My PS3 is dying...wife is not wanting to fix or buy new one

[phlydude]

So Tuesday night, we were catching up on "Sons of Anarchy" on DVD and finished the 3rd episode of 4 on the 2nd disc. When it was over, I stopped the DVD and powered off the TV and the receiver but left the PS3 on as I normally do to allow it to fold.

Well, I turned everything back over to view the last episode last night and the PS3 is dead - not responding to anything.

I do all the resets and nothing...TV sees changed resolution but nothing is displayed (but the sound is coming out via the receiver when the PS3 starts).
So now I'm thinking, GREAT! Video processor is shot.

I let it cool down and hooked it up to my 42" plasma and it is working but there are little blinking dots on the screen in green, red and yellow. They get worse the longer it is left on.
So I let it cool off some more and take it back to the 61" Sammy DLP and it shows up but again with the same dots...and they get worse. So I try to put the DVD back in and the screen goes black with the different colored dots on it all over again.

So the 60GB PS3 is shot...a victim of overheating in a 70° house in open air and frequent dust cleaning...I guess I'm surprised it lasted 2 yrs, 8 months with it folding all the time like it does (did).

I don't want to give up the 60GB backwards compatibility if I can avoid it but it never YLOD me...so I don't know if it can be fixed like many have done on youtube and how one guy is selling his service on ebay.

But the worse part is that I had $300 saved up of $430 for a new TV for the bedroom (32" Panny LCD) - the wife feels that the TV is more important than the PS3. I was ready to go right over to gamestop last night and buy a new slim one without hesitation but the thought of getting it fixed is appealing as well BUT I have the wife to deal with on controlling the funding and I may not win out right away on this deal.

I've thought of packing up the old XBox and old PSP and taking them back to Costco and cashing them in to get the TV and then taking the $300 and getting the PS3 Slimmer model but I still get enjoyment out of the old Xbox and PSP from time to time (more with the PSP when traveling)...but I find that watching movies in Hi-Def and using the PS3 as a media center pass through has been more enjoyable than anything else I do in my spare time and will only get more used as it gets colder and spending time outside becomes less convenient.

Anyone have that issue on their PS3? If so, did re-setting the solder work correctly and long term?

What would you do?