Tips, Tricks and Fixes

[garlad]

If I wanted to send my PS3 for repair, what number should I contact? I live in Ireland. Did a search online for contact details but found nothing!

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by t0nythebeat

No they won't.
It's either a receipt or $150.


And I could have sworn upgrading the memory would void your warranty, eh.

Right, thats what I said. If you want it covered by warranty you need to have a receipt, otherwise you have to pay for it.

Also, replacing the hard drive does not void the warranty.

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

If I wanted to send my PS3 for repair, what number should I contact? I live in Ireland. Did a search online for contact details but found nothing!

Send it in for repair? You mean to someone other than Sony?

[garlad]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

Send it in for repair? You mean to someone other than Sony?

No I mean sony! Cant find their contact details for Ireland for sending in a PS3.. want to ask them about the laser problem. Dont think I would have the balls to follow your guide.. oh, and thank you very much for the kind offer regarding getting the laser to me man!

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

No I mean sony! Cant find their contact details for Ireland for sending in a PS3.. want to ask them about the laser problem. Dont think I would have the balls to follow your guide.. oh, and thank you very much for the kind offer regarding getting the laser to me man!

If you have attempted all troubleshooting and are still unable to resolve your query, please return to your retailer (place of purchase) and they will organise an exchange for you. (If you cannot find the required troubleshooting on our website please call the PlayStation Careline on 0818365065 (National Rate) and a member of our team will be happy to help you.

Postal Contact:

Consumer Services
Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland
Segrave House
20 Earlsfort Terrace
Dublin 2

Email:

You can contact us by email at - support@ie.playstation.com

Network Gaming Contact:

Should you need to contact us regarding anything to do with Network Gaming and you have been unable to find an answer to your query in the Knowledgebase, please call 0818365065 (national rate).

link

[garlad]

Thanks a mil.. I cant hit that link in work, its blocked.

You reckon it is worth sending it to them for the laser replacement? It's out of warrenty! I'll ring them and ask anyway..

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

Thanks a mil.. I cant hit that link in work, its blocked.

You reckon it is worth sending it to them for the laser replacement? It's out of warrenty! I'll ring them and ask anyway..

I never see the harm in calling first and see if you can have them repair for free.

[garlad]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

I never see the harm in calling first and see if you can have them repair for free.

yeah I will certainly try!! Will let you know.. Will ring them now on my lunch break

[garlad]

Ok so I rang the helpline.. They told me that before they go any further, they want me to do the following;

Reset all blu-ray setting to default
Format the hard drive (he said that will take a few hours?)

Then, if the problem happens again, they will give me a reference code and I have to bring it back to place of purchase. He asked if I still have the receipt.. Uh oh.. I really hope I do! But anyway, if I format the hard drive I will then just have to keep watching blu-rays, and if the problem happens again, I must call them back.

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

Ok so I rang the helpline.. They told me that before they go any further, they want me to do the following;

Reset all blu-ray setting to default
Format the hard drive (he said that will take a few hours?)

Then, if the problem happens again, they will give me a reference code and I have to bring it back to place of purchase. He asked if I still have the receipt.. Uh oh.. I really hope I do! But anyway, if I format the hard drive I will then just have to keep watching blu-rays, and if the problem happens again, I must call them back.

It depends if you do the 'full format' option compared to the 'quick format'. Did he say specifically he wanted you to do the 'full format'?

[garlad]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

It depends if you do the 'full format' option compared to the 'quick format'. Did he say specifically he wanted you to do the 'full format'?

He didn’t say, specifically. But he did say it would take 2/3 hours, so I guess that is the full format? Is that a straight forward thing to do?

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

He didn’t say, specifically. But he did say it would take 2/3 hours, so I guess that is the full format? Is that a straight forward thing to do?

Yup, System Options, Format Hard drive, and then select either Full or Quick.

Keep in mind that this erases everything on your hard drive, so back up first.

[WeApOn]

So I got my no-clean liquid flux in, and made the full attempt to repair my PS3's YLOD last night.....

I poured the flux above each chip and tilted the board so it would flow underneath. I waited until I saw it come out the other side, then laid it flat.

I heated ONLY the GPU and CPU at about 650 degrees Fahrenheit. I made swirling motions over the chips for about 15 seconds each, then I did the same just below the chips, then one more time a little further away from the board directly above the chips and made larger swirling motions as to make sure everything around the edges of the chips was heated.

I could feel extreme heat coming off the board after using the heat gun. I let it sit for 20 minutes, and did not heat the other side of the board. I began to put my PS3 back together.

I made sure to bend the two metal clamps that tighten the board to the fan assembly. I bent them so that it would apply more pull pressure, thus making the board stick to the heatsink/fan assembly more tightly. Then I screwed them both in.

Issues:

-I had some extra screws.. not too big of a deal, as I know everything was fastened very tightly.

-The LAST ribbon cable that connects from the top of the PS3 to the long skinny ribbon cable was not connecting easily. The black tab that holds it in place fell off. Is there a way to get this back on? It's so small, and it was extremely hard to snap it in place, it kept falling out. In the end, I just put the ribbon in as far as I could and hoped it wouldn't come out of place. I think this only controls the memory stick slots though?

-The hard drive bay was out of place, and it would NOT slide down as it needed to, and my hard drive wouldn't fit in. I had to use screwdrivers and pliers and deformed the HD bay greatly so that the hard drive would fit. Do they sell any hard drive bays that I could use to replace this? I really put the metal in bad shape in order to fit it in.

-Upon getting everything connected, I was ready to test and see if the reflow had done the job for me. I turned on the main, and saw the red light. I tapped the power button..... nothing. Continuously tapping the power button, the red light wouldn't change. I knew something must hadn't of been connected. Was it that ribbon? I am positive everything else was connected. I watched a ton of video tutorials and went extremely slowly to make sure everything was plugged in. What would cause this?


I pressed the eject button, and I heard 3 beeps. I believe this means there is no disc in the drive, but it recognized that I pressed the button. I was going to attempt and turn the power on using a controller, as I figured only the connected between the power button and the motherboard was not connected properly, but remotely starting the system would work fine. But none of my controllers were synced up with the system anymore.

Last thought, I needed to put a disc in the drive to force the system to start. However, if I failed in fixing the YLOD the disc I inserted would be sucked in the system and lost. I chose Hotel Rwanda on DVD, which I don't think I've ever watched. I put the disc up to the system, and the green light came on.... waiting for YLOD to appear..... the disc begins to get sucked in, and I realize that I didn't need to let it go all the way in, so I grabbed it quickly, then.......

I heard the noise that I had been waiting to hear.... the nice PS3 startup sound as the XMB loads. It never sounded so nice before.



To sum up my story, the reflow worked.

I don't know how long it will last, and my whole intention was to just get it to work even for a day just so I could back up my hard drive.

Regarding Backing Up:

I saw that you can backup to an external media device, such as an external hard drive? Which external hard drives work with the PS3? What would you recommend to backup to? Ideally, can I backup to an external drive, and dump that file on a PC? Then, if I need to restore, I would simply load that file onto an external, plug it into another PS3, and run the restore?



Thanks so much for any information that anyone can provide. Sorry for such a long post, I hope it was at least informative or provided some humor.

[Marine Mike]

I believe that tab for the 'top part' of the PS3 is just for the memory cards. Sounds like you are very handy, so I'm sure you'll find some way to put the tab back on.

I haven't seen any listings for hard drive bays.


Any external hard drive will work to backup the PS3 with as long as its in FAT32 format.

[WeApOn]

Thanks!

So the PS3 will detect any external hard drives as long as they are formatted in FAT32? It doesn't need any other drivers depending on the type of hard drive?

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by WeApOn

Thanks!

So the PS3 will detect any external hard drives as long as they are formatted in FAT32? It doesn't need any other drivers depending on the type of hard drive?

As far as I know, correct.

[dpomp]

ok everyone my PS3 crapped out a few weeks ago. it just shut down in the middle of playing a game. has no lights on the front. tried different plugs, different cables and nothing. i've googled the problem and it seems like other people have experienced the same thing. i've come to the conclusion that the only fix is calling sony.

i filled out the request online last night. how long does it take from the time you send the email to the time you get the box??

[kagolu]

Has anyone noticed slower loading times (for games) after replacing a failed optical drive? Mine seems to be loading alot slower during game play.

[garlad]

I am about to format the hard drive.. do i select "Restore the ps3 system" or Format Utility -> Format Hard Disk? What's the difference?

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

I am about to format the hard drive.. do i select "Restore the ps3 system" or Format Utility -> Format Hard Disk? What's the difference?

Restore would be to use one of your backups.

Select Format to erase everything on your hard drive.