archosman Posted November 13, 2008 Report Posted November 13, 2008 Was in the middle of GTA4 and it froze up and shut down. Now when I try and turn it on it stays on for 3 seconds then shuts down and beeps 3 times. The light flashes red as well. Anyone know if this can be fixed or is it going to be a trip to Sony? I've got one of the early 80 gig ones that has the hardware emulation for older Playstation games.
tkam Posted November 13, 2008 Report Posted November 13, 2008 You could try a different hard drive to see if that's it, but I'd still expect it to boot even with a bad HD since the base OS is kept in on-board rom. You'll probably end up having to ship it back to Sony, their turnaround time is pretty quick from what I hear, but you won't necessarily get your PS3 back and they don't have any of the originals left so most likely you'll get stuck with a newer one that doesn't have the hardware emulation chip.
mirumu Posted November 13, 2008 Report Posted November 13, 2008 It's a long shot, but you could try turning it on and holding your finger on the power button for about 5-10 seconds. Normally you'll hear two beeps which indicates the system settings have been reset to the default values. Probably not much chance it will help, but there's no harm in trying.
archosman Posted November 19, 2008 Author Report Posted November 19, 2008 Looks like I'll have to send it off to Sony for $150. Probably won't do it for awhile since I also have to pay for an AVID training class. That's gonna cost $1500 out of my own pocket.
tkam Posted November 19, 2008 Report Posted November 19, 2008 It's not still under warranty? That blows.
archosman Posted November 19, 2008 Author Report Posted November 19, 2008 It's not still under warranty? That blows. Nope. Got it when they first came out. What I've been told by Gamestop is they will most likely send me a new one instead of repairing the old one. I'll lose everything on the drive, but that's not the end of the world. I did pull the drive out and try to save the data, but evidently it's some sort of proprietary format. My Mac wouldn't read it. Wonder if I should try the Windows side of my machine. Also found out the system can't share drives with one another. Other bad thing is mine has the hardware emulation chips in it instead of the newer software emulation for older PS2 games. You can't get the hardware one anymore. Starting to miss it since I've been picking up more Blu-Rays.
mirumu Posted November 19, 2008 Report Posted November 19, 2008 Yes, from my understanding they encrypt the PS3 partitions with some key that's unique to each PS3. I think they use some odd partition table format too that no operating systems currently will read (My bet would be on Linux doing this first). You could mirror the entire drive on a Mac from the command line using dd (not for the feint of heart), but even if you restore it to the new drive the new PS3 would not be able to decrypt the data and would want to format it. I know nothing of Gamestop since they don't exist in this part of the world, but personally I'd argue with them that losing your data is not acceptable. I don't know if you have any Playstation store downloads, but personally I've bought some retail price things like Siren: Blood Curse and if they tried to tell me I wasn't getting that back I'd be hassling them no end. This is a problem they are going to deal with more and more as digital downloads become more common and the more people that complain to them about it the sooner they'll come up with a solution.
archosman Posted November 21, 2008 Author Report Posted November 21, 2008 You know for the money I think I'm going to just go ahead any buy another one after Christmas. At least I'd get a brand new one instead of a refurb...
strid3r Posted November 21, 2008 Report Posted November 21, 2008 You know for the money I think I'm going to just go ahead any buy another one after Christmas. At least I'd get a brand new one instead of a refurb... Might as well try your luck on Amazon Vote: Amazon.com Customers Vote The PS3 Family Bundle is leading btw.
postjack Posted January 12, 2009 Report Posted January 12, 2009 So this exact situation just happened to me with my PS3. Was in the middle of playing oblivion when bam, shuts down. Same thing when I try to turn it back on, with the 3 beeps and all. I can't remember exactly when I bought it, I hope it was under warranty. For the record I have one of the newer 40gig models.
archosman Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Posted January 12, 2009 Here's my update... Last week I bought a PS3 motherboard off of Craigslist. Completely took apart the PS3 and replaced the motherboard. Fired it up and it came back. I did lose all of my data since it thought it was another PS3. Only problem I have is the new board came out of a kiosk so I have to enter in a security code when I turn it on. Also have a bit of trouble accessing the playstation store. Other than that it works. Will probably pick up a new one though when I get a chance. If yours is doing the same thing mine is you're screwed. The guy I bought the board off of buys dead PS3s and brings them back. He's done a few and seem to know exactly what was wrong with mine. So your choices are if it's under warranty send it in. In not it's $150 plus waiting for Sony to send you the shipping "coffin".
NightWoundsTime Posted January 12, 2009 Report Posted January 12, 2009 On a similar note I fixed my RROD'd 360 using a few screws on the heatsinks to replace the tension clamps. Still working perfectly a month later.
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