Tips, Tricks and Fixes

[Uxi]

It's good enough to just a get a backup. I'd have gone ballistic if I had to do Three-Leaf-Clover on GTAIV again.

Then you can still either send it in to Sony for repair/refurb-replacement or make a Blu-ray laser out of it, junk it for spare parts, etc. If you decide on the latter, lmk... i'd be willing to buy your wreck.

[jruc03]

Originally Posted by owa

Still working? I'm still debating whether to try it or not. I bought a heat gun a little while ago so maybe I'll give it a shot this weekend.

Just a FYI for people with the ylod of death problem I recently had this happen with my 40GB ps3 got about 2yrs 3months of use before it died. I was stupid and never backed it up and I was screwed .

Sony charges $150 to get a refurbed system that may or may not last and I didn't want to take the chances on a refurbed system so I talked to my bro and he told me about a deal that Gamestop has going on. If you take in your system and trade it on a new one they will give you 50 extra bucks on whatever the trade for your system is worth.

I called the nearest one and they told me that they give $110 for a working 40gb ps3 and they take off $40 if its not to bring your total to $70 and they can't give you the $50 extra if its not working . Well I took mine in to trade for a new 120GB slim model along with a gamecube and a bunch of games. The clerk forgot to take off the 50 extra for trading in a system and needless to say I walked outta of there with a new Slim PS3 for $100 . Of course part of it was from the extra ps3 & gamecube stuff I traded in but still I got $160 for my broken PS3. Just figured I'd throw that out there for anyone else in the same situtation as me and wants to give it a try.

P.S. the deal is valid til April 26th I believe.

[AcePunK]

I'm having this message pop up when trying to watch a video on google or youtube.com is their fix for this

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

Originally Posted by AcePunK

I'm having this message pop up when trying to watch a video on google or youtube.com is their fix for this

I think it has to do with YouTube upgrading their flash player. Problem is, there is no upgrade for the PS3 currently. YouTube XL still works though, but I don't really like it much.

[AcePunK]

Originally Posted by Nerdkiller likes BD

I think it has to do with YouTube upgrading their flash player. Problem is, there is no upgrade for the PS3 currently. YouTube XL still works though, but I don't really like it much.

Ok thanks

[toef]

I was playing a game of MLB '10 earlier. I was down 4-0 for a while, but stormed back in the late innings, and it ended up tied at 5-5, and went to extra innings.

I forgot what inning the game ended, maybe the 12th or so, but I was so proud of the comeback victory that I sat through the entire replay at the end.

Then I browsed through the rest of my team's schedule, to see what kind of match-ups I had coming up.

Then I saved my game.

Then the PS3 shut off.

I figured I'd just consider myself lucky, that it shut off only after I had a chance to save my game, so I wandered off and went about my day.

I went back to the PS3 now, to watch a movie, hit the PS button on the controller, and got no response. I looked down at the PS3, and saw the red light flashing. So I hit the power button on there, and it booted up fine.

I remembered I'd downloaded the Skate 3 and Fifa demos, so I started installing the Fifa demo and wandered off. About 10 minutes later, I figured the demo would be done installing, so I figured I'd go play it.

But my PS3 was off again.

The red light was flashing again.

So I hit the power button, and the PS3 froze on startup (the swirly ribbon thing).

Is my PS3 pretty much gone now?

A few months ago I noticed some annoying artifacting issues with Assassin's Creed 2, and thought that might be an early sign of a future problem.

But I was too dumb to bother backing up my hard drive (I figured since I'd finished Assassin's Creed 2 and mailed it back to GameFly, and since no other games were giving my problems, it was more to do with that game than my PS3).

I'm hoping I can just power it down for a while, and get it to turn back on later, and then try to backup the hard drive. That way a crappy situation will at least be slightly less crappy, I guess.

[toef]

Update: So I'm guessing this is the dreaded yellow light of death.

When I flip the switch on in the back, and hit the power button on the front, it turns green or 2 seconds, then turns yellow for a fraction of a second, then goes to the flashing red.

I'll have to give Sony a call tomorrow, and give them an earful. Then I'll have to decide what to do: send the 60gb back to get fixed, or just go buy a slim.

Any help with these questions though...

1) Are my save files lost for good, if I can't get the PS3 back on? I imagine if I send it back to get fixed, I may or may not get my actual PS3 sent back to me, so I won't have any of my save files anyway. This makes me lean toward getting a slim.

2) Is there any way to safely get the disc out of the PS3 (MLB '10 is still in there)? I was hoping even if it wouldn't play movies or games anymore, that I'd at least be able to turn it on so I could get the disc out and maybe even back up my saves. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

~~~~~~~

I also wonder if a broken 60gb is still of some value to someone, in which case anything I can sell it for can go to offset the cost of the slim.

For now, I'll have to move my other PS3 to my living room, to finish this damn movie.

[Blu-Generation]

What I dont get was that it asked me to "Go Upgrade" as well early yesterday, but when I click on the link it takes me to an error page on adobe flash. This was on my PC. Of course I waited and kept refreshing, and then youtube works fine for me again. On PC. Without upgrading.

Then when I went and tried on PS3, the video asked me to "Go Upgrade". Refreshing wont work in this case. I was thinking that perhaps the new youtube video update thing screw it up for PS3 browser. Yet, when I went and view video directly from my youtube channel, it plays fine. (On PS3) Still confuse as to what the deal is.

[DaleDark]

Literally just had the same problem you did. To answer your questions, yes, your game saves are history (sorry, guy), and I was able to get my disc out by hitting the eject button immediately after hitting the power button. If that doesn't work, just make sure that they know thw disc is still in there (I believe the packing slip has a place for this).

[DIGITALBATH]

Originally Posted by toef

Update: So I'm guessing this is the dreaded yellow light of death.

When I flip the switch on in the back, and hit the power button on the front, it turns green or 2 seconds, then turns yellow for a fraction of a second, then goes to the flashing red.

I'll have to give Sony a call tomorrow, and give them an earful. Then I'll have to decide what to do: send the 60gb back to get fixed, or just go buy a slim.

Any help with these questions though...

1) Are my save files lost for good, if I can't get the PS3 back on? I imagine if I send it back to get fixed, I may or may not get my actual PS3 sent back to me, so I won't have any of my save files anyway. This makes me lean toward getting a slim.

2) Is there any way to safely get the disc out of the PS3 (MLB '10 is still in there)? I was hoping even if it wouldn't play movies or games anymore, that I'd at least be able to turn it on so I could get the disc out and maybe even back up my saves. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

~~~~~~~

I also wonder if a broken 60gb is still of some value to someone, in which case anything I can sell it for can go to offset the cost of the slim.

For now, I'll have to move my other PS3 to my living room, to finish this damn movie.

Since the 60 gig is still the best/rarest of the PS3, I think it would have some value if you sold it on ebay. I ended up getting mine fixed, though I never got the YLOD, but it wouldn't read discs, so maybe the same thing in the end.

[toef]

Originally Posted by DaleDark

Literally just had the same problem you did. To answer your questions, yes, your game saves are history (sorry, guy), and I was able to get my disc out by hitting the eject button immediately after hitting the power button. If that doesn't work, just make sure that they know thw disc is still in there (I believe the packing slip has a place for this).

Yeah, it's a sucky feeling.

But I'm already beginning to see the silver lining. I found a pretty cool tutorial on YouTube, for fixing the most likely cause of YLOD's.

I figure even if it doesn't solve the problem, it won't exactly put me in a worse position than I'm in now. If I break the PS3 when taking it apart, it's not like it was working anyway.

So the pros, that I can see:

1) I can get my game disc out

2) It might actually solve the problem, and I won't lose my game saves

3) I like tinkering with stuff, and this is something new to tinker with

The cons, that I can see:

1) ... [crickets]...

If you're still in the same boat, I recommend checking out gilksy's tutorial on YouTube. I'll be heading over to Lowe's for a heat gun tomorrow, and will update here on my results.

Link to gilksy's tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U70SgRDVcBo

Losing the game saves isn't really a HUGE issue to me, but it's a bit of an annoyance. I realize I don't really go back and play old games, so the main annoyance would be losing progress in games I'm currently playing, not so much losing the old game saves.

[toef]

Originally Posted by DIGITALBATH

Since the 60 gig is still the best/rarest of the PS3, I think it would have some value if you sold it on ebay. I ended up getting mine fixed, though I never got the YLOD, but it wouldn't read discs, so maybe the same thing in the end.

Yeah, that's what I figured. If only I was lucky enough to sell this thing a few months ago, I probably would've gotten enough to cover the full cost of a slim. But I guess maybe that would've been mean (since, a few months ago, I was playing ACII and noticed the artifacting issues, which made me think my PS3's days were numbered).

[crazyBLUE]

Sorry to here about your PS3 toef !

Are you thinking repair or maybe it's time for A new Toy !

[toef]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

Sorry to here about your PS3 toef !

Are you thinking repair or maybe it's time for A new Toy !

I'm weighing my options. I'll call Sony tomorrow, and see what they say. I'm not expecting much, but at least maybe I can vent.

There's a local place that does PS3 repairs, so I'll give them a call too... but they're closed on Sundays.

If I decide to pay for repairs, I'll compare Sony's price with the local place, and figure out what to do. (I know if I go local, and they don't fix it properly, Sony will no longer fix it, since the sticker will be removed).

I may try fixing it myself, using the gilksy tutorial, but from what I've read, that's only really a temporary fix (and I can't determine what temporary means... 2 days? 3 weeks? 4 months?).

Another option is to see if I can sell it to someone, and put any money I get for selling a broken PS3 toward getting a slim. I think Sony also sometimes offers a trade-in toward a slim (you give them the broken PS3, they'll give you credit toward a slim). I'll sleep on it and think more about it tomorrow.

For now I still have the 80gb which was used only for movie-watching so it has none of my game files on it. I guess I can at least log into CoD and shoot some people online, to relieve stress.

[saprano]

How long have you had your PS3 toef?

[toef]

Originally Posted by saprano

How long have you had your PS3 toef?

Since Nov '06 (not launch, but a couple weeks later).

[saprano]

Originally Posted by toef

Since Nov '06 (not launch, but a couple weeks later).

Wow thats a long time. Got mine in september 2007 and i worry about everyday. Sucks that we have to do that. I hope next generation the consoles don't have this problem. I don't know what kind testing MS, sony, and nintendo does, but they need to make sure that the GPU/CPU and power supply can last. My PS2 still works like new.

[toef]

Originally Posted by saprano

Wow thats a long time. Got mine in september 2007 and i worry about everyday. Sucks that we have to do that. I hope next generation the consoles don't have this problem. I don't know what kind testing MS, sony, and nintendo does, but they need to make sure that the GPU/CPU and power supply can last. My PS2 still works like new.

Yeah, I'm skeptical of paying Sony the $150 to fix it, because they only give you a 90-day warranty, which, to me, implies they don't really have much faith in the repairs.

I don't doubt the refurbed units are "fixed", but whatever design flaws were in the original PS3s to begin with aren't changed, so it's likely only a matter of time before the fixed unit breaks again as well. So the $150 is basically for a temporary fix, that will last who knows how long.

That's what's making me lean toward getting a slim, but it depends on how much I can get for my broken PS3/how little I can get a slim for.

I'm somewhat surprised mine failed, because it lived a pretty stress-free life. It was kept out in the open (not in an enclosed cabinet), so it always had plenty of ventilation. I also didn't really use it a lot, compared to other people I know who play games (I never play games for more than a couple hours at any one time, don't play games every day, etc). So maybe I'd feel a little less disappointed if I really abused the thing, and got tons of hours out of it, but for a casually used piece of electronics, I'm a bit annoyed that it only lasted as long as it did.

[mike79]

I think gamestop will give you $80 for a broken 60 gig. That's not too bad if you want to buy a new one there considering you would have to pay $150 to Sony and from what I hear it will most likely just break again. My friend went through the same thing after getting it fixed once from Sony, a few months later it broke again so he ended up buying a new one. He kept the broken one and just called gamestop a week or two ago and they said they would give him $80 for it which isn't too bad.

[toef]

Originally Posted by mike79

I think gamestop will give you $80 for a broken 60 gig. That's not too bad if you want to buy a new one there considering you would have to pay $150 to Sony and from what I hear it will most likely just break again. My friend went through the same thing after getting it fixed once from Sony, a few months later it broke again so he ended up buying a new one. He kept the broken one and just called gamestop a week or two ago and they said they would give him $80 for it which isn't too bad.

Yeah, I hate GameStop, so I'd almost rather eat the $80 loss. I was also thinking of paying the $150, and then selling it online as soon as I get it back. Whoever buys it can deal with any problems the new one might get. But even a refurbed 60gb seems like it'd be worth something.