TGM

Anyone have any personal experience with this? any of the tricks or tips on youtube actually work to fix this, at least long enough so I can copy off my saved games?

it's a fat 80gb backwards compatible model bought in 2007. obviously its out of OM warranty, and my Target extended warranted ended in December of last year... figures.

Brooklyn

I had my 80gb YLOD back in March. Won't even turn on long enough to get the disc out. Sorry I have no advice to offer other than to see if there's anywhere local to you that might offer repairs on it (local game or electronics shop), as they're undoubtedly cheaper than Sony. And not to sound negative, but everything I've heard says that once it happens, even with a repair, it'll happen again.

TGM

yeah, I've resigned myself to the fact that I need to buy another one, and since I got 4+ years out of it, I'm not that torn up, but I'd like to at least get my saved games off...

TGM

Oh, and btw, I also had a disc in when it YLOD'd on me, and found that if you tilt the thing down (so the disc would basically eject into the floor), turn off the unit with the switch in the back, then press and hold the eject button while you turn back on the unit with the back switch, the disc did finally eject... took about 20 tries tho

dvdsteve2000

YLOD? Is that a yellow light of death on a PS3? I fear of mine dying every day...I have a 60GB from launch and to this day I still don't game on it, only Blu's, so hopefully it lasts a while longer.

JHBulls

You don't actually need to tilt your PS3, but something like this right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKGU35FKSpY

Damn, I just had a brainstorm. How something like that would work on a slim PS3 with no switch at the back?

TGM

Yeah, exactly like that, however for me, it DIDN'T work UNTIL I tilted the unit...

Brooklyn

Might be the same for me, as I tried the suggested method when it 1st happened and no matter how many times I did, 'No disc for you'.

Michael Corvin

Welcome to the club. It's now a $300 paperweight. Say what you will about the RROD, at least Microsoft stood behind their product and fixed the 360 for free. The best Sony could muster was a discount on repairs IF you are a PS+ subscriber. Fuck you Sony.

Since I also read they are prone to breaking again, after being repaired, I bought a stand-alone BD unit. I figure if Sony doesn't even want to stand behind their own product, why should I?

TheKing

Blus actually put more stress on parts of the system than games do. The disc drive, for example, since blus are constantly spinning while games only spin when data needs to be accessed.

I don't know how it contributes to the YLOD, but it does lead down the path of having to replace the laser diode.

TGM

so I dropped off the PS3 to some local guy on craiglist who states he fixes these things "the right way"... here is his ad:



fix any PS3 issue sometimes while you wait! No scams cheap prices many parts in stock. e-mail or call for availability..
YLOD includes reflux and reflow of your motherbord and the cleaning of every part inside your ps3 including fan, blu-ray drive and power supply plus inside chassis all for $50.00 sony will charge you 3 times that much plus shipping..
no charge if your ps3 cant be restored back to working condition.. i allso sell reconditioned ps3's many with a brand new laser installed and most times as low as $200 dollers even lower if your trading in a broken console..

Many Blu Ray Drives and Lasers in stock!!

**This is NOT the 45 minute ylod repair done with a heat gun that will only last 2 months tops! my repair consists of a reflow and reflux done with a precision oven specially designed for reflowing motherbords the repair itself takes 3 hours and will need to be dropped off..

5 yrs experience! credentials available... warranties on all parts and labor. Loaners of equal value available for the leary Craigs List Customers.. Secure shipping and payment through Pay Pal available.




I figured what they hell.... I only pay if he fixes it... and if he gets it going fot another 6-12 months it will allow me the chance to be patient and buy another one at a good price (remember when amazon was selling them for basically $200 back in December?) as well as get my saved games off of it.

Brooklyn

I'm not choosing sides here, as I've been equally F'd over by both, but I have to interject here to say that Microsoft stood behind it ONLY after it was far too obvious a problem.

My 360 RROD'd a good while after the issue was known by gamers and I still had to pay for a repair. And even with that, rather than my own fixed console, I instead received a refurb which smelled of electrical fire, cigarette smoke and something sour. The power brick that came with this wonderful remedy also always made a high pitched whine whenever the unit was on, as if the fan inside was about to blow. On top of that, it took over a year and more phone calls than I or anyone else should have had to make, for them to relicense my DLC. it was only about 6 months after even that that Microsoft even began thinking about extending the warranty to cover the RROD, and even then it didn't cover things like the E74 error as it did later on.

Brooklyn

Where is he located? I'm also in MA. and would be interested in hearing of your experience once you get it back.

TGM

He's in Dracut. You can also mail it to him. I live about 25 miles away actually, but was in the mood for a ride... I'll let you know how it all turned out.

Brooklyn

Thanks.
I'm about the same distance but shop up in Nashua from time to time so he's not out of the question.

kefrank

I'm not sure that's true. The Blu-ray laser seems to simply fail randomly, regardless of usage level. My brother-in-law's failed after less than a year. He played a number games on it, but only ever watched one Blu-ray movie. Mine failed after just over two years, having watched about 40 Blu-ray movies and playing only two games. I did quite a bit of research on forums at the time and among people that had the problem (and there were many), there seemed to be no correlation between the type or level of usage and the failure.

RockyMtnBri

I got lucky when this happened to my 60 GB system 2 months ago. I could not get the eject to work (I had InFamous 2 stuck inside it) so I took the unit apart and got it out. I bought a new PS3, but of course all of my old data was still "stuck" on my old PS3s drive. I reassembled the old PS3 and took it to a local place called Tekrepublic that was not only able to recover all of my game save data (along with media), but put my 320 GB drive in my new slim PS3. The cost? $0! They considered the reclaim on parts from the old PS3 (which I let them keep) was enough of an offset to the repair cost (they quoted me $40)!

Now I back up my system every two weeks on an external drive (formatted Fat32) and so far, so good. I had wanted to replace my older PS3 anyway - my new one runs much quieter and cooler.

Superman07

I do hope it goes well!

TGM

ROFL. I know, I know... sounds shady... craigslist... no receipt... just dropped it off at some random guys townhouse... I figured the PS3 is useless to me now anyway... if I already owned a heatgun and the thermal paste I probably would have tried to fix it myself at least long enough to recover my saved games then junk it and buy new... but I didn't have the tools, and for but for $10 more, hopefully this guy will fix it permanently, clean it, etc... either way I'm buying a new PS3 slim when there is a good enough deal (ie: that amazon 160gb slim for $300 w/$100 amazon credit back from December)...

slop101

My BC 80gig PS3 yellowed a few months ago as well - I took it to a local repair shop (that repairs hundreds of PS3 & 360s every month), and they couldn't get it running again - they tried all the well-know PS3 fixes and they have a lot of experience fixing them. At least they didn't charge me. I was mostly bummed at losing all my game saves. But my new PS3 is running well. Good luck. If they're able to fix it, ask them how and report back.

TGM

I have high hopes that it can be fixed, because it would turn on and seemingly work fine for about 5 seconds (ie: the startup "wave" and music would show up on the screen) then promptly die and setoff the YLOD. It only did that at the FIRST startup of the day... any subsequent attempts did nothing.

TGM

Well, the guy claims he fixed it... and says that he ran it for about 5 hours playing blurays without any issue.... not sure when I will be able to pick it up and confirm, but it all sounds quite promising!

TGM

well, I picked it up, brought it home, and its working great... for how long? no idea... this guy gave me a 60 day warranty... so if anyone is in MA, or willing to mail it to him, the guy seems legit and quite professional.

here's his ad:

http://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/vgm/2540120458.html

Brooklyn

Thanks for the link

Nathan A

Good to hear it's worked out so far!

FYI - Everything I've read says that a reflow is only temporary. I had Gophermods (a reputable repair shop) reflow mine, and it lasted another 6 months. Hopefully yours will last long enough for you to get a replacement.

And remember to de-activate your PSN account on it before it dies again, if that's important to you.