View Full Version : PS3 put through tough environmental rigors and it comes out standing tall


macd23
08-13-07, 04:09 PM
Owners already know what a solid piece of hardware we have on our hands, but after all the negative threads today, its time for a positive one.



You get what you pay for: PSTriples darn near indestructible?

With all of the negativity surrounding the quality of Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware, it's almost a welcome sight to see a headline proclaiming the durability of the PlayStation 3 (however partial the source may be).

According to recent tests conducted by PS3Vault, nothing short of a sledgehammer is powerful enough to bring the mighty PS3 to its knees. So what sort of hardships did the PSTriple endure and pass with flying colors? How about 108 hours of pretty much nonstop use in the harshest of environments:

A typical family room with a brutal temperature of 73 F
Four days in the back of a freezer van at 0 F
In a sauna with a cool 120 F air temperature
Guess what? The PS3 didn't buckle under the pressure -- even when faced with the unfathomable idea of playing a marathon of the "Blu-rays." Pretty impressive, when you consider the thousands of Xbox 360s that have perished in the most comfortable of places. However, I must point out that while this looks good to Sony fans out there, I'm less than inclined to believe it without some video to back it up.

Hit the jump for the full details on the testing.

The following conditions were applied to each testing environment

• Continuous usuage of 108hours with no interruption to power supply
• Game of choice was Resistance Fall of Man & Motor Storm, Enchanted Arms
• Blu Ray movies – Several – around 10 different titles , Casino Royale, The Departed, Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator 2, Superman Returns…
• Console was positioned on standalone timber unit with approximate 10cms of airflow under neath.
• Same 10 players were used over this period each playing or using the unit for a maximum of 1.5hours in any given session.
• Same controllers were used throughout the testing period

The following cycle was copied and used in each testing environment.
Start time Monday 9am –
2 hours blue ray dvd titles
4 hours continuous play on Resistance FOM
2 hours continuous play on Motor Storm
2 x blue ray dvd movies
1 x blue ray dvd movie
1 x blue ray dvd movie
2 hours continuous play on Motor Storm
6 hours of Motor Storm
6 hours of Resistance Fom
10 hours of Blue Ray Dvd 7 titles
1 hour of Motor Storm
3 hours of Resistance
5 hours of Enchanted Arms
2 hours blue ray dvd title
2 hours blue ray dvd title
5 hours Resistance FOM
5 hours Motor Storm
1 hour enchanted Arms
3 hours blue ray dvd titles
Repeated from the top until 108hours

Environment 1 Typical Family Room
Temperature 73 F
Console Ran continuous for the 108hours with only once incident happening at 12 hours in – a slight vibration coming from the tray area which lasted approximately 20 seconds. For the remaining time allocated no incidents were reported

Environment 2 Back of a Freezer Van – unit was placed inside the closed van with controllers and screen mounted outside, - no one was willing to sit in side the van for any extended period of time
Temperature Started at 50F and was progressively scaled down over the next 4 days to reach 0degrees.
Incidents We noticed a slight sluggishness in playback once the temperature reached 0 degrees , this was maintained for the last 24hours, with 12 hours to go we thought we were going to crash with a sudden , blackout to the screen, this was tracked down to condensation on the cord for the screen.
108hours in and still working fine

Environment 3 Heat Sauna – again console inside and controllers and screen outside.
Starting temperature was 100F and Gradually increased to 120F over the last 24hours.
Incidents Strangley enough we thought this would prove to be the ultimate area to kill the console, and to our surprise the only incident we noticed was a slight burning smell that came in around 64hours at 110F, the console was extremely hot when we finished the overall test but had come thru all environments with flying colours.
This console is now back in a normal environment and working fine.


http://www.destructoid.com/you-get-what-you-pay-for-pstriples-darn-near-indestructible--38251.phtml

elikhom
08-13-07, 09:12 PM
There's also a reference to the article above in the playstation blog

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/08/13/ps3-stress-test/#comments


PS3 Stress Test

+ Posted by Dave Karraker // Sr. Director, Corporate Communications

A lot of noise has been made recently about the reliability issues of one of our competitor’s systems. So, not surprisingly, some of our more ambitious PlayStation faithfuls decided to run their own stress test on the PlayStation 3. They put it in a freezer at zero degrees for up to 108 hours and they put it in a sauna at 120 degrees for up to 64 hours — all the while running games and Blu-ray Disc movies on it. Did it fail? Nope. Like the Energizer Bunny, it kept going and going and going. Probably not something you want to try at home, but our thanks to the guys at PS3 Vault for putting our system through the ringer. Check out their full report.

Jarmak
08-13-07, 10:03 PM
I booted my PS3 up just a few minutes ago and it crashed with the blinking red overheating light and corrupted the hard drive, sitting on a shelf with plenty of ventilation on all sides. Also, somewhat strangely it wouldn't boot right away when I got home from work today, I had to turn it off and turn it one a second time.

I just got it Saturday so I'm well within my 14 days to return it for another one (just pissed off cause I lost all my rainbow 6 save games and my multiplayer character). My question is this, do you guys think I should just take it back for an exchange, or should I hold on to it because it was most likely a fluke?

elikhom
08-13-07, 10:08 PM
Get another one, just in case your console is actually part of that statistical 1% failure rate.

boomerang
08-13-07, 10:14 PM
I booted my PS3 up just a few minutes ago and it crashed with the blinking red overheating light and corrupted the hard drive, sitting on a shelf with plenty of ventilation on all sides. Also, somewhat strangely it wouldn't boot right away when I got home from work today, I had to turn it off and turn it one a second time.

I just got it Saturday so I'm well within my 14 days to return it for another one (just pissed off cause I lost all my rainbow 6 save games and my multiplayer character). My question is this, do you guys think I should just take it back for an exchange, or should I hold on to it because it was most likely a fluke?

I would return it as there's always the probability that you might get a part that may have suffered some damage during shipping. My guess is the hard drive is the problem and since you're still within the warranty period, it's just safe to get a better one.

Here's another link on the reliability of the PS3
http://kotaku.com/gaming/console-of-steel/the-ps3-is-unkillable-288962.php

Mattardo
08-13-07, 10:59 PM
They forgot the test where it's subjected to the pressures of competing with other consoles with larger game libraries and rumbling controllers. Why wasn't that test part of it? yuck yuck badum-dum (cymbal crash)

Jarmak
08-13-07, 11:17 PM
alright I guess its better safe then sorry, I boxed it up for a return to best buy tomorrow to exchange it for a new one, not like I have anything left on the hard drive to lose.

Hmerly
08-14-07, 12:18 AM
Every machine will have problems. Don't forget the PS1 and PS2's many documented problems, some that never got resolved. I am impressed with MS's response to their rrod issue and hope other companies take note of it as that is how they should deal with issues like this. However, you have to admit, no matter how big a fan you are of the 360, the PS3 is built damn well. Yeah there are some problems and some people have broken PS3s, but overall it is one well built machine and really shows the pedigree of Sony as a CE manufacturer. Wonder what happened with the PS1/2 though...

jocktheglide
08-14-07, 08:54 AM
I booted my PS3 up just a few minutes ago and it crashed with the blinking red overheating light and corrupted the hard drive, sitting on a shelf with plenty of ventilation on all sides. Also, somewhat strangely it wouldn't boot right away when I got home from work today, I had to turn it off and turn it one a second time.

I just got it Saturday so I'm well within my 14 days to return it for another one (just pissed off cause I lost all my rainbow 6 save games and my multiplayer character). My question is this, do you guys think I should just take it back for an exchange, or should I hold on to it because it was most likely a fluke?
what a troll!!!!! To be honest living out in AZ where temps reach out to 115 imagine playing your PS3 outside in 110 degree weather...well not actually my A/C unit went out in my trailer in maricopa and it was over 110 in our trailer and I played my PS3 for 4 hours then left. So PS3 can take alot of heat stress unlike BRICK.

jocktheglide
08-14-07, 08:54 AM
Every machine will have problems. Don't forget the PS1 and PS2's many documented problems, some that never got resolved. .
they didnt have problems per say alot of the newbies buying them cramped the disc in on occasion and messed it up.

Mattardo
08-14-07, 11:24 AM
what a troll!!!!! To be honest living out in AZ where temps reach out to 115 imagine playing your PS3 outside in 110 degree weather...well not actually my A/C unit went out in my trailer in maricopa and it was over 110 in our trailer and I played my PS3 for 4 hours then left. So PS3 can take alot of heat stress unlike BRICK.
So anyone stating negative news on a PS3 is a troll? Lord almighty.... Personally, my Nintendo Wii runs hotter than my PS3 - but that doesn't mean that someone else's PS3 runs hotter than their Wii. What kind of a forum would this be if the original post says "PS3 rocks, didn't overheat on our tests and is a gift from God" and every reply was "amen, brother" or "Hell yeah" with people not daring to speak their own experience for fear of being labeled a "troll". Any problems that are caught and fixed are a good thing, because then there's less chance of it happening to you. Just because it doesn't affect you now.. doesn't mean it won't someday.

Jarmak
08-14-07, 11:32 AM
what a troll!!!!! To be honest living out in AZ where temps reach out to 115 imagine playing your PS3 outside in 110 degree weather...well not actually my A/C unit went out in my trailer in maricopa and it was over 110 in our trailer and I played my PS3 for 4 hours then left. So PS3 can take alot of heat stress unlike BRICK.

Ya I'm a troll because I asked for advice on an issue with my PS3, take off your fanboy glasses and realize that no matter how well built something is there will be defective units. Judging by the fact it "overheated" after being on for about two minutes I didn't actually think it was really overheating, it had some sort of other problem.

I have another question though, is it normal to get a corrupted hard drive error when you first start the system? I didn't think much of it at the time because it repaired it and it worked fine so I chalked it up to a first-boot thing and an inaccurate error message. Current events make me wonder if that isn't the case.

Edit: thank you mattardo, thats what happens when I type something over the course of an hour between phone calls at work.

RabidMouse
08-14-07, 12:35 PM
I have another question though, is it normal to get a corrupted hard drive error when you first start the system?

I saw where this had happened to someone else and they kept getting the error. The fix seemed to be to re-seat the hard drive (pull it out and then put it back in). It may be possible that your unit had some rough handling that a) damaged something internal causing the internal overheating error and b) caused the hard drive to jar loose. I would definitely recommend replacing it.

bdoyledimou
08-14-07, 01:12 PM
The problem i have with these "tests" is that they were not conducted by a reputable lab, in uncontrolled situations, AND they state that the ps3 power was uninterrupted for the entire test, yet managed to get it into and out buildings and vehicles.

If it can be peer reviewed and replicated, then this is great news.

(FYI, I have all three systems from LAUNCH and have not had ANY issues with ANY of them.. no lock ups no freezes no corruption at all.)

Jarmak
08-14-07, 07:34 PM
Well I just got the new unit setup, no hard drive corruption on boot, everything looks great.

I guess I was due for a problematic unit, given the fact I'm still coaxing the last bits of life out of my first production run PS2 (old boy gets alot of DREs but I've found if I run one of those cleaning disks through it it will run good for a few days)