The nice thing about the Xbox is it will be fixed or replaced at 0 cost, you just have to annoy the crap out of the customer service folks, lol...
If you really care about your data then yeah, Sony is a no-go, they will basically just send you a refurb. Best way to go about it would be to get a 3rd-party repair place to do it, then sign up for PS+ and back up all your files to the cloud. Then I would sell/trade in that unit and buy a Slim, which will probably last you much longer. If you don't care that much about your data, skip the repair step and just buy a Slim.
I'm still playing on the original launch PS3, and I've been getting worried about losing all my data. This thread is the kick in the ass I needed to finally sign up for PS+ to back up my data.
ok, third times a charm.... no need for online our backup storage, just backup your data to flash drive or external USB drive. Easy peasy Raven, replacing the drive is easy, just need a screwdriver and new hard drive. The ps3 is is stored onboard, so when it recognizes a new drive it will copy what is needed to the drive to prepare it for use.
I have the same model as yours, the fat 40GB PS3. The OP now has me worried because people say this model starts to fail within 3 years, and my system is 4.5 years old. I just took a vacuum to clean the vents so the system doesn't overheat. Sony recommends to shut the unit off for 15 min after every one hour of game play. Hopefully that does the trick.
Only problem is, more and more save files are copy-protected now. PS+ lets you copy even copy-protected saves. That feature alone makes it worth the price to me. Plus it's infinitely more convenient than bustin' out the external drive every time you want to back up.
Damn, my launch PS3 just died on me tonight. I had just finished wrapping up the second of the Ratchet and Clank trilogy yesterday, and it failed on starting it up today when I was going to play a Netflix video. I know I could always back up data via USB, but Playstation Plus was a nice and fortuitous purchase earlier this year. All game saves got backed up nightly, so I didn't lose any data. I had a feeling it was going to crash sometime this year. There are just too many reports of launch PS3 dying, and this thread seemed ominous. It is way out of warranty so I had the option of $129.99 for a replacement BC 60gb fatty or $99.99 for a 160gb slim with no BC. I opted for the slim model since I either don't play my old PS2 games or they have been rereleased in HD as part of PS3 collections (except Psychonauts). At least I can put all the Pixar movies directly on the hard drive to play for the kids, and I have plenty of room for a variety of shows. I can always stream video through the network or an online site, but HD video works so much better and smoothly if it's directly on the hard drive.
You must have missed my recent posts, I had my priceless launch (slept in a line for God's sake) repaired in Houston at a reputable place for $75 w warranty. All the data was saved and it works fine. Good call on Playstation Plus though.
So nice! Gawd I wish the data backup thing had been around when my fatty failed. It woulda saved me a month of grief with the warranty company... and my (copy-protected) Demon's Souls and RSV2 saves. BTW, if you're big into putting stuff directly on the hard drive... you know it's ridiculously easy and ridiculously cheap to put a bigger hard drive in your PS3, right? Just order up any, say, 500GB SATA laptop drive. Then it's one screw to take the cover off the PS3's hard drive, slide out, 4 screws off the mounting bracket... and done. 10 minutes tops. Any drive will work, there's no overpriced proprietary stuff like the 360, and the swap won't affect your warranty at all. Only small wrinkle I heard is that if you go above 500GB the drive may be a little thicker, and so may not fit the bracket perfectly. But I never confirmed that for myself, I just got a 500GB.
^ Que En Paz Descanse your PS3. + | I still have my original MoesMart Fat PS2-compatible one... like GRENDEL, I only use it occasionally and for Blu-Rays and online stuff... I pray to J i get the same ol' same ol'... Cold got to be! You know? Sheeiiiiiiiit
I've had issues with the YLOD for a while now. The first time I got it, I took it to a local shop and I dont know exactly what they did but from research online they did a "reflow" for $65. Reflows are temporary fixes. Within months I got a YLOD again, took it back to the same guy and he did it again and it worked but YLOD'd even faster than before. Obviously I was frustrated. I have the Fat backwards compatible version of the PS3 btw. What I learned is that reflows were unreliable temp fixes. They heat up the PS3 and then cool it again basically and clean up the particles or what have you. The best fix is what is called "reballing" Since the older PS3 was basically a PC stuffed in low ventilated black plastic casing, it had a tendency to heat up fast and melt the non-lead based chips on the GPU. The PS3s CPU are made with non-lead based parts because of government regulation of lead-based toys and games. Since they aren't made of lead, and the fat PS3 is practically a sauna because of its lack of ventilation, those non-lead based parts melt, thus causing the YLOD (Yellow light of death). The process to fix this is called "Reballing" because the GPU particles of the PS3 all look like little shiny metal balls. Someone who specializes in "reballing" takes off the manufactured non-lead based balls and replaces them with lead-based ones. Thus permanently (ideally) the issue with the PS3 heating up and melting those particles. I haven't done it yet but found someone on craigslist that can do it for $75 bucks. Im hoping within the month to take it to him for the reball.
Watch out with the Craigslist people. They've been known to say they cant fix it, return the system and not charge you, except they've actually gutted the insides for parts to resell. If it comes to it I suggest backing up your data and shipping it off to Sony. Where did you take it to get fixed the first time?
I'm in Seattle, and I didn't find anything that I could verify here locally. Random CraigsList ads seem a bit sketchy too. Talking to the Sony agents yesterday, it sounds like they might nix a swap if you've tried to open it up and repair it yourself. I figured $100 for a system guaranteed to work and done through proper and legitimate channels seemed like the way to go. If I hadn't had the Playstation Plus, I would have tried to get it repaired so I wouldn't lose my game saves. I don't know if I'll ever replay it, but the thought of losing my Demon Souls game save filled me with dread. I've read that before, but I take your word for gold on this board for PS3 information. I'll have to go pick one up and install that when the new unit gets here. 160GB is a nice bump over 60GB, but 500GB is even better. :grin:
It was a place in southwest titled "Good Game" and they worked out of one of those Ghetto insurance joints, I believe it was AAAA Insurance. I went there, and he didnt tell me exactly what he did other than blow out the insides and whatnot, I wasn't too informed at the time. Charged me $65 w/ a 60 day warranty. Worked for about 3 months and then YLOD'd again. Took it back to him, was outside of warranty but he charged me $35 this time. This time it took only about a month and a half before it died on me. I'm not taking it back to him anymore, that's for sure. I think he didnt do a thorough job. Probably didn't even put thermal paste on it, which I learned was protocol for a repair. I just called someone else on craigslist and he just said reballing is risky cuz your bluray player may not work anymore, which would be gay. And basically he suggested to buy a slim cuz YLOD almost never happen to them. PS3 just made a mistake making it so fat to begin with since it wasn't built to last, thus coming out with the slims. I'm going to take it to this new guy I found on craigslist, he sounded knowledgeable. After that, 3 strikes and the FAT version is out. So long, backwards compatibility.
One other minor tip then: I recommend just getting a standard 5400rpm SATA drive, instead of opting for a 7200rpm or even solid state. The testing I've seen seems to show that in the vast majority of cases, the PS3 will transfer data at the same rate regardless of the speed of the HDD. There are a few rare exceptions, but it's not worth spending the extra money on. Enjoy the extra space. I was pretty thrilled that I didn't have to find stuff to delete anymore whenever I got a new game that needed to install!
Soooooo, pardon my ignorance, here: all you do is swap one for the other? How does the PS3 OS software or whatever it's called get re-installed?
IIRC, the OS resides on some built-in flash storage (maybe 512MB or so). It will need to format the HDD and all that, but it doesn't "live" on the HDD (I think that's what you are asking about).
Yeah you just swap it and you're good, simple as that. Unless you're running Linux but nobody does that.
