PS3 suicide....kinda.

[Woldan]

Don't know if this is the right place for this topic...my Playstation 3 died...partially. I only get a black screen, though the PS3 seems to start and load just fine, guess the graphics card got fried. Checked the cable, its fine. Oddly there weren't any signs of the GFX cards impending death though, it worked and then, boom, when I started it up again - dead. 

 

Any suggestions?

 

I've got to rescue some saves, is it possible to swap the GFX card with one salvaged from another PS? Is it not worth it/impossible? 

[Humanoid]

I've never owned a PS3 or tinkered with any consoles, but safe bet the GPU is soldered in and not user-replaceable. If you were feeling super adventurous I guess you could try pointing a heat gun at the GPU to try to reflow the solder, if that's even the problem in the first place.

 

Guessing it's a first gen 'fat' PS3?

 

 

 

As for saving your data, all PS3 models use a completely standard 2.5" (i.e. laptop sized) hard drive, so you could probably pull that out and put it in another PS3.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Humanoid

[Bokishi]

Speaking of which, my PS3 Slim makes extremely loud fan noises while playing Last of Us. It might lead to the gpu giving out as well

[Woldan]

Well that sucks. 

 

Guessing it's a first gen 'fat' PS3?

Nope, its the a slim one.

As for saving your data, all PS3 models use a completely standard 2.5" (i.e. laptop sized) hard drive, so you could probably pull that out and put it in another PS3.

Oh, thats great news, I'm getting a used PS3 and see if  it works. Edited March 10, 2014 by Woldan

[Whitefox789]

Have you tried composite/component on the AV Input as well? (Just confirming if its not outputting anything from either port)

 

Another thing you should try is resetting the display settings you can do this by holding the power button as its turning on (one beep to power on, additional beep to reset display settings, as soon as you hear that second beep you can take your finger off the power button). It might be a possibility (a slim one) that the configuration for your PS3's display got messed up as it was booting up. Just giving possibilities the PS3's OS isn't perfect, remember the PS3's OS was originally programmed that leap years were every 2 Years when it should of been every 4 Years.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Whitefox789

[Woldan]

Already tried all of the above + unplugging my screen for a minute etc. Oh well, a new PS3 costs like 150 bucks.....

[J.Burke]

I had the same issue with my original (fat 60gig) PS3. I left it alone for a month, and it worked again. It just recently (I think) perma-died though. The console powers on for about a minute and then shuts off. I can't even eject the disc from the console.

 

I bought a PS3 slim when it died the first time, so I'm probably going to take apart the old one and see what fried. Going to bet either the graphics card died or the fan on it died causing it to overheat and shutdown almost immediately. 

[Woldan]

I had the same issue with my original (fat 60gig) PS3. I left it alone for a month, and it worked again. It just recently (I think) perma-died though. The console powers on for about a minute and then shuts off. I can't even eject the disc from the console.

Sounds like it has collected so much dust it overheats almost instantly... is your PS sitting on a carpeted floor? Can your hear the fan? Maybe a simple cleaning does the job. I have my PS sitting on two rolls of duct tape so there is space between the floor and the PS. Does a great job in preventing overheating. Well, it did....

 

I'm going to take mine apart but I'll probably feel like a medieval surgeon not having the slightest clue what part of that contraption does what. 

[J.Burke]

 

I had the same issue with my original (fat 60gig) PS3. I left it alone for a month, and it worked again. It just recently (I think) perma-died though. The console powers on for about a minute and then shuts off. I can't even eject the disc from the console.

Sounds like it has collected so much dust it overheats almost instantly... is your PS sitting on a carpeted floor? Can your hear the fan? Maybe a simple cleaning does the job. I have my PS sitting on two rolls of duct tape so there is space between the floor and the PS. Does a great job in preventing overheating. Well, it did....

 

I'm going to take mine apart but I'll probably feel like a medieval surgeon not having the slightest clue what part of that contraption does what. 

 

 

It's actually sitting on a table next to the TV. I'd never run electronics on the carpet. That's just asking for trouble. I also am pretty good about cleaning dust out every few months. 

 

The first gen playstations had issues with the GPU giving out, so I'm not entirely surprised with mine finally dying. I've heard you can take the fan off and clean it / reapply thermal paste / reattach and sometimes the issue goes away. I really just need to find time to do it. If only I didn't have a job that consumed all my time  

[Whitefox789]

 

It's actually sitting on a table next to the TV. I'd never run electronics on the carpet. That's just asking for trouble. I also am pretty good about cleaning dust out every few months. 

 

The first gen playstations had issues with the GPU giving out, so I'm not entirely surprised with mine finally dying. I've heard you can take the fan off and clean it / reapply thermal paste / reattach and sometimes the issue goes away. I really just need to find time to do it. If only I didn't have a job that consumed all my time

 

I always loved how console developers (not bashing I'm a console gamer too just observing) are so set on making their consoles as compact as possible. Changing the size of the lithography of the CELL processor can only do so much to generate less heat. Not to mention having the case becoming more and more compact isn't helping, the poor thing doesn't have any room to breath.

 

Though the real question I want to ask Sony is, why does the power supply of the PS4 have no reference to earth ground? I would hate to be that power supply when there is a power surge.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Whitefox789

[Woldan]

Well, I'm just taking apart my slim PS3 and its shocking how dust-free it is, its like the insides of a recently-cleaned space shuttle ready to take off. Forget that dust cleaning part. And boy, I don't know what the screws are made of that hold the magnetic plating, but it destroyed two of my best screwdrivers. Wolfram-steel alloy?   

 

 

 

The first gen playstations had issues with the GPU giving out, so I'm not entirely surprised with mine finally dying

I'm actually surprised they don't self-destruct quicker, my last two playstations died approx two years after I bought them. 

[ManifestedISO]

I'm sure it's not related, probably, but there was a PS3 firmware update (4.45) back in June that caused problems for a lot of people. Not that you are eight months out-of-date, but ...

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/06/sony-pulls-ps3-firmware-update-on-reports-of-bricked-systems/ 

[J.Burke]

 

 

It's actually sitting on a table next to the TV. I'd never run electronics on the carpet. That's just asking for trouble. I also am pretty good about cleaning dust out every few months. 

 

The first gen playstations had issues with the GPU giving out, so I'm not entirely surprised with mine finally dying. I've heard you can take the fan off and clean it / reapply thermal paste / reattach and sometimes the issue goes away. I really just need to find time to do it. If only I didn't have a job that consumed all my time

 

I always loved how console developers (not bashing I'm a console gamer too just observing) are so set on making their consoles as compact as possible. Changing the size of the lithography of the CELL processor can only do so much to generate less heat. Not to mention having the case becoming more and more compact isn't helping, the poor thing doesn't have any room to breath.

 

Though the real question I want to ask Sony is, why does the power supply of the PS4 have no reference to earth ground? I would hate to be that power supply when there is a power surge.

 

 

The actual machine runs hot but if you keep it dust free it runs issue free for a long time. I got mine on launch day and it JUST DIED last month. That's after using it as a multimedia machine for games/netflix/movies/videos/music every day. 

 

I rarely have PCs last that long without some sort of hardware issue. 

 

That being said, the PS4 runs pretty quiet and cool 90% of the time it's on. Maybe they did a better job designing the case/components this time around. 

[Whitefox789]

The actual machine runs hot but if you keep it dust free it runs issue free for a long time. I got mine on launch day and it JUST DIED last month. That's after using it as a multimedia machine for games/netflix/movies/videos/music every day. 

 

I rarely have PCs last that long without some sort of hardware issue. 

 

That being said, the PS4 runs pretty quiet and cool 90% of the time it's on. Maybe they did a better job designing the case/components this time around. 

 

I concur that keeping it dust free will increase the lifespan drastically (makes it easier for PS3 to exhaust, thus reduces heat buildup on components).

 

I'm not questioning the design too much of the PS4 I think it is wonderfully built (granted enough I don't have one I probably won't break down and buy one until MGS5:TPP comes out) and everything fits very nicely inside the case.

 

What I am wondering from an electrical engineering standpoint is why is the AC side of the PS4 power supply only making references to Line + Neutral? It makes no sense not to have the PSU make an additional reference to Earth Ground. Unless Sony is making the bold assumption that every one of their customers is going to be running their product on a surge protector and not directly from a wall outlet.

[Woldan]

Well, today I finally got a replacement PS3 super slim, but now I realized I can't swap the harddrives without auto-formatting them. There is no other way. So all my saves are gone. 

 

Now I know why I hate consoles. 

[Bartimaeus]

Well, today I finally got a replacement PS3 super slim, but now I realized I can't swap the harddrives without auto-formatting them. There is no other way. So all my saves are gone. 

 

Now I know why I hate consoles. 

 

"What you do is connect the two ps3's with a network cable directly to each other and use the "Data Transfer Utility". Will copy or move everything including copy protected saves. It's the only way to move copy protected saves other than paying for PS+ and using the cloud storage."

 

Google

 

Not sure if you could do that because the old one's screen is blank, but perhaps you could, navigating solely from the new PS3?

[Woldan]

Thats exactly what I wanted to do but its sadly not possible because my PS3 died completely. I guess I have to do it the hard way, re-install all games and start from the beginning. Ouch.