If you have a Phat, Sell it. A warning from Refurb land. - Page 4

As far as I'm aware, the latest slimlines corrected the issue. I'm not sure it's even technically possible to get RROD with the hardware revisions they made, but don't quote me on that.

After having 3 360s die on me after exactly one year each, I vowed to stick with Sony, aside from replacing the laser, my 20 gig launch unit acquired from my brother is still working great.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease. The freezing has occurred across a wide variety of games (Valkyria Chronicles, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Uncharted 2, Infamous, Costume Quest), none of which are known as "buggy" games as far as I'm aware, but no more than once or twice for each game. I think I'm fairly lucky in that I never hear my PS3's fan, and it never seems overly hot, though I do keep it on a completely open surface.

For what it's worth, my brother got his launch model used off ebay like three years ago, and it's still going strong. Good to know what to watch out for, though.

My Original 60GB died around 2 years after purchased. I had it repaired, got sent a refurb original 60GB. About 2.5 years same thing. I got frustrated just as you.

So I had some money and decided building a good HTPC that I can also run any game on is the best solution. But I really wanted my saves off of the PS3. So this is what I did:

1)Put the PS3 inside the PS3 box, but placed upside down, with the rear vents exposed.
2)Used a hairdryer on high settings and blew through the rear vents for 15min.
3)Let cool using a fan.

It worked, and I've been playing Dark Souls among other games on the PS3 for the last 4 months with no problems at all. Remembering to back up my saves every now and then for the inevitable, but at least this holds me off until I'm done with Dark Souls.

Are the new slims better at heat distribution than the original phats? Do they still have a loud fan that kicks in when playing an intensive game?

Curious how many hours a week you guys with failed launch machines saw. Mine is an original launch 60GB machine, has been used between 10-25 hours a week between gaming and blu-rays for its entire life, and is still working perfectly fine.

Not super heavy use, I imagine 30+ is more typical for someone gaming a lot.

My old 60gb phat was used as a movie player first ( BR and upconverted DVD) and a game player second( mostly PS3 exclusives; multi-plats more often than not I get on 360, especially ones with a major online play component).

5 to 6 hours a week for Blu-Rays and it had to have been 30+ hours of gaming with some weekend marathons thrown in. One clarification I need to make is that I bought a refurb OG 60 gig 2 months after launch for almost half price. That one last 2 and a half years befor the YLOD. Sent it in and received another OG 60 gig thats still going strong til this day. The only thing I did was take it apart and put new thermal paste on the heat syncs.

I really should do that to my 60gig Phat, still running strong and no noisier than the day I got it

My 80 GB original version got moderate use, at best.

My suspicion is what finally did it in (YLOD), is when I ran it in a fairly warm room for like 4 hours. That alone was not really the culprit, though. I accidentally turned it back on while handling it, right after shutting it down after that session, and it started up just fine. Here's the kicker...I moved it to a different part of the room after I shut it down again. I think holding the case tightly and moving it may have shifted those solder contacts while they were still liquid hot...and that was the last time I saw it run.

Coincidence?...I dunno. If you don't want to tempt fate, don't move your ps3 around until it has gotten dead cold.

Took the plunge last weekend. My phat's laser was acting weird so decided to bite the bullet before it completely dies... EBgames had UC3 bundle with a free game (MW3,BF3, Skyrim or Batman). Took MW3, just beated the campaign and will trade it for 50$ at FS

The Phat will be going into the bedroom once I buy a TV Money is low now with the new condo

Interesting...a Phat PS3 (resurrected, in my case) will kick down to and sustain the lowest fan speed when input air temp gets down to 48-ish deg F. Is it still a ticking YLOD timebomb running that cool or indefinitely safe?...we shall see.

I had a original 60GB that lasted me for about 4 years. It went out in March of this year and paid the 129 since I didnt want the slim model. The refurb lasted me for about 6 months before it YLOD again. When I called Sony they wanted to charge me again since it was past the 3 month warranty. After talking to a manager they waived the fee but I could only get a phat since that's what I was sending in. So a month and a half later this one YLOD. I called Sony and it's covered for a free replacement since its under 3 months. The thing is they want to send me another phat. So I tell them I am tired of this happening and would like a slim. After being put on hold for a bit they come back and agree to send me a slim. It just kind of sucks since I lost all my data and I doubt I will get my system before Thanksgiving.

Where can i get a phat one with warranty

Quick question I have a one month past launch 60gb console that I would like to upgrade to a new slim. What would be my best way of doing it? Do the 60gb still go for a lot on e-bay and craigslist? I still have the original box and everything so it really is in near mint condition.

If you have older firmware on it (3.55 or earlier), there are people looking for SACD capable units on the forums at audiocircle.com and computeraudiophile.com.

Did they remove the red lights?

How much are people paying for them? I didn't realise you could rip SACDs now, pretty cool

Don't know. They are mostly hitting ebay and looking for units that have not been resoldered.

You can also get hirez PCM transcode rips of your SACDs using one of several HDMI/SPDIF de-embedders. That's what I've done with all my SACDs, as my phat is past 3.55 because I game with it, and don't have a DSD capable DAC in my music system anyway.

That only works for stereo, not multichannel.

Yep. My music system is 2 channel (for now) anyway though.

Noooooooooooooo...... I decided recently to buy a new slim and sell the 40gb fat (which I upgraded with a 320gb hdd) but I forgot to do a backup of the info before selling it . Wife: "Ok you can get a new one as long as all the saved games are kept and We sell the fat one first" Me: "Yeah that's fine I'll just plug the original 40gb hdd back into the fat and put the 320gb into the slim and it's all good" HA how wrong was I!!!! So now I'm going to be busy earning back all my trophies

I have the CECHE01 MG (MetalGearSolid4) 80GB "fat" PS3 that I bought new. I, too, am concerned that some day it may die, though it's never had a problem so far.

GameStop will give me $80 + $50 bonus toward a 160GB PS3 Slim through December 4, 2011. The bonus stops after December 4.

Is this a good deal? I have to include an original DualShock controller + USB cable (I don't know if I have to include the Multi-AV and/or power cord, too - but I'd get it all back with the new PS3 Slim). Thus, a $250 160GB PS3 Slim would cost me net $120 + tax.

@blekk your trophies should automatically once you long in with your psn and password plus you must sync them

Not bad, cheaper than having it break and send in to Sony and do the upgrade deal.

You could probably get a squaretrade warranty cheaper though if you are that concerned about it.

I just sold my 40gb, 4 games, controller etc and got $200. Bought a new 160gb slim (which has the duel shock 2 to 40gb was only the sixaxis) for $288 - only $88 out of pocket

My almost 3 yr old 40 gb committed suicide via the YLOD
last week. I did the heat gun reflow and it works but after 5 mins the fan goes into turbo mode and I have to shut it down. It never used to overheat before. I wonder if the reflow screwed up something else.I did try different amounts of thermal paste. Any ideas? I'm now torn on whether to buy another. I probably will due to the money invested in games and the fact the xbox isn't any better. It just pisses me off that Sony won't admit to the problem and extend the warranty like Microsoft did.