right now. All I know is that he told me that with old PS3s they just send back a refurbished PS3.

[Chozo Ghost]

Well, on the plus side you have the BC model so even if it costs you more in the long run to get it fixed versus buying a new Slim, at least in the end you have a BC model. Right?

[broodwars]

Well, on the plus side you have the BC model so even if it costs you more in the long run to get it fixed versus buying a new Slim, at least in the end you have a BC model. Right?

That's the idea, anyway.  I don't know much about the PS3's internal hardware, so I just hope that if the motherboard has to be replaced that the PS2 emulation chip isn't attached to it (or that a replacement motherboard with one can replace it).

[TJ Spyke]

You might want to talk to Sony before you send it in and see if your PS3 will still be BC if you need to have them fix it.

[Louieturkey]

My PS3 (original 60GB) died last year with the same three beeps.  It was actually a similar situation to the 360 where it would overheat and eventually the thermal paste would melt and separate from the processor.  I sent mine to Gophermods and they got it back in I think a week.  They also didn't have to reformat the HDD so everything was on the drive when I got it back.  I highly recommend them.  My PS3 still works (though I don't use it that often anymore because I ended up getting a slim for free around that time as well).

[broodwars]

My PS3 (original 60GB) died last year with the same three beeps.  It was actually a similar situation to the 360 where it would overheat and eventually the thermal paste would melt and separate from the processor.  I sent mine to Gophermods and they got it back in I think a week.  They also didn't have to reformat the HDD so everything was on the drive when I got it back.  I highly recommend them.  My PS3 still works (though I don't use it that often anymore because I ended up getting a slim for free around that time as well).

Thanks, I'll look into them.  Considering I've recently had a few high, unavoidable expenditures that have had made a huge dent in my wallet, their prices sound pretty good.  I just hope that they can actually fix it.  The guy who looked at my PS3 (and at the moment still has it because he keeps forgetting to bring it in) is a fairly skilled technician, and he couldn't fix it the way that this site says they fix it.

[BranDonk Kong]

The thermal paste in the PS3 *is* liquid already (at least what's between the heat spreader and the heat sink), it doesn't melt, it's never solid. Separation from the heat sink9s) would be due to the board warping, but it would also be very hard for this to actually happen simply because of the way that the console is set up. I've got to tell you that unless you know for a fact that your PS3 is being reballed professionally, that you're probably just getting ripped off when you send it or take it somewhere for a repair (someone's probably just stripping it down, blasting it with a heat gun, then putting it back together - it may make the console work for some time, but in fact it's not being fixed). The heat spreader needs to be removed, then the RSX chip (most of the time) needs to be removed and reballed, then reflowed onto the motherboard. There are many potential problems with the PS3, and the YLOD/beeping/red light don't give any secondary error codes like the Xbox 360, so repairs (or attempts) are usually hit or miss. I've "fixed" a few of them with a heat gun myself, and I've replaced a few Blu Ray drives as well. I wouldn't pay anyone to fix it unless they showed me their machinery first.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Well I am getting concered about my PS3, after being on for a few minutes the green light starts blinking and the console shuts itself down.

[Chozo Ghost]

Threads like this make me squeamish about getting a PS3. The 360 used to be the system that would crap out all the time, but MS seems to have fixed that up and now there's a new model which probably resolves all the issues with the old model. I used to have my mind made up that if I ever got a second system it would be the PS3, but right now with stuff like this I'm leaning more towards the 360... but I still hate that you have to pay in order to play it online.

[broodwars]

Threads like this make me squeamish about getting a PS3. The 360 used to be the system that would crap out all the time, but MS seems to have fixed that up and now there's a new model which probably resolves all the issues with the old model. I used to have my mind made up that if I ever got a second system it would be the PS3, but right now with stuff like this I'm leaning more towards the 360... but I still hate that you have to pay in order to play it online.

I would like to remind you that my model is an old one, and one that was used before I even bought it.  It's not indicative of most PS3s.

[BranDonk Kong]

Let me tell you, the PS3s lasted a long time, but they are starting to die big time. I know a guy who runs a local repair shop, and he got 7 PS3s yesterday alone. Most 360s that were going to die have already done so, but I bet the initial batch of PS3s (leading up to right before the Slim came out) will soon have a similar failure rate to the Xbox 360, they just lasted a bit longer before they died.

[NWR_insanolord]

Glad I waited for the Slim. And for the record, I've had my 360 for almost two years and have had no hardware problems.

[Chozo Ghost]

Waiting sucks, but maybe its always best to wait a couple years until a hardware revision comes out before you buy new consoles. Of course, when it comes to the PS3 waiting was an easy choice to make because of the ridiculous price it launched at. People who bought a PS3 at launch are now getting screwed twice over compared to those who waited. Not only did the early adopters over pay for their system, but they also ended up getting an inferior product which is more prone to failure. Sometimes it pays to wait.

[BranDonk Kong]

If you bought your 360 almost 2 years ago, then it's probably got a Jasper motherboard, and will probably last forever. To this day I've *never* seen anyone with a Jasper system have it die on them, they get DVD issues occasionally, but never the typical RROD. Some people that had "Test Week 1" labeled Jaspers may have had issues, but I don't think the hardware was finalized on those.

[Chozo Ghost]

And the Valhalla motherboard is even better than Jasper, right? Or at least just as good?

[GoldenPhoenix]

My PS3 is one of the originals with backwards compatibility.

[BranDonk Kong]

The Valhalla has had a couple that have died, but not a lot. I think it's pretty much to be expected that the first batch will have some issues (even the Wii did, though my launch system is still running perfectly), but in general the Valhalla-based console *should* be the most reliable one. It has 4 USB ports and internal WiFi now (which runs over an internal USB port, so technically 5 USB ports as opposed to 3), and has built-in power for Kinect, and still draws 25W less power than the Jasper system, so power consumption and heat production have both been greatly improved. I'm sure the CGPU combo probably gets a bit warmer than either/or the CPU/GPU from the Jasper, but it's a much larger chip, with a huge heat sink and finally a heat spreader.

[Louieturkey]

Yeah, the Slim PS3 is much better than any of the phat PS3 systems.   The reason why is they got the dye size for both the CELL and the graphics processor down to half their original sizes (45nm from 90nm) so they have a lot less chance of overheating and they use much less power. While they took out backwards compatability with PS2 (PS1 bc is still there) they did add in bitstreaming of audio so Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio files can be sent to the receiver as is instead of as LPCM.

I wouldn't be surprised if the CELL got another dye shrink to 32nm in the next year or two as well as the graphics processor.

[broodwars]

The thermal paste in the PS3 *is* liquid already (at least what's between the heat spreader and the heat sink), it doesn't melt, it's never solid. Separation from the heat sink9s) would be due to the board warping, but it would also be very hard for this to actually happen simply because of the way that the console is set up. I've got to tell you that unless you know for a fact that your PS3 is being reballed professionally, that you're probably just getting ripped off when you send it or take it somewhere for a repair (someone's probably just stripping it down, blasting it with a heat gun, then putting it back together - it may make the console work for some time, but in fact it's not being fixed). The heat spreader needs to be removed, then the RSX chip (most of the time) needs to be removed and reballed, then reflowed onto the motherboard. There are many potential problems with the PS3, and the YLOD/beeping/red light don't give any secondary error codes like the Xbox 360, so repairs (or attempts) are usually hit or miss. I've "fixed" a few of them with a heat gun myself, and I've replaced a few Blu Ray drives as well. I wouldn't pay anyone to fix it unless they showed me their machinery first.

Just to give some closure, I have my PS3 back from a local repair shop and it is working fine now.  From what I gathered talking with the repairman, it looks like he repaired it exactly as you said he needed to: he removed and reballed the RSX chip and reflowed the motherboard.  The PS3 seems to be considerably louder now with its fans than I remembered, but then again I haven't used it in nearly a month so that could just be me.

It's a pity that the mechanical prowess of those mechanics isn't matched by their customer service, or else I'dr recommend them.  Those guys were jerks when I went to pick up my PS3 on my lunch break.