Yellow Lights and £131
Say goodbye to my PS3, folks, along with my patience.Published 07/01/2010 at 16:20 by Gamoc
I saw yellow on my PS3 yesterday. Then a flashing red. Ironically, this is the Yellow Light of Death that signals the demise of a Playstation 3. It is unrecoverable, so I called Sony to see just how they would screw me over in my quest to get it fixed. £131 and everything on my hardrive. That’s not some weird change system Sony use, they are going to replace my PS3 so I won’t be getting the same PS3 back, which means that, when I stick my hardrive into the new PS3, the new PS3 will automatically treat the wonderful thing to a free formatting. It’s a 320gb hardrive, with only 40gb free.
Putting aside for a moment the ridiculousness of having to pay almost half what I paid for my brand new PS3 when I bought it only to have it replaced by a refurbished machine a year and a half later, let me explain what annoys me the most. Don’t get me wrong, I can not afford £131, so that annoys me, but money is just money. I can download all of my games again and probably even watch the recorded programmes I have from PlayTV online somewhere, but what I can’t replace are my saved games. I have a played a great many games on my PS3. I’ve had it since April 2008, which is a year and 8/9 months. So it lasted about 21 months, which isn’t so good for a console with a 10 year lifespan.
Saying the PS3 will last 10 years is all well and good, but if I have to keep paying £131 to get my single unit replaced every 21 months it’s going to cost me so much money that it simply isn’t worth it – no amount of awesome games are going to convince me it’s worth the price of the console, 4 or so payments to replace it and the price of the games, too.
Now let’s bring back the price of a refurbished replacement. Sony, you made this console, then I paid for it under the assumption that it wasn’t a pile of waste in a black box and wouldn’t have to have it replaced. Twice. This is the second time I’ve had a PS3 die on me, the first time being in April of 2008, when I simply took my 60gb back to Game and got a refund, then bought the 40gb I use now. I used my PS3 properly, I bought games, I have had direct contact with Sony’s themselves and written reviews for them, but my console has screwed me over, closely followed by Sony screwing me over with extortionate costs for replacing the console I had already bought.
This isn’t a great time for you to screw me over at all, Sony. I bought an Xbox 360 a few months before Christmas. You may have heard of them – you know, your biggest rival? Since then I haven’t bought any PS3 games short of Pixeljunk Eden. I even bought multiplatform titles on my 360, some with reason and some I wasn’t even sure why (when I bought Assassin’s Creed 2, for example, I only realised I was buying it for the 360 when I had left Game). My 360 is running perfectly, if a little loud. Sure, I can’t use iPlayer or PlayTV on it, nor can I play any of the PS3 exclusives, and whilst the only 360 exclusive that appeals to me is Left 4 Dead 2, I am considering switching to supporting Microsoft.
I have always maintained that I would be a devout Playstation-prefering guy for my entire life. I did maintain that until this happened, anyway. This is not a great time for you to be testing my patience, Sony. Not a great time at all.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
yobrenoops | 07/01/2010 16:23
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Surely under the Sale of Goods Act you can still return your PS3 to the shop you bought it from and get a new one. May need to argue a bit but it can be done.
cc_star | 07/01/2010 16:35
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It can be done – Its possible to make a claim for warranty type faults (of which this is, because Sony replace it frre of charge during the first 12 months for this exact fault) during 6 years (yes YEARS) from purchase – This claim must be against the retailer and not the manufacturer.
Success depends on the retailer and how far your willing to take it (eg. All the way to the small claims court to recover your repair/replacement cost)
cc_star | 07/01/2010 17:16
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It’s linked to in our forums, including links to a BBC feature by Dominc Littlewood (not Watchdog) and some template letters to fire off to legal department customer services managers/directors
TheSabreman | 07/01/2010 17:47
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Sony are making a massive PR mistake with overcharging for a replacement.
The terrible reliability of 360’s is notorious but has died down as M$ extended the warranty with RROD, Sony should be making moves into fed up 360 owners and not making ps3 owners think they can buy a new 360 for the same price as a replacement unit.
Sony’s downfall with this generation is astounding arrogance shown to Playstation owners, the runaway success of the PS2 clearly went to there heads and now they take customers for granted.
Shrui | 07/01/2010 19:04
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To get that the burden of proof is on you to prove Sony shipped a dodgy product or to prove the fault happened within 6 months of buying it.
Sony haven’t coughed to anything yet, you can’t use “cause the internet says so” and Watchdog haven’t exactly been much help either. The Watchdog report got torn apart due to the above problems as the YLOD was a general diag light and could be attributed to many different issues (that and it was a typical sensationalist WD hatchet job).
I was able to force this once on a laptop but only AFTER a press release from Nvidia acknowledged the fault was with their components.
drgoodier | 07/01/2010 22:45
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It can be done but it’s normally a lot easier said than done. I bought my YLODd PS3 from Amazon at launch and I went to the verge of going to court as they didn’t agree that the SoGA applied in my case and refused to replace it after a few months of going back and forth.
I just gave up in the end as I wasn’t willing to pay lawyers to try and solve this problem and eventually just sent it off to consoledoctor.co.uk to get it repaired for 70 quid with a 6 month guarantee as opposed to a 3 month one from Sony.
Unfortunately, it YLODd again 2 months after the repair. I got it repaired free under the guarantee and just sold it on eBay and bought a new one. Such a nightmare.
BTW, 60GB original consoles get a lot on eBay, even if they’ve been repaired after YLODing. I sold mine after Christmas with the warning about the YLOD and still got 269 pounds for it.
cc_star | 08/01/2010 00:05
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Like I say it depends on a) the retailer b) your perseverance
No large company’s legal department would ever risk going to a small claims court, if they lose it could open the floodgates.
They’ll repair/replace/pay out to shut you up
@Shrui
It’s not Sony who should be the target of your actions but the retailer
Shrui | 08/01/2010 05:50
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@cc
My meaning is that to get the retailer to comply you have to show the manufacturer has shipped a dodgy product to the retailer who then sold it on.
teflon | 07/01/2010 16:59
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Id definitely say to take the fight to your retailer and go Sale of Goods Act on them.
That you bought L4D2 from Game suggests to me that you may well have bought the console from them, and I think they’re a retailer that will respond. Call up the local store and say your console’s broken, and that since its within 2 years, you’re covered by EU and UK laws at the retailer.
If the flunky says no, ask to speak to the manager, if he says no, send an email/call up customer services. Theres some template emails and letters out there (I think the BBC has some tucked away on their site).
And changing your allegiances to MS considering their RRoD debacle is rather misguided. All technology has failure rates, so are you talking about customer service? because if RRoD was only as common as YLoD, Im 100% certain that MS would have an identically tricky customer service outlook as Sony do here. It’s only because the issue was class action law suit material that they extended the warranty (and then only for that single particular issue).
The PS3 is much more reliable across the board. It has a failure rate, but everything does, and it’s just your turn to have something break. My Apple Macbook Pro died last year, it was my turn then.
As for your saves, that really sucks. I back my PS3 up fairly regularly to an external drive, and intermittently do the same with individual saves. Course, with 280GB of stuff on there, the former isn’t so feasible.
Anyway, you can get a free replacement console from your retailer. Id definitely recommend pursuing that route of action, since you’d be silly not to even give it a shot.
Dexter17 | 07/01/2010 17:46
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Gamoc, take note of what everybody has said above me.
When my PS3 caught the dreaded YLOD I was straight on the phone to Blockbuster, and, as expected, they said that they couldn’t help me, and that I should take it up with Sony, not them. But, I kept on trying, and wrote several angry letters to their head offices in London. When I had no reply to those, I sent them a few more, and eventually, they gave in and gave me a free PS3 slim for the trouble.
But about your game saves? Sorry Gamoc, but you’ll just have to put in those hours again.
Agony is my name | 07/01/2010 19:14
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Dom will fix it
Dexter17 | 07/01/2010 20:33
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Who’s Dom?
darknight88 | 07/01/2010 16:25
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This is going to make you very upset but a friend’s did exactly the same and he phoned Sony up two days ago (he was out of warranty as well) and got a free replacement. They will deliver a new one tomorrow for him absolutely free even though he’s in the same position as you.
Maybe Sony replace like 1 in every 20 YLODs or maybe my friend was just hugely lucky. We will never know :S
jimmy-google | 07/01/2010 16:47
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They normally swap 60gb versions for free as you can’t buy a replacement
darknight88 | 07/01/2010 17:04
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No was definitely a 40gb. 100% sure
BIGAL-1992 | 07/01/2010 18:17
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Not for me, mine YLOD’d last week, and I was told to go to the retailler to get it replaced. It’ll cost about the same as gamoc will have to fork out to replace.
Erroneus | 07/01/2010 16:27
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
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Thats why we need an online storage for save games, that would rock.
Kovacs | 07/01/2010 16:40
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I was once LAUGHED at for suggesting the following but I do so again here for the interest of public sanity.
People, backup your saved games to a pendrive every few weeks. It takes seconds, and if you’re unlucky to have your PS3 die, at least you won’t lose your progress.
Gamoc | 07/01/2010 16:42
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Seconds? Do you know how many games I’ve played? It take far from seconds, you can’t copy more than one at a time so you have to go through them seperately.
teflon | 07/01/2010 17:01
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after you’ve done it once, you’d obviously only need to back up the saves of those games that you’ve played in the last few weeks each time. So, for me, that’d be two or three games usually. 5 at most.
bajere | 07/01/2010 17:01
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some games, ie killzone, can only be saved via the back-up method. hard work if you dont own a portable HDD
spooner_22 | 07/01/2010 20:32
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Problem is, some savescant be copied…ie. Assassins Creed 2, which I was not happy about
mynameisblair | 07/01/2010 17:41
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Cloud gaming? Pfft! Cloud game saves. YES!
I can’t be bothered backing up my constantly changing game-saves…
Severn2j | 08/01/2010 09:25
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Online saves would be a great move.. Considering how small they are, it shouldnt be too much of an issue for Sony to implement either, there’s already a fair amount of user data stored online already (PSN account info, PS Store purchases, etc).
retroedward | 07/01/2010 16:27
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I went to a 3rd party firm when I got YLOD. They did the job while I waited, I got my PS3 in the exact same state as before it went wrong, and it cost £85 including a free fan upgrade.
It’s still a bummer but not nearly as bad as going down the Sony route.
djdustb | 07/01/2010 20:01
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That is what I will do when my 60GB model finally gives up the ghost.
parker | 07/01/2010 16:28
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The thing is, the situation that Sony is currently in – they can’t afford to be fixing things for free. And all that about “I’m considering switching to supporting Microsoft” – they don’t care. You’re one customer, they couldn’t care less about you.
I can only assume you spoke to one of the crappy operators, as everyone I know who has had the Yellow Light has had a free replacement. One of those people were at first told to pay, and he asked to speak to someone higher up and explained the situation (Without mentioning moving to Xbox or any other pathetic attempts to get it fixed for free, I might add), and got it fixed for free. Either that or you didn’t speak politely to the operator, so they didn’t offer a free replacement.
cc_star | 07/01/2010 16:36
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Funny, I’ve never heard of anyone getting a free replacement after about 13months
toutski | 07/01/2010 16:45
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I got a free replacement after about 14 months. However it was for the BD drive packing in, not the YLOD.
ghost5 | 07/01/2010 16:48
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I’ve heard of loads of people gettting free replacements for either the Blu-Ray drive dieing or the YLOD, even though they where well out of warranty.
From what I can gather though Sony stopped doing this a couple of months before the slim was released.
Pitcher-T | 07/01/2010 18:44
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I got a free replacement after 15months on my 60gb. But the refurb then broke EXACTLY 2 months later, to the day, lol. So i bought an 80gb model instead.
I had recently changed hdd, so fortunately I had done the big back-up already. Phew. Feel sorry for ya tho man, i know how it feels, I cried alot
parker | 07/01/2010 19:49
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Well I have. My friend got his PS3 replaced last week for free, due to it dying of the Yellow Light. He had it for just under 2 years.
Soild_Nat | 07/01/2010 16:29
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Same thing annoyed me when my PS3 YLOD, the game saves! So much time lost and irretrievable. Not even dodgy Internet game save sites offer any hope as nearly all game saves don’t work on another users account.
I was fortunate enough to be able to get another PS3 within a few months. I am however seriously considering getting an extended warranty or some cover with Game etc as the cost per month or even up front is far less then buying a new PS3 or even having a replacement from Sony.
Really feel for you mate, if you are like me then it will destroy many games as i simply couldn’t be bothered to start all over again.
daveydaver34 | 07/01/2010 16:35
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My PS3 did the same back in July. It’s really annoying that you can looose all your game saves either due to copy protection or the fact that you didn’t back up your saves. Fortunately for me most of my saves had been backed up the month before so i only lost a handful. The refurbished PS3 was actually in better condition than my old one (it was second hand, it wasn’t me being lazy).
Sony really do need to make backing up game saves much simpler. Just having a copy multiple system would be great, although it doesn’t stop you from loosing copy protected game saves (the most stupid thing sony has ever done with playstation to date in my books).
BioEye | 07/01/2010 16:35
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Exactly how I’ve felt for the past two months since I went through the same thing. I almost refuse to pay such stupid amounts of money.
BioEye | 07/01/2010 16:36
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Hang on, does this mean I’ll never get my game saves back?
ghost5 | 07/01/2010 16:45
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sorry but yes they are gone.
Every hard drive is locked to a PS3 motherboard and putting it into any other PS3 requires it to be formatted. So unless your lucky and get it to boot up and then quickly copy them over to a USB stick, or as someone did above, take your PS3 to be repaired by a independant shop then they are gone.
BioEye | 07/01/2010 16:47
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*explodes*
cc_star | 07/01/2010 16:38
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Hopefully online save-game storage is part of the forthcoming PS Cloud/CloudSurf/Premium PSN service
commuterzombie | 07/01/2010 16:38
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Out of curiosity Gamoc, do you have pets or a smoker in the house?
I guess this underlines the importance of backups. I’m going to practice what I preach and take a backup of all my saves tonight!
sonicsteve | 07/01/2010 16:47
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The backup won’t help with everything as it won’t restore you games to the “new” console you still have to redownload. I had the same issue just before Christmas and paid Sony the £128 it was then. Still haven’t got it back the way it was when it failed.
Deathbrin | 07/01/2010 16:41
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I dunno. You seem very stubborn. You don’t seek to fix the problem, but rather you sound like you seek an excuse to switch to a 360. Whatever suits you, however, but it’s not that you’ve got to blame anyone for your own choice.
Regardless, L4D2 is not an exclusive title, someone lied to you when they said so. I have it on my Steam account on the PC.
Gamoc | 07/01/2010 16:44
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I meant on consoles, obviously.
Stubborn? If anything, I am stubborn for NOT switching my preference.
bunimomike | 07/01/2010 20:31
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Gamoc, matey. Gutted for you (and for anyone this happens to). Hope the repair/replacement goes smoothly. Also, perhaps you could keep what happens documented so it’s a lesson to us all here at TSA. Whether you deal with Sony to get things sorted or go to an independent. Companies need criticising (where necessary) and recommending (if they’ve done something splendid).
teflon | 07/01/2010 16:48
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exclusivity only applies when talking between consoles. It’s always been that way. MGS, for example, was also released on PC, so was Halo and Halo 2, but all three are considered exclusives for their respective consoles.
Deathbrin | 07/01/2010 19:13
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What would you call Crysis or The Witcher or STALKER then? If “titles that are exclusive to the PC platform”, then you would be contradicting yourself, as you’d call Crysis a PC exclusive, but L4D2 that is also on PC, a 360 exclusive. I guess you would just pretend the games didn’t exist?
Gamoc | 07/01/2010 19:57
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He quite obviously meant when discussing consoles. Obviously PC exclusives exist, you spoon.
Anthony72 | 07/01/2010 22:01
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@ Gamoc havent heard someone called a spoon for ages made my day that lol
Rabid-Coot | 07/01/2010 16:44
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You can do a DIY fix if you have the right screwdrivers (need one that looks abit like the TSA logo for the first screw under the warenty sticker), a heat gun and some thermal paste.
Hicko | 07/01/2010 18:04
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That sounds way too scary!
Rabid-Coot | 07/01/2010 18:23
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Not too bad really if you follow a video guide, just got to remember to plug it all back in, we accidentally left the wifi/bluetooth board unconnected and had to take it mostly apart again.
Also ended up with some screws left over hope they weren’t anything important but thats someone elses problem now.
idiosis | 07/01/2010 16:48
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There’s a backup utility built into the OS so really you’ve only got yourself to blame for not having something to fall back in the event of a console going belly up. Presumably you’ll be writing a similar article on RROD’s in 6 – 8 months time when the 360 dies?
Gamoc | 07/01/2010 16:51
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Yes, I will if that happens.
And no, I simply don’t have something huge enough to back up 280gb of data onto.
idiosis | 07/01/2010 17:17
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I agree, it is a bit of a bugger faffing with external HDD’s but there are some reasonably priced models available and free tools such as Swissknife that circumvent the FAT32 limit. Pity there’s no option to backup your PS3 data over a network onto a PC though, that’d save a lot of time and effort.
sonicsteve | 07/01/2010 17:07
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The backup utility doesn’t protect you from a YLOD, as you can’t just restore your backup to the new console. It is fine for a drive failure, but if you change the whole console then it won’t restore your downloaded games and some of your games saves won’t work because it doens’t think they are yours. there is also the 30 downloads at a time limit that you come across when downloading the games again, if you have Singstar you have to get the new console authorised to redownload your tracks. So by all means backup but don’t expect it to do you any good.
LycanGav | 07/01/2010 16:50
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/2009/07/03/sale_of_goods_act_letter_downl.html
A little help for you in pursuing action down the Sale of Goods Act route.
Lordfloyd | 07/01/2010 16:52
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If for example its a 60gb model that dies, will Sony replace it with the same model or are you forced to have a slim?
I had YLOD, spilt what can only be described as a thimbleful of water on the power/eject button area. Boom yellow light. To be honest I was almost in tears. Thank god a few hours later after i had left it dry, did it turn back on. Never had any trouble with it since.
Really would like to subscribe to a ‘continuous play’ style service though. Will Sony ever offer a modified service or can anyone recommend an alternative, bearing in mind I purchased my PS3 in Nov’07?
KAMIKAZE-UK | 07/01/2010 21:48
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I was offered a 60gb or 160gb model as a replacement to my YLOD this Xmas and chose a direct 60gb replacement. I’m working on retrieving my save games at the moment.
@ Gamoc, I had the same as you but on Xmas day and I paid £128. If I didn’t enjoy my PS3 as much as I do I would have switched consoles but I’m over my problem now my mistress is back and working again.