Question about PS3 returns

[SillyMammo]

Well, my 40gb PS3 got the YLoD yesterday. I called Sony and they told me up to 5 business days to get the return box and 10-12 business days to fix and return. I wanted to know how accurate is this turnaround estimate? I have a $50 BB gift card and I'm thinking of just buying a slim for a $100 more, and getting the Fat fixed at a later date.

I was also wondering how many of our blu-ray.com members have had their PS3 brick? I'd post a poll but don't know how to do it.

[stargazeruk]

Originally Posted by SillyMammo

Well, my 40gb PS3 got the YLoD yesterday. I called Sony and they told me up to 5 business days to get the return box and 10-12 business days to fix and return. I wanted to know how accurate is this turnaround estimate? I have a $50 BB gift card and I'm thinking of just buying a slim for a $100 more, and getting the Fat fixed at a later date.

I was also wondering how many of our blu-ray.com members have had their PS3 brick? I'd post a poll but don't know how to do it.

I not had the YLod but I had mine bricked from a firmware update V3.

I don't know about US laws and companies with returns but in the UK I had mine for a year and a half and I returned mine to the online retailer.

I called sony first told them what happened and tried to fix it and when we could not get it working they wanted £150 despite the person from sony agreeing it was the firmware that caused it.

I was not going to give them £150 to fix the console I would not get back. They wanted to give me a refurbed console with 3 months warranty but the slim was out by then and I thought for an extra £100 I just get the slim.

I then called the online retailer and told them what happened, that I called sony to try and resolve it but the end result was sony wanting £150 and them give me a refurbed. They said the 40Gb was no longer in stock so send it back and they gave me a full refund. I brought the slim out the money I got back.

[tilallr1]

My brother-in-law's just had the YLoD as well yesterday. His had the original 60GB model. Weird that you and him both had their PS3 die on the same day. He tried all the suggestions to fix it online, but they all failed to fix the problem. I think it costs something like $150-200 to repair. I told him, save your money and spend it on the slim PS3. Which is a better model anyway. Saves power and significantly reduced overheating problems. Heat was probably the reason why the unit died, so why fix something that's inherently defective. Do you regularly dust the unit, inside and out?

[tilallr1]

Also, you might want to try whats suggested here first:

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Fix...ath&id=2583044

Or here (This WILL fix your problem - But a lot of work):

http://internet.summerkiz.com/2009/0...-fix-tutorial/

[plee]

Originally Posted by SillyMammo

Well, my 40gb PS3 got the YLoD yesterday. I called Sony and they told me up to 5 business days to get the return box and 10-12 business days to fix and return. I wanted to know how accurate is this turnaround estimate? I have a $50 BB gift card and I'm thinking of just buying a slim for a $100 more, and getting the Fat fixed at a later date.

I was also wondering how many of our blu-ray.com members have had their PS3 brick? I'd post a poll but don't know how to do it.

Haven't bricked any but I would go ahead and get the slim. As long as you don't open your Fat PS3, you can get it fixed (usually they just give you a refurbed one) later....

[tilallr1]

By any chance were you playing MW2 or AC2 when this happened? I am hearing alot of people who are playing this game getting this problem. Something wrong with the games and older PS3's maybe?

[SillyMammo]

Originally Posted by tilallr1

By any chance were you playing MW2 or AC2 when this happened? I am hearing alot of people who are playing this game getting this problem. Something wrong with the games and older PS3's maybe?

Well I did play AC2 that day, but it died while watching a BR. I paused the movie to help my child and came back it had shut down. YLoD! Weird?

Anyways, I just bought a Slim at BB(with extended warrenty) and I am loading all my PSN games right now. I guess I'll have to find a good save for AC2 on the internet.

[Q?]

Why am I reading about so many YLODs now?

[tilallr1]

Originally Posted by Q!

Why am I reading about so many YLODs now?

I think whats been reported is that the newer games are overheating the older fat PS3 systems and putting the system in YLOD mode. The ONLY way to fix (temporarily 1 - 4 months), is to following these online instructions:

Part 1 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U70SgRDVcBo

and so on ...

But unfortunately if you use your system at all for gaming this can happen to you with the older models. The slims seem to be much more resistant to this problem. Due to it being designed to particularly fix this problem.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Mine bricked on me once. Sent it for repairs. From the time I called Sony to arrange having a shipping box sent to me to the time I had the system back in my hands, it was a total of 8 days (including a weekend).

[tilallr1]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

Mine bricked on me once. Sent it for repairs. From the time I called Sony to arrange having a shipping box sent to me to the time I had the system back in my hands, it was a total of 8 days (including a weekend).

That's really good. I have heard from others online 6 weeks.

Could be due to the recent influx of YLOD's.

[Q?]

Tilallr1
Thanks for the reply...
Though it wasn't comforting
I don't play much, I mainly use it for BD movies, but I still want games like Uncharted 2 and Bioshock and other great games.
Mine's a 40 gig btw... bought it in 2008 march I think...
There's a 2 year warranty or not?

[repete66211]

Mine bricked. It wasn't the YLOD though, it was a dead drive. Total turn-around time was probably something like 7-9 business days.

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by tilallr1

But unfortunately if you use your system at all for gaming this can happen to you with the older models. The slims seem to be much more resistant to this problem. Due to it being designed to particularly fix this problem.

I never used mine for gaming. It had MAYBE 30 hours of gametime on it in the fifteen months I had it, and it still got the YLOD. Instead of paying $150 fix it, I just got a Panasonic BD60. I like it a lot more than the fatty I had.

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by Q!

Tilallr1
Thanks for the reply...
Though it wasn't comforting
I don't play much, I mainly use it for BD movies, but I still want games like Uncharted 2 and Bioshock and other great games.
Mine's a 40 gig btw... bought it in 2008 march I think...
There's a 2 year warranty or not?

Just one year, unless maybe you used a credit card that extends warranties as part of their benefits.

[bhampton]

I bought a 60Gb in Nov 06. Shortly after FW 3.0 and a few tries of the Uncharted 2 demo the system got the YLOD.

I had extended warranty which means I got it fixed free but it took extra time. I sent it to Tennessee and they sent it back and authorized and exchange with Sony so I had to then send it to Texas. All told it took a month but it will certainly take 10 to 14 days to just do the Sony exchange biz.

I'm loving the fact that I still have a 60GB since I use my PS3 for SACD playback. But I have a new gear rack that's fully open to try to keep temp down. And I'll just ignore lots of the new games for now. I have maybe 10 games already and I'm so much of a gamer all things considered.

I would not try the youtube fix, ever. The CPU and GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) of the PS3 are BGA's (Ball Grid Array's.) which means that even in very controlled environments (such as you would find in electronics manufacturing plants) they are still very challenging to work with. Tiny solder balls are printed to the main board a few thousandths of an inch apart and the board stays flat and moves through an oven with 6 or 8 temperature zones. It's a very detailed process and it's hard to get right in the best circumstance with specialized hardware.

Taking a heat gun and reflowing these chips may work but even the people who make the tutorials mention they have to re-do it 2 weeks later and in no time the whole thing is beyond repair.


It's just something I would not do and I can't believe how often I see people encouraging it on here.

As long as Sony will repair my PS3 for $150,... that's the route I'll take even though next time it will be my dime.

-Brian

[Q?]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

Just one year, unless maybe you used a credit card that extends warranties as part of their benefits.

That's just scary...

I'll probably get a slim if that ever happens, a good excuse to get one...

[repete66211]

When my PS3 bricked at 14 months I was not very happy. I sent Sony about 5 increasingly aggressive emails appealing their decision to charge me $149 to fix what I consider to be a manufacturer/design flaw. I swore off Sony products. Well, big talker I am I just bought a Slim on Black Friday. This time I also bought a 3 year warranty from Square Deals. Hopefully I won't need it.

[tilallr1]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I would not try the youtube fix, ever. The CPU and GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) of the PS3 are BGA's (Ball Grid Array's.) which means that even in very controlled environments (such as you would find in electronics manufacturing plants) they are still very challenging to work with. Tiny solder balls are printed to the main board a few thousandths of an inch apart and the board stays flat and moves through an oven with 6 or 8 temperature zones. It's a very detailed process and it's hard to get right in the best circumstance with specialized hardware.

Taking a heat gun and reflowing these chips may work but even the people who make the tutorials mention they have to re-do it 2 weeks later and in no time the whole thing is beyond repair.


It's just something I would not do and I can't believe how often I see people encouraging it on here.

As long as Sony will repair my PS3 for $150,... that's the route I'll take even though next time it will be my dime.

-Brian

I completely appreciate that re-flowing chips and tearing apart your PS3 sounds like crazy talk to some. But I found the tutorial extremely easy to follow and had my brother in-laws fixed within 3 hrs this weekend. Got his disc out (Which was the real reason for the repair) and saved $150 + weeks without a PS3.

You do realize that most of the time the repair lasts as long as what Sony guarantees (90 days). Plus, why would you spend any more money on what I consider a defective system. Personally, I would take the money and buy a slim. Since you will probably be sending your fat PS3 in for repair in another 6 months anyway.

[Steve]

Mine's never been bricked, but it wouldn't play certain games at one point. I sent it in and had a replacement console within about 2 weeks. It was much quicker than I expected it to be.