Death Of A PS3, Part 1
Da-da, dum, dum, dum, another one bites the dust.Published 20/01/2010 at 10:00 by Watchful
Lunchtime Discussion: Downtime [64]
Death Of A PS3, Part 3 [71]
CNet: 47% Of Xbox 360s RROD Within A Year [54]
There’s a tale they tell in the darkest cell of Iso-Block 666. But this isn’t it. This is the tale of a PS3 that went pop and the aftermath that I am relating to you in case there is anything you might learn from it in the event that the same fate should befall yours.
A loud crack, loud beep, flashing red light and it was all over. I had got in from work and started playing PixelJunk Shooter while waiting for tea to cook but it was something inside my PS3 that had finished baking first. Having worked with electronics in various states of development for a number of years I recognised the loud crack as something violently separating itself from a circuit board.
With a faint sliver of optimism I switched my PS3 off using the switch on the back, counted slowly to ten and switched it back on to standby. Gently brushing my fingertip against the capacitive on/off switch on its front, time slowed to a crawl as I dared hope for good news. It was a forlorn hope though. The LED turned green and the fan whirred into life. Then after an all-to-brief moment there was a beep, the LED shone yellow and my PS3 turned itself back off, leaving my hopes dashed and the blinking red LED mocking my optimism.
So that was it. After two years, eight months and twenty two days of faithful service my trusty launch-day 60GB PS3 was no more. For all of that time I have been extolling the virtues of the PS3 to all who would listen and pointing out that even at the launch-day price of £425 it represented good value for money. Now though with it having failed to last little over a quarter of the ten-year life span Sony have promised it suddenly feels like pretty poor value for money.
My near-launch PlayStation and PlayStation 2 are still going strong and I had fully expected my PS3 to do provide me with a similarly long period of service. What is it about this generation of consoles? I am on my fourth Xbox 360 in just three years and now my PS3 has died. None of my other consumer electronics products have ever displayed such poor reliability whether that be TVs, VCRs, Laserdisc players (both of them), the DVD player I bought shortly after the format’s launch or surround sound receivers, they are all still running.
Buying A Low Fat Replacement
This was just ten days before Christmas and the prospect of not having a PS3 for the thirteen days I was not going to be at work for was not a pleasant one. I also knew I was getting at least one PS3 game on Christmas Day. So what to do? The PS3 was long out of the standard one year warranty, a fight with a retailer as it had failed within six years of being purchased would take too long and I had no spare cash. So I did that most British of things and decided to increase my household debt and use my credit card.
The following day saw me scouring the Internet before hitting the shops to try and find a good deal on a Slim. It was notable that most of the deals that I had seen in the preceding weeks that disappeared now that it was so close to Christmas. I always buy consoles from an actual physical shop. Not only for the instant gratification of handing over cash (or more likely plastic) and being able to walk away with a box in hand but also because it is much easier to return something to a physical store if you need to.
After wandering around the console stockists near both work and home, including a few supermarkets, I ended up in GAME, which is actually where most of my gaming hardware has ended up being purchased over the years. Their console bundles are generally competitive and if you are lucky you can sometimes talk yourself into an even better deal. Before long, with my credit card grinning smugly at me, I was on my way home with a 250GB Slim.
Dis-Continuous Play
One aspect of my experience in GAME was a little surprising though. As usual, so this is not the surprising bit, the GAME staff member gave their own extended warranty plan the hard sell. The surprising bit came when as part of the sales spiel he told me that it was much better value than Sony’s own offering. “Sony’s own offering,” said I, “what’s that then?”. “Sony’s extended warranty costs you £5 a month, so that’s £60 a year whereas ours is a one-off payment for much less”, said he. “Do you mean Continuous Play?”, I asked. “Yeah, that’s the one.” was the reply.
Being some six months on from when Sony had pulled the plug on Continuous Play I was a little bemused that GAME were still comparing their own extended warranty to some non-existent competition. Perhaps I should not have been surprised though? I pointed out that Continuous Play had been withdrawn because of abuse back in the summer, but he would not hear of it and was adamant that it was still running. I considered making more of an issue of it but my tolerance of being in shops near Christmas was reaching its limit.
I did take out GAME’s extend warranty because I had planned to anyway. With my experience of the failure rate of this generation’s HD consoles, paying less than the price of a game for a few years piece of mind seems worthwhile to me. Also experience has shown that GAME are much more willing to make ‘a deal’ if you take out one of their warranties, so you may be able to essentially reduce the price of the warranty further especially if you are buying accessories in store at the same time. Though if you can avoid doing it in the run-up to Christmas you will likely find you can get a better deal.
Check back at the same time tomorrow to find out what happened when I got my new Slim home.
Bonus kudos to the first person to identify where the opening line “There’s a tale…” is from.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
MUKARKAR | 20/01/2010 10:05
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i got mine 2 years ago, i think i should start worry about it.
tonycawley | 20/01/2010 19:20
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Exactly this happened to me, the very same thing, back in october. I refused to pay sony’s 125 quid for a replacement, so i searched the internet and watched a video on youtube of a guy called gilksy repairing his using a heat gun and some thermal paste. I thought i had nothing to lose as i was going to buy a replacement anyway, so i went and got some silver thermal paste, used my paint stripping heat gun, and would you believe it, it worked. It’s been going strong ever since. I’d definitely advise anyone who this happens to to give it a go, might only be a temporary fix but it’s saved me a hell of a lot of cash. Repair took me about 4 hours.
nickheafy123 | 20/01/2010 21:30
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exactly wat happened to me yesterday my ps3 had a flashing red light so today i went and bought a 250gb ps3 slim so it should be ok now dont know wat to do with old one though
tonycawley | 20/01/2010 22:24
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Send it to me. I’ll fix it as i did with mine. I’ll buy it off you for 50 quid if you want?
minerwilly | 20/01/2010 10:09
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He must have got his wires crossed or perhaps he knows someone like me who still is a paying member of Continuous Play, now its only for existing policy holders and they aren’t taking new people on as you rightly told him .
3shirts | 20/01/2010 10:19
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Same here and I was thinking the same thing. Taking out Continuous Play was a close call for me but the more stories like this I read, the happier I am that I decided to do it. My launch PS3 displayed it’s first sign of dodginess yesterday when a bunch of freaky tearing and ravey colours started taking over the textures in Borderlands after a long session. I was just about to load a new area and when I did it was all fine and played great for 2 more hours!
Worried me a little though
Bodachi | 20/01/2010 10:54
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I’ve had the same thing in borderlands. Don’t think its anything to do with the PS3, Just a bug in borderlands
Watchful | 20/01/2010 11:13
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I’ve had that screening tearing and funny colours in (one area in) Borderlands since doing the mission to switch on the two beacons. Definitely Borderlands and not your PS3.
cc_star | 20/01/2010 11:27
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I got funny colours in Warhawk in the run up to my YLoD, so it certainly could be an indicator that you need to do a backup, especially of gamesaves to a USB stick
hairfreax | 20/01/2010 11:47
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Yes i thought my ps3 was dying there and then to
cc_star | 20/01/2010 10:09
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Yes, I know GAME aren’t always cheap with games, but I wouldn’t buy hardware from anywhere else, their warranty package at less than a price of a game means you get an instant replacement if they replicate the fault – I’d sooner have that than save a few quid and end up on hold to some poxy websites customer service dept arguing the toss.
Is that all staff members with YLoD now, someone serious really ought to investigate the PS3s failure rate it’s far higher than they allow you to believe and whilst it’s not at RRoD levels – neither is Sony’s level of service regarding it
Kevling | 20/01/2010 10:13
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If only there was a high profile, well respected PS3 news site around that could put together such an article…
Watchful | 20/01/2010 11:11
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You’ll need to wait for Part 3.
teflon | 20/01/2010 11:41
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Game are excellent for buying Hardware from. It also helps that their online store and retail stores work in tandem. So if my PS3 goes tits up, I can take it to their retail store and kick up a fuss rather than call up the online side where I bought it from.
They’ve also got a no quibbles replacement policy for many things. I got a completely fresh DS3 controller when the R3 clicker stopped working after a few months.
Put simply, I was really impressed by Game’s service for their hardware, and though I don’t buy much software from them, they’ll get my service in the future for consoles.
cheekyMcB | 21/01/2010 11:01
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That’s good to know. I was wondering if I walked in and said I bought this on your website they’d tell me to chase myself!
Watchful | 21/01/2010 11:41
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As long as you have the invoice to take with you should be fine.
cjay79 | 20/01/2010 12:27
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Agreed! When my 60g launch model ylod´d in the summer and I was arguing for a free replacement Sony told me the failure rate was 0.8%!!! I know quite a few ps3 owners, and amongst them the failure rate is nearer 40-50%! Sony have some questions to answer if you ask me!
cc_star | 20/01/2010 12:34
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My experience between people I know online and offline is around 50% as well, some people say their experience is zero percent…
The truth is somewhere in the middle, but its certainly a lot higher than Sony let on and is higher than probably all other items of electronic equipment, other than SkyHD boxes & Xbox 360’s
Kevling | 20/01/2010 10:11
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I am currently having a long running battle with M&S where I bought my launch 60Gb from (they did a free 2 year warranty, see). It YLOD’d at the end of November, and is currently sat at Console Doctor having been repaired at the end of last week.
I’m trying to get M&S to pay for the repair as the Sale of Goods Act says goods should be fit for purpose, and last a reasonable amount of time. In my eyes, 2.5 years is not a reasonable amount of time for something that cost almost half a grand.
After many emails back and forth, M&S’s final word from their Executive Office is that their Tech department have confirmed there was no manufacturing fault in my PS3 so they ‘won’t do nuffin’. Quite how they confirmed that is beyond me as they haven’t even looked at it.
I now have an email from the repairers stating that they believe the cause is a manufacturing defect because the solder can’t take the heat and cracks over time.
I’m sending that email to M&S next – wish me luck!
cc_star | 20/01/2010 10:13
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Awesome stuff, the problem with them admitting is that it will cause the floodgates to open
MUKARKAR | 20/01/2010 10:15
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good luck
confused_dude | 20/01/2010 10:34
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I also had a battle on my hands when i experienced the ‘Yellow light of death’ in the summer last year. I had a launch console, but since purchase, the retailer had gone bust, so that was ruled out. So i took it to sony, saying that it wasnt acceptable for this to have happenned, and they didn’t care. I quoted the sale of goods act stuff, but they weren’t having anything. With an impending fight to the death, and the summer fast approaching, i cracked. I gave up and paid sony £145 to take away my console and supply me with a refurbished model. two days later, it stoppped reading disks. fortunately sony were kind enough to supply a couple of weeks warranty, so it was fine. But losing all of your save data and DLC is bloody annoying! But best of luck mate, keep us posted.
Kevling | 20/01/2010 10:43
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Sales of Goods Act relates to your contract with the retailer, it has nothing to do with Sony at all. The only remaining option available to you would have been if you’d bought it on a credit card, as they would have been liable under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act too.
Some good advice here: http://whatconsumer.co.uk/faulty-playstation-3/
seedaripper1973 | 20/01/2010 13:14
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Was this virgin megastores by perchance?? ’cause i got mine from there, and my ps3(60gig launch) went tits up last year..so unfortunatley no ’sales of goods act’ for me
(and i refuse to pay 145 quid for a 3 month warranty)
I’ll sit on it (as ive got a slim now) and bide my time for when (if) they ever change their pricing policy, or independants do it for cheaper….
hazelam | 20/01/2010 10:56
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this isn’t a runaround, this is an m&s runaround.
cjay79 | 20/01/2010 12:49
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He he, very good!!
seedaripper1973 | 20/01/2010 13:16
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In the words of the late great Mike Read…”RUN-A-RAAAAAANNNNND!”
citizeninsane45 | 20/01/2010 10:14
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Nice article Watchful, sorry about your PS3 loss.
I believe Iso-Block 666 has something to do with 2000AD?
Kamokazi-UK | 20/01/2010 10:15
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My own launch PS3 is still going strong, bigger HDD and all. I do have the PS3 remote play enabled, so the fan is always on…perhaps that makes a difference?
cam the man | 20/01/2010 11:30
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It could be.
I heard somewhere that the PS3 was designed to be left on 24/7.
cam the man | 20/01/2010 11:34
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I wonder how much it would cost to leave it switched on all the time.
It’s not the cheapest bit of kit to run.
Kevling | 20/01/2010 11:42
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Greg covered that in one of the articles I linked to elsewhere in this article (http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2009/08/31/ps3-slim-disembowelled/)
The cost column is estimated based off a simplified calculation using my own electricity costs and assumes playing for 20 hours a week for a year and left in standby the rest of the time.
Console Running (W) Standby (W) Cost (£)
PS3 60GB 180-200 1.2 22.40
PS3 40GB 120-140 1.2 16.14
PS3 Slim 80-100 0.4 11.97
Kevling | 20/01/2010 11:43
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Sorry, lost the formatting there. That was supposed to be a direct quote from Greg’s article.
dirtyhabit | 20/01/2010 10:16
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My PS is going strong (touch wood) albeit a bit noisy after long periods. It is worrying me a bit TBH
Oh and …….. Phillip J Maybe. From Judge Dredd?
Kevling | 20/01/2010 10:20
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Greg, surely cases like yours are the reason that Sony can say there is such a low failure rate. You haven’t reported the problem to Sony or the retailer, so according to Sony, there are now 2 perfectly working PS3’s in your household…
kevatron400 | 20/01/2010 10:24
Don't call him Kevatron400.
1761 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
In response to this, which appeared to me after I’d posted below, I bought mine at Zavvi (which no longer exists on the highstreet) with a debit card which has since expired. The ‘buying a new one off a friend’ option seemed easier to me than forking out for Sony.
Kevling | 20/01/2010 10:30
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Im not criticising your choice Kev(I did pretty much the same, bought a Slim to replace the YLOD), but if you don’t report the YLOD to Sony, they can carry on spouting the “low failure rate” argument which we all know is bunkum.
cc_star | 20/01/2010 10:25
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Same with my case… I really need to call them to deauthorise my account
Raen | 20/01/2010 10:39
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Wait for part 2…
Watchful | 20/01/2010 11:15
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I have reported it to Sony. That part of the story comes later.
Kevling | 20/01/2010 11:20
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Ah, fair enough. Wasn’t apparent from Part 1. Looking forward to 2 and 3 then.
kevatron400 | 20/01/2010 10:22
Don't call him Kevatron400.
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My PS3 YLOD’d just last week, so I am still reeling from the loss. Luckily for me my friend won a slim and a TV in a competition, but already had a ps3, so he’s going to sell me the slim for cheapy. Not even out of the box, and hoping to offer less than £200 for it. I have had to face a week without PlayStation, which has been an interesting experience, but not one I wish to repeat. Are there any instances of Slim YLODs?
cc_star | 20/01/2010 10:24
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Slim YLoDs?
Problem with YLoDing is that damage is accumulative, so you have to wait a year or two to find out
Divine | 20/01/2010 10:25
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My launch 60gb has been making some strange noises on startup for a while now & the fan seems to be doing more work than it used to. I guess I could be looking at getting a slim soon too. Tbh, even if it went today the machine has been absolutely hammered continuously for almost 3 years so I don’t think I’d feel too bad. I really hope SCE sorts out the locked gamesaves issue before mine dies though.
jimmy-google | 20/01/2010 10:38
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I still have continuous play for mine but its not available to anyone who doesn’t already have it.
As for other electronics dying. My ps2 died after about 5 years (but I did lug that all around the country and my ps1 is still working) and I’m yet to have or know anyone who’s mp3 player (ipod, sony or creative labs ones) to last more than 2 years.
Anything by Philips seems to die after 13 months and their repair service is awful. Wiith their dvd recorder we had more success buying a pc dvd writer and replacing it oursleves. Its still working now compared to the 2 months we got each time it was sent back to Holland.
ScottW-1976 | 20/01/2010 11:56
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The MP3 player issue (especially IPOD’s) seems to come down to which model you have. I know a number of people who’s IPOD Classic’s (including me) with HDD’s have gone pop inside 2 years, but nanos etc with solid state memory seem to last a lot better – less moving parts, less heat, better at handling knocks and bumps than a HDD. I’m hoping with the slim using a lot less power and running generally quieter and cooler than the orignal PS3’s that HW faults will be less likely.
seedaripper1973 | 20/01/2010 13:27
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Dont get me started on frigging I-pods (iwent through 3 in a sodding week!) never buy one again…I’m a ‘creative’ kinda guy now (ive got a 7 yr old 20gig that still runs-albeit its chunky) but i got a new 16gig’er..granted the interface isnt as sleek, but i dont give a shit as it ‘works’! screw you Apple!
ManeoriX | 20/01/2010 13:04
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I have a CREATIVE ZEN VISION:M. It’s one of those big 30GB ones. I’ve had that for a good 4 years now – and it hasn’t shown any signs of aging yet – well apart from looking like it’s taken quite a few hits by a hammer that is..
I have used it a lot, and I mean A LOT. The battery is still working at it’s best and the software never freezes either. I have ruined a lot of headphones though
seedaripper1973 | 20/01/2010 13:30
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LOL bugger i just read your post now…built to last arn’t they
ManeoriX | 20/01/2010 13:41
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Amen to that
!
BrendanCalls | 20/01/2010 10:41
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
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So if I were to phone Sony and say my PS3 has YLOD’d, what would there response be, are they still charging £125 for a refurbished model. I vought mine from Amazon on launch day, had 1 refurbished model because of the Blu-ray drive packing up, they replaced that for free luckily, however if I get a YLOD I am screwed because I just cant afford to replace my PS3, I purposely bought it on launch day because I knew that within the year I would have been moving in with my girlfriend and if didn’t buy iy then i would never be able to afford it. Life without my PS3 wouldn’t be life, just survival.
Kevling | 20/01/2010 10:46
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I think it’s £128 now for the Sony refurb with a 3 month warranty. I know of people who are on their 4th replacement. Another option would be http://www.consoledoctor.co.uk (where mine is now) – £69.99 to fix YLOD with a SIX month warranty. As it’s a repair, you’re getting your own console (and save games) back too.
BrendanCalls | 20/01/2010 12:00
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
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But I have heard that it is not totally reliable and that it breaks after only a few months, so if it breaks 7 months later is it not just worth paying the £128 straight up
Kevling | 20/01/2010 12:11
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Sony’s warranty is 3 months for £128 losing all data
Console Doctor is 6 months for £69.99 with all your data recovered
I’ve taken the Console Doctor route (trying to claim the repair cost off the retailer), but as soon as I get it back I’m selling it. At least having a 6 month warranty on the repair will give the purchaser better peace of mind than one with nothing. Even if the reatiler doesn’t cough up, I’ll more than cover the repair costs in the sale (and part of the price of my replacement slim), and I’ll have all my saves back.
brave_inferno | 20/01/2010 10:44
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———–
What is it about this generation of consoles? I am on my fourth Xbox 360 in just three years and now my PS3 has died. None of my other consumer electronics products have ever displayed such poor reliability whether that be TVs, VCRs, Laserdisc players (both of them), the DVD player I bought shortly after the format’s launch or surround sound receivers, they are all still running. ———
My guess would be that all those devices you list were manufactured using good old fashioned tim/lead-solder. Since the RoHS directive restricted the use of ‘hazardous substances’ most products now have to use a lead free solder, which is not as reliable. It’s pathetic. The average PCb probably has 5 – 10 grams of solder on it, and the lead content of that solder is probably 2 – 4 grams… and unless you are in the habit of eating PCBs you’re in no danger!
cc_star | 20/01/2010 10:53
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100% correct mobile phones are suffering a lot more than they used to aswell.
a particular fault is that the heat sinks and other cooling systems are insufficient, perhaps if the consoles were the size of an Alienware tower with similar ability to cool they wouldn’t have the problem
how a lawyer can’t prove that that is a design flaw I’d beyond me
jimmy-google | 20/01/2010 11:01
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The old Nokia 3330s seem to last for ever – I lukcy if my phones make it to the end of my contract now
Radboud | 20/01/2010 13:56
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Yeah, I still have a fully working Nokia too, the first one with bluetooth… The screen is cracked, something inside is rattling when you shake it and it has some dents from falling…
I had a Nokia N80 once which died instantly the first moment it hit the ground… :S
Companies used to built stuff to last…
Watchful | 20/01/2010 11:57
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A number of my other devices are RoHS compliant though obviously they are the newer ones. I’m familiar with the problems of lead-free solder as I work in software and electronics development and it’s something we’ve encountered quite a few times.
It’s normally BGA devices (Like the Cell and RSX in the PS3) that give us problems. When we x-ray the failed electronics for a time it wasn’t unusual to find cracked solder on one of the BGA joints, sometimes due to bubbles in the solder.
We’ve seen it enough that if we find bubbles in the solder of a working board we can normally tell whether they’ll be a problem over the lifetime of the product. Our manufacturing processes have improved over the last couple of years though so it’s become a rare (tiny fraction of one percent) issue.
Like cc says above the particular problem with consoles is dissipating the heat within a relatively small space.
brave_inferno | 20/01/2010 13:31
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I’m now on my third PS3, incidentally (thank God I got continuous play).
BGAs tend to exhibit more solderability problems than other SMDs due to the nauture of the package (reduced ability to vent gases during the reflow oven process leading to the bubbles you speak of). Combine that with the poor reliability of RoHS solder and no wonder electronic devices are gettign less reliable, not more! We’ve got a mixed bag at our company; almost evry new job has to be lead free but anything safety critical gets done using tin/lead.
davidjmclare | 20/01/2010 10:46
always on easy
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the third ps3 fail story so far across a short space of time. TSA staff need to take more care!
Gamoc | 20/01/2010 10:51
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It’s Sony that need to take more care, not us. We all keep our PS3’s in well ventilated areas atop pedestals of technological healthiness +1.
dirtyhabit | 20/01/2010 11:03
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I have my PS3 sitting on a couple of CD cases! for two reasons.
1. I can run my PSeye, playTV and ext HDD cables underneath the PS (nice & tidy)
2. There are 2 rows of vents on my on the base / end of my 60gb*, so I figure having it raised up 8-10mm would give them a bit more space rather than the 2mm from the rubber feet.
Plus I give it a ‘blow thru’ and hoover every couple of weeks.
* Interestingly (or not) my mates 40gb doesn’t have those 2 vents.
BrendanCalls | 20/01/2010 12:09
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
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I will be investigating these elusive vents when i get home, very interesting
3shirts | 20/01/2010 10:53
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I have read lots of stories about this and people saying you need to clean them/keep them in good ventilation/ use a vaccum cleaner nozzle to suck the dust from the vents every so often. Those things might help prolong the life of a ‘dodgy’ PS3 but the fact is that my launch console is never cleaned, not all that well ventilated (not shut into a cabinet but surrounded by other hot equipment) and I often take it to friends houses for rockband/singstar.
It’s simply the case that some last longer than others. I have no illusions that mine will last ‘forever’ which I why I took out continuous play but so far so good. I have now paid more in insurance than it would cost for a repair but if the repair then went wrong, the money pit grows deep very quickly. Also there is no price for peace of mind