New victim here, my 20GB just died on me. I bought mine 2 years ago so the warranty is no good.
I would like to try the "main power supply" thingy that apperantly worked on some people, but I'd like to hear some comments about it.
Do you guys think I should just go and buy a new ps3 instead?
Call sony and send it to the shop?

Thanks in advance.

I think Sony charges a repair fee to fix machines outside of their warranty. Might be around $150. There are some posts around here that state the number for sure. Give Sony a call to validate. Even paying the fee would be a little cheaper than buying a new one. If you choose to buy a new one remember that many of the newer models do not have backward compatibility anymore. Not sure if that's a deal breaker for you.

Good luck.

Why pay $400 for a new one when you can pay $150.

Correct me if I am wrong but when you send yours in for a repair and you pay the $150 doesn't that extend your warranty once you receive your new one?

Sorry to hear about your PS3, MaxDam. :( It really sucks. I went through the same process about 4 months ago. The process to get it repaired, however, was actually very good. So it's not all hopeless. Here's some return info and links from my original post about my YLOD issue:

It's the dreaded "yellow light of death" by the sounds of it, and there's not a whole lot you can do. I must have tried turning mine on about 500 times!

There is one thing you can still try, though. I'll post the link to the instructions, but basically, it's just removing the hard drive and giving it a shot. Didn't work for me, but who knows?

Here's the link: http://ps3.qj.net/Possible-PS3-flashing-red-light-fix-from-MXACE/pg/49/aid/75721

Here's another link for a poll in here I did about how long the repair/return service works: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1048001&highlight=

The link to the poll has a lot of return information in it. Check out the tips section for getting free repair/refurb service. My unit was waaaaaaay past its warranty, and I still got everything for free....plus an extra year warranty on the refurb. If you can put all your skill points into your "speech" skills (a la Fallout 3) you can really get a lot of stuff for free. :p

From someone who's been in the same situation as you, all I can say is that the whole process went pretty fast...I know it probably seems like the worst time for this to happen (with all the these game releases), but trust me, you'll be back playing before you know it.

Well Thanks for all guys.
I know that getting a new PS3 is expensier, but I forgot to mention that I live overseas so I have to pay the for shipping, customs and the 150us, it could go to 500us or more.
That is why I ask for a new one instead.

Kess, amazing reply and I thank you for willing to post me links. I'll try to take out the HDD and replace it. Mine is a seagate 120GB, might be the cause. I hope it is. I'll keep you guys updated.

Why pay $400 for a new one when you can pay $150.

Correct me if I am wrong but when you send yours in for a repair and you pay the $150 doesn't that extend your warranty once you receive your new one?

I sent in my 60gb for repair out of warranty and it was about $125-$150 to repair (regardless of what the problem is). Mine happened to be 5 DVDs shoved into the slot courtesy of my youngest son who was 2 at the time.

The give you a warranty on the refurbished unit (you may not get back your old unit) but it is only about 30-60 days or something like that.

That being said, my repaired system has worked perfectly for the last 8 months since being repaired.

90 days

90 days

I got a year, and free service, despite being past the warranty. Again, sometimes things are a matter of luck and how well you are at influencing people through your tears. :p

I tried to take out the HDD and put it back on and didn't work. Living overseas don't help much neither. Sony don't accept P.O. Boxes. And that's all I got.
I still sent an email to see if they are willing to help me out. if not, I'll save up for a new one. :(
My home theater feels empty and useless :(

I tried to take out the HDD and put it back on and didn't work. Living overseas don't help much neither. Sony don't accept P.O. Boxes. And that's all I got.
I still sent an email to see if they are willing to help me out. if not, I'll save up for a new one. :(
My home theater feels empty and useless :(

Sounds like you're in a tough spot. Do you have any close-by friends with an actual home mailing address? UPS delivers anywhere, pretty much. Is there not a way to provide them with a way to get to your home? Where overseas do you live, exactly?

Another thing about the warranty. Did you happen to use a Visa Gold card to buy your PS3? If so, the card doubles your warranty.

Bought it used on ebay, March 2007. Not helping much I guess.
I live in the Dominican Republic.

OH DEAR GOD! MY PS3 IS WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How I did that??? Don't have a clue. But I'll try to explain:
After taking off my HDD and putting it back in..I plugged it again and try to power it up. No success. I left my PS3 for an less than hour unplugged.
I decided to plug it in and leave it like that there, near the TV.
I'm persistant, so I turn it on,...same ol yellow light , red light flashing.
Mad as hell,...I started to press the eject button and power button randomly like I was freaking Mozart or something,....and then Miracle, It's back ON.
I turned it off three times and the three times it went On and all fine.
And to my amazement,...none of my saves and demos were erased. I thought I had to restore the HDD because I took it out!!!!!!!!

Do you think there is a code between the eject and Power button? and sony charges 150 for it????

Congrats!
All this talk is making me nervous for my launch day 20G, though...

OH DEAR GOD! MY PS3 IS WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How I did that??? Don't have a clue. But I'll try to explain:
After taking off my HDD and putting it back in..I plugged it again and try to power it up. No success. I left my PS3 for an less than hour unplugged.
I decided to plug it in and leave it like that there, near the TV.
I'm persistant, so I turn it on,...same ol yellow light , red light flashing.
Mad as hell,...I started to press the eject button and power button randomly like I was freaking Mozart or something,....and then Miracle, It's back ON.
I turned it off three times and the three times it went On and all fine.
And to my amazement,...none of my saves and demos were erased. I thought I had to restore the HDD because I took it out!!!!!!!!

Do you think there is a code between the eject and Power button? and sony charges 150 for it????


Nah, think you just got lucky mate.

I know I know! Unbelievable!!

Wow. Lucky guy. I'd sell it on ebay and buy a new one, with a warrenty.

Wow that is amazing!! 2 weeks ago my launch day 60gig also got the ylod out of nowhere, and called Sony to try to get free service but no luck all they kept saying was that it was way past its warranty and $149 to repair it. Maxdam you give me hope. Im going to try to plug it in and mess w/ it a little when i get home. Wish me luck!!

Wow. Lucky guy. I'd sell it on ebay and buy a new one, with a warrenty.

And screw someone else? WTF?

Congrats!

I'd suggest you back up your HDD ASAP just in case :)

And screw someone else? WTF?

That mentality is precisely why I don't buy anything off Ebay :o

Wow. Lucky guy. I'd sell it on ebay and buy a new one, with a warrenty.

Jerk.

And screw someone else? WTF?
It works. It's not like he'd be selling broken things as good.

Well, Still working, no problems, like the very first day I got it. I wouldn't sell it on ebay, it's working fine since my post. And I wouldn't like to "screw" someone else knowing it might happen again.
I've played several games, to test it, the alone in the dark demo,...everything is like that YLOD thingy never happened. I've turned it on and off more than ten times, of course not in a row, and no problems.
Knocks on wood!
I will indeed do a backup!

I'd like to note that on thursday evening, the 30th, I've left the PS3 on all night to download the new demos from de PSN store. On friday 31st in the morning, I installed all the demos but the one I wanted to most, Mirror Edge woud not install and got the error message. Can't recall the number written. So I deleted it, and proceed to download it again before going to work. (I still haven't turned it off since thursday Evening.)
So at noon, for lunch, I get back home, download is done and I try to install it and still doesn't work. Again that error, ironcly, the demo I wanted the most to try out.
Then I turned it off because I though I left the PS3 on way too long. I didn't have time to play that night because I went out, our band was playing live in a bar.
So this saturday morning, the YLOD happened.

I think I had to share that. In all, I meant to say that I left my PS3 on for more 15 hours. Not saying that the YLOD is because of that but it might have to do with it. Not sure.

Wow that is amazing!! 2 weeks ago my launch day 60gig also got the ylod out of nowhere, and called Sony to try to get free service but no luck all they kept saying was that it was way past its warranty and $149 to repair it. Maxdam you give me hope. Im going to try to plug it in and mess w/ it a little when i get home. Wish me luck!!

Good luck man! try one of beethoven's symphony on the eject and power button! ;)

Let me know!

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/thisweekineducation/upload/2007/10/2007_7young-frankenstein.jpg

Glad to see you got it working again! :)

Just a note, though: The Sony customer service guy I talked to about my YLOD PS3, told me that when the yellow light comes on, it means that the PS3 has overheated. The symphony you played with the buttons wouldn't have done anything to fix the problem. Your PS3 likely just had a chance to cool down. Sometimes it comes back on, sometimes it doesn't. Usually it doesn't, he said. It all depends on how much it overheated, I suppose. So you might want to ensure your PS3 is better ventilated, maybe. Otherwise it could just happen again. And you might not be so lucky the next time!!

Glad to see you got it working again! :)

Just a note, though: The Sony customer service guy I talked to about my YLOD PS3, told me that when the yellow light comes on, it means that the PS3 has overheated. The symphony you played with the buttons wouldn't have done anything to fix the problem. Your PS3 likely just had a chance to cool down. Sometimes it comes back on, sometimes it doesn't. Usually it doesn't, he said. It all depends on how much it overheated, I suppose. So you might want to ensure your PS3 is better ventilated, maybe. Otherwise it could just happen again. And you might not be so lucky the next time!!

Well I just got it on my HT one (I've got two :( )
and mine is WAY out in the open standing on it's side WTF!!!!!

well just waiting on the email to see about getting it fixed... the girl did not say $$$ and I did not ask HA HA but 150 is WAY cheaper than the amount I spent on it.

Hello,

I have done the heat gun fix to my ps3 and now I can turn on my system and log into my name and all. As long as I don't put a game in my system it will run for hours. As soon as I put a game in the console it will shut off and give me the ylod and I have to keep trying to get it to turn on. Eventually I will be able to get it on long enough to get my game out and it will work fine.

Anybody have any ideas what is going on with that?

I was thinking something about the fan or hard drive since when you load a game the fan kicks on high and more data is being transferred through the system due to the graphics and all.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

when you put a game in, gpu heats up fast....poof? no idea really. But chips can get hot almost instantly.

Yea I know that but what I don't understand is how the system can run for a couple of hours and the fan kick on high after a few minutes like it usually does, and nothing happens. But as soon as I put the game in the drive, it is almost instantly the ylod.

A couple of times I have actually gotten on a game and jumped into a online match for about a minute and then got the ylod. But that has been very rare.

Did you use the heat gun to reflow the GPU too? Maybe you put too much thermal compound or not enough. I don't know.
Mine had the YOLD 3 times so far but cameback to work on it's own. My only problem now is that I have graphic glitches in some games. My GPU is overheating or has overheated.

Like I said in my other thread, where I am living, I'm on my own. But if you still can send it to repair from sony. Do it!

I to had to do the heat gun fix and my system runs fine until i decided to play any ps3 that tax the system in the slightest..for example last night i was able to play a ps1 game with out issues for 4 hours but as soon as i tried the force unleashed 2 demo the fan kicked on and my system last a grand 7 mins before displaying the yellow light...also the system was not hot as i checked it before going into he demo and it wasn't hot after it shut off either so idk what the problem can be:(

I live in Dominican Republic also, And I have the YLOD or just red lights blinking I'm not sure...

After 3-4 years with my PS3 in 2010 my PS3 started getting worse.

First, The sensors on the PS3 didn't want to work so what I did was I opened the PS3 up and I just manually started turning off and on the PS3 for months..

Then it was 2011, I got the YLOD I'm not sure if it is the YLOD since when i turn it on it goes green and then quickly blinks 3 times red the green stays for a few seconds with the first beep then in the second it goes away and then it continuously blinks red.If i press the power button again it does the same thing.

So then I did the liquid flux trick, I didn't have flux so I used something similar to it, I let it cool for an hour and then later on it was working perfectly, I was very happy.Then since i wanted to go online i let the update running while i went to sleep, I selected the option that allows it to automatically turn off.When I woke up, I turned it on.. And it had the same thing.

I tried doing playing mozart on the PS3 since i know how to play the piano but it didnt work.

Its a heat issue. The ball type solder joints that attach the cpu to the motherboard are lead-free and therefore are prone to losing physical connection when the system heats up. If your PS3 sounds like a vacuum cleaner (fan on stage 3), this is a clue that your system is hot. ;)

The heatgun/blowdryer in a box technique softens the solder to temporarily reconnect those cracked solder points. This is a temp fix as the root cause is a heat issue. You may get it to work but will more than likely return if you tax the system.

My suggestion is once you have it running again, immediately backup and format your HDD and pay the $99 for a slim (if out of warranty). And don't forget to take out your HDD if you upgraded. Sony wants the original HDD if you're sending it back.

I tried doing playing mozart on the PS3 since i know how to play the piano but it didnt work.

I wouldn't take this guy too seriously

Quick - back up all your Saves!

ok so heres an update on my ps3's situation...today being my first day off work i was able to do a little more reasearch online and have come to the conclusion that it was a COD Black ops update when my system crashed and ylod...so i also been looking into fixes for this but all the ylod cases ive came across arent very similar to mine...when i turn it on it gets a solid green light for about 20 seconds, i am able to insert and eject disks, the fan comes on but very low speeds and the hdd light flashes quiet often...so i pulled the hdd out and tried to turn the system on and it didnt work so i put it back in and tried to boot into recovery menu and to my disbelife it came up to it told me to plug controller in and go through the options...now it stayed on the whole time (longer than the normal 20 seconds or so) while i was looking through the menus and i decided to do a restore on the ps3 which was supposed to reformat it...about 2 seconds into it the ps3 shut off damnit now it wont even boot up to the recovery options...anyone heard or had this being the case for any normal YLOD's? Oh and also my fan is working did my first fan test and it blew hard so it doesnt seem to be hardware to me...im really confused

You know I never thought it would happen to me... until it did

Right when PSN finally comes up and I just started inFamous 2.... ylod /sigh

hopefully removing the hdd and putting it back will work. Fortunately I backed up my ps3 during the long hiatus.

Just yesterday as i was playing dead space 2 online i went to turn off my ps3 so it could cool down n just before i did heard it beep n it went onto the yellow light. but for other yellow light suffers theres a ps3 tutorial repair on youtube using a heat gun n the thermal based solution. he shows u how to take it all apart and he has a video on how to reassemble the ps3 too so u can make sure u do it right and many people did it too.

good luck

Lol this is old!
I did the relfow and everything long ago. But got a slim now.

I've had 2 reflows on mine in the past 4 months,no more.If my PS3 messes up again I'm buying a new one,I backed up my hard drive last week.

You have untill tomorrow to get a $125 credit @ GS for it (making a new PS3 only $125). I think that's the best you'll see from here on out, as the launch units have been devalued in price like a rock dropping from a plane. The slim price drop, and people wising up to their failure rates is causing quite the devaluation.

$100 will get you a refurb from sony, but their cheapo 90 day warranty tells you how confident they are in their refurbs. You might be able to get $150-170 for a launch unit on craigslist or ebay, but I'd have some major karma issues with pawning off a YLOD fixed PS3 on someone thats unsuspecting.

Trade it to gamestop tomorrow, before you have a expensive, yet worthless paperweight in a shiney piano black and chrome finish.

This is damn depressing! :mad:

My 1st gen ps3 has also succumbed to this YLOD since 6/25/2011. I probably only got a month of use out of it after just upgrading to a 500 GB hdd and finally restoring all my stuff onto it. That was a real kick in da ballz.

Just a point-of-information, backing up your hdd is really only useful in the event your hdd actually crashes (a poignant point to consider given that the ps3 hardware is evidently less reliable than a basic modern hdd...i.e., the hdd isn't the weakest link, here). If the ps3 hardware dies, then your backups are useless, as well. They won't restore to a new ps3, right? So they essentially die when your ps3 dies, and can only be brought back if you are willing to have the original ps3 fixed.

Now you could restore all of your online games by re-downloading them in your PSN account, but all of the PSN videos and movies you've downloaded...poof! That first part is probably the only gesture that makes it worthwhile to bother with anything on PSN, altogether.

I'm just venting, I know. It's just irritating how much this Sony setup sucks. You invest stuff into the whole experience, and then you lose it all (unless you are willing to invest even more in repairs, as needed). Not even Sony's own refurb program saves you from losing stuff. It's kind of ridiculous when you think about it...perhaps one of the greatest consumer electronics company in the industry, that led the industry in so many ways since the 1980's, is now reduced to this level of support? Funai could probably eat their lunch, at this point. :eek: