PS3 PS3 Yellow Light/Flashing Red Light

[Elemmire]

So... is my system completely kaputz? I want to play Demon's Soul more but it seems to not even let me eject the disc. I have an old 60 gig model so I don't even seem to have a manual eject feature for the disc (Fucking stupid).

And I'm worried, if I send it in will that mean I don't get a model that has the PS2 backwards compatibility cause I still want that... and will I lose all my HD data? Haven't gotten to back up the data on it yet cause I have no external hard drive and I've heard when you insert a HD into the PS3 it auto-formats it. I'm so mad that I can't get my disc out, I might not get the same model back, or maintain the data... why must Sony make some really stupid design decisions ><

Anyone know for sure though? Or anyone have any clue if I don't have to send it in? I can't start it up at all or eject the disc... blah.

 

[Strid]

I remember back when this first starting coming up with your model Sony would repair and send the same console back, unlike how MS does. I'm not so sure if that is the case anymore. Unfortunately, during that time period Sony also was charging for both the shipping and repairs, they didn't extend warranties for this issue nor offer any warranty leniency best I can recall. At that time people were told to remove their HDD, it wasn't necessary for repairs, and people who had lodged disc did get them back, I never saw an instance where they didn't, but honestly I didn't look around for many cases to see how frequently this was the case.

At this point, you're definitely going to have to pay Sony for the repairs, unless they have put in a new policy for this issue that I have missed and it was costing people in the upwards of $150 for the shipping and repairs. At that price I would say try to find a place around you that repairs consoles. There are a few smaller game shops in my area that offer repairs mostly for $30-40 but I've never seen over $60 and warranty the work for a year. On that same token, if you do choose that path I would urge against using Craigslist to find someone in this line of work.

 

[Elemmire]

Ya, they already sent the box :\ they say they'll likely not have to screw with the data in the HD and should be ok, but I'm also worried about my disc that's still in the system cause their stupid first generation models have no manual eject -_- dumbest design move ever.

And they claim that they should be able to fix my system and give me the same one. And I'll try this, but if they don't give me the same system, if I can't get my disc back, whatever I'm gonna bitch and cause a storm for them :| they fucked up with the design (no manual disk) and getting a new PS3 screws me from PS2 games (That I still play) cause of the removal of backwards compatibility (their stupid design choice again), and ya... so we'll see how it goes.

 

[mugenteg]

The package they sent should have some paperwork and there is a section on the paper that asks if any game is stuck in the system.


Also this same thing happend to me once and I sent it back (I was still under warranty) it happend again about 3 months ago and I was not going to pay $150.00 to have it fixed by Sony.

I ended up doing the heat gun trick and got it working so I traded it in to game stop got a $150.00 credit (Old 80gig 4 usd and card reader model) and bought a slim model 160gig to replace it.

 

[Stine]

This has happened to us once before and Tristam fixed it but sadly it just happened again the other day. I would have to ask him to post the videos of what he did to fix it but it was the heat gun trick that mugenteg mentioned. The fix is temporary and the system will fail again. We got the same model as you and used the PS3 for the PS2 games as well. Fortunately we still have a PS2.

 

[Elemmire]

Well my PS2 is being borrowed by a friend of mine cause she's only had the PS1 for ages and I wanted to give her stuff to play so I could ask for that back, but I'd rather not.

Right now I'm more worried about my data I never got a chance to back it up cause I have no external HD to back it up and ya.... if I lose all my data, chances are I'm just gonna quit using the PS3 forever. I get like that. If I lose data to a game or a console or something I just quit playing the game/using the console.

Oh, as for the heat gun trick, I was tempted, but I don't trust myself at taking it apart right or putting it back together. I mean, I've played with electronics a lot putting em together and taking em apart, but I really just don't feel comfortable trying.

I still don't get why the heat gun fix works though. What exactly IS wrong with the console? also, if it happens again shouldn't I get a free repair cause this seems like a hardware design failure if it's a heat problem.

 

[Kurgon]

The repair has a warranty period of something like 90 days. My 60GB launch unit died a couple of weeks back. I will be reflowing the CPU and GPU soon just to see if that fixes the issue. If not it might be the power supply that went bad. I had been nursing the launch unit for the last half a year. Took it apart and dusted each component off but didn't want to touch the CPU or GPU until things went bad. I have a slim that I've been using for gaming and the launch unit has been the bedroom Bluray/dvd/Netflix/Hulu/Vudu/Pandora player. Instead of replacing it with another PS3 I bought a Roku 2 for the bedroom.

 

[mugenteg]

Well my PS2 is being borrowed by a friend of mine cause she's only had the PS1 for ages and I wanted to give her stuff to play so I could ask for that back, but I'd rather not.

Right now I'm more worried about my data I never got a chance to back it up cause I have no external HD to back it up and ya.... if I lose all my data, chances are I'm just gonna quit using the PS3 forever. I get like that. If I lose data to a game or a console or something I just quit playing the game/using the console.

Oh, as for the heat gun trick, I was tempted, but I don't trust myself at taking it apart right or putting it back together. I mean, I've played with electronics a lot putting em together and taking em apart, but I really just don't feel comfortable trying.

I still don't get why the heat gun fix works though. What exactly IS wrong with the console? also, if it happens again shouldn't I get a free repair cause this seems like a hardware design failure if it's a heat problem.

What basically happens is that as the system heats and cools and does this same thing over time the soder points on the GPU and CPU develop microscopic stress cracks. It eventually gets to the point that both of these processors aren't working correctly and the system give you the yello light of death.

What the heat gun trick does it melts the soder just enough to re-fill the cracks but as was mentioned before it's only a temporay fix and the problem will come back.

The only solution that people have found to prevent this and only do it if your system is out of warranty is open it up dust it completely out (lot of dust builds up in there over time) apply new thermo compound to the cpu/gpu and be on your marry way. I know for a fact that this works as a friend of mine still has his system lauch 60gig model and he does this every Jan. and his console is good as new.


Elemmire: I hate to tell you but you are SOL, Sony will not back up your hardrive and reintall back in as what they do they swap out the unit for an equal unit that has already been refurbished. I found out the hard way when I sent them my old 80gig and lost all my data.

 

[Elemmire]

Bleh, I really hate their design and the way the PS3 automatically will reformat a drive when you connect it. I don't get some of the design decisions they made and I don't see why I should suffer cause they made them :| oh well. Guess I'll be done with my PS3 forever if it comes back with my data gone.

 

[Strid]

That's the bitch of it. You and many others having to pay $100+ for them using a cheap solder, probably the same solder they'll use to "fix it". Definitely not even a $20, after shipping, much less $100+. This crap simply can't carry on to the next generation of consoles. Even their Slim model is atrociously made, hell, just the notion of making a slim with this hardware was ridiculous. Putting that much cheap plastic near stuff that gets ridiculously hot within minutes, just silly. I'm referring to why the Slim model beeps and causes a very, very brief freeze to occur every 15-20 minutes. It's the blu-ray drive shifting inside the unit because the plastic gets hot and causes the frame to expand, hence shifting the drive...

 

[Elemmire]

Wow... their slim model sounds even worse in design >.> stupid lazy big companies with their next gen consoles... well for the most part.

 

[Elemmire]

PS3 back, all data gone I'm really mad... only thing I have is my Demon's Soul save I got backed up. Why the fuck does Sony fuck up this much with the data saving and HDDs for it? Why would a HDD need to auto reformat when I put a new one in? even if it's already formatted for it.

Think if I call and bitch to Sony they can do something? >.>

 

[Strid]

PS3 back, all data gone I'm really mad... only thing I have is my Demon's Soul save I got backed up. Why the fuck does Sony fuck up this much with the data saving and HDDs for it? Why would a HDD need to auto reformat when I put a new one in? even if it's already formatted for it.

Think if I call and bitch to Sony they can do something? >.>

Yeah, they'll tell you, you should have taken the HDD out before you sent it off. They probably even suggested you take it out in the packing instructions.

I told you to take the thing out before you ever sent it :/

Moving forward though, depending on the games, you could likely find a save file uploaded very similar to your old ones and just use them or go with a save editor.

 

[Elemmire]

Nah, the instructions want you to send the HDD, but they say to "Back it up on an external one" as if everyone has a freaking external hardrive or wants to go out and buy one.. and I couldn't even turn the system on TO back it up -_- this really is a fail on Sony's design part.. why does a system have to auto-format a HDD put in right away? Cause it does that, last I knew. As soon as you take a HDD even already formatted for the system it will reformat it again.

 

[Dancingweapon]

This is why I honestly think that (easily) detachable hard drives are the way forward. The one time I've sent my xbox 360 into repairs I just popped the thing off before packing it.

 

[Elemmire]

You can easily detach the PS3 hard drive, but apparently when you pop it back in the PS3 is all "derp detecting HDD, reformatting" >.> at least that's what has happened with my friends' PS3s.

 

[Dancingweapon]

Well that's not really easily detachable then is it?

 

[Elemmire]

Open up this panel on the side and slide it out basically.

Edit: You know the one good thing about losing my data? I wanna play ALL my games again even the ones I don't like as much as others like FFXII, but I will say just running around in FFXII is fun in its own exploring.

 

[mugenteg]

Nah, the instructions want you to send the HDD, but they say to "Back it up on an external one" as if everyone has a freaking external hardrive or wants to go out and buy one.. and I couldn't even turn the system on TO back it up -_- this really is a fail on Sony's design part.. why does a system have to auto-format a HDD put in right away? Cause it does that, last I knew. As soon as you take a HDD even already formatted for the system it will reformat it again.

Sucks that you lost all your info, also you don't really need to back up the whole hardrive. When I switched my 80gig to my slim 160gig all I did was back up the saved game files on an thumb drive. I did not care about music and pictures as I was able to readd them later. That whole process took me like 10 min to back up all my games.

Elemmire : Add me PSN ID: B16da9

 

[Elemmire]

Ya I woulda done that if I coulda turned on my PS3 before I sent it off oh well. As I said, I kinda wanna play all my games through again (though I doubt that'll happen since I have so many )

Though I did have ONE game saved, that being Demon's Souls on the PSN+ thing (I seriously got PSN+ basically just so I could save that game :\ since before it went out it was having such clipping and freezing problems it corrupted my save data once).