PS3 Refuses to Start

[Gatekeeper]

Everyone:

I have an 80GB model that I purchased in February 2008. Up until an hour ago, it worked fine with no problems whatsoever.

That's when, in the middle of a MAG match I was playing, the system literally shut down with a couple of beeps, followed by a blinking light. I am red/green colorblind, but I believe the blinking light is red in nature, not yellow. If it helps any, the blinking light is the one that glows steadily when the system is in standby mode.

I cannot eject the MAG disc. Everytime I go to turn it on, the system fires up for three seconds or so, then beeps, then the red light begins blinking. I looked in the troubleshooting manual, and it seemed to indicate that the system had overheated and needed to cool down. Well, I did that. For 45 minutes. And it still won't start up properly.

I had a fair amount of downloaded material (free and paid) on the HD that is now, presumably, lost. Also presumably lost is my MAG disc, along with all of my game save data.

Purchasing a new PS3 is an option, of course. It'd be quicker and less hassle than navigating my way through Sony's $150 replacement policy that doesn't necessarily guarantee you'll get your original unit back. But, if I buy a new unit, what will become of the game trophies I earned? Once I register the new PS3, will the trophies return? Will my friends' list return?

Also, I wasn't able to deactivate the 80GB PS3 before it went kaput. Will this affect my attempt to register a new system under the same PSN ID? I read somewhere that a PSN ID can be registered on up to five machines, but that's it. And, is there a way to get Sony to deregister an ID from a PS3 that's no longer functional?

Gatekeeper

 

[firehawk12]

You should call Sony to see if it's a dead unit or if it's something you can fix. I suppose you used to the "hard" power switch and completely turned the unit off before restarting it? At the very least you should try to get your game back.

If you do write off the system, I'm not sure how it works on a PS3, but you can remove the hard drive. Whether or not a new PS3 would be able to read that data is another question though - I'm inclined to believe that it won't read the data, especially since they offer a back up utility, but you never know.

I assume all data associated with a PSN account will be saved. Certainly trophy data is synced to their server anyway.

Depending on how much patience you have, if you call customer support you can convince them to deactivate a PS3 from your PSN account. The line they usually give is that they let you have 5 just for situations like these. They are looking out for people who game share, so they tend to deny any requests for deactivation.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Firehawk:

Heh. Yes, I've tried numerous methods to eject the disc (YouTube and the Sony forums are quite useful resources!), but none have worked.

Someone provided me with a link to Gophermods LLC, a Minneapolis-based firm that specializes in fixing the PS3, XBox and other electronics. Did some browsing on their website, and they look legitimate. I'm thinking about sending the broken PS3 to them and using it as a backup of sorts to the new PS3 I'm leaning toward buying.

I suppose it all comes down to patience. If I get the broken PS3 off to Gophermods by Monday afternoon, I might have it back by Thursday or Friday. But, there's no guarantee that they'll be able to repair the problem, although it's probably a 95 percent guarantee.

I've got vacation coming up! I've got to have a functioning PS3 for gaming and Blu-ray movie viewing during that timeframe!

Gatekeeper

 

[firehawk12]

Did you try calling Sony itself? Surely they'd have some way to force the system to get the disc out, if nothing else.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Firehawk:

My PS3 is out of warranty. Sony would charge $150 to fix it, and that dollar amount doesn't include shipping. On top of that, Sony will *not* guarantee that you will get the same unit back, which means lost data. Also, they will *not* guarantee that they'll be able to get the disc out.

Long story short, it's expensive and comes with no guarantees with Sony. So, I wound up purchasing a new, 120GB PS3 at Wal-Mart. Odds are, I'll send the old one off to see if it can be fixed; if so, I'll use it strictly as a Blu-ray movie machine.

Gatekeeper

 

[firehawk12]

No, I don't mean to get them to fix it... I mean just to get them to see if there's some way to force the disc to eject or do some basic trouble shooting. At least they can tell you straight up if the unit's a write off.

 

[crouteru]

To retrieve your disc, first turn the button on the back off, then put your finger on the eject button, keep it there and turn the back switch back on. As soon as you hear the fan cycle, start tapping the eject button. Hopefully, somewhere during the fan cycle, the disc should eject.

 

[Geckothan]

I'm not familiar with PS3 internals, but shouldn't there be some kind of manual eject mechanism? On most CD/DVD/BluRay drives for computers, you can just stick a pin into a small hole and it will release the tray, and on PS2s you can just take the top cover off of the drive.

 

[firehawk12]

The PS3 is slot loading, so I'm not sure if it does.

 

[Geckothan]

Slot loaders are a bugger...

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, they totally are. I understand they use less space than a regular tray based drive, but you never know when you just can't get the drive to open.

 

[Gatekeeper]

To retrieve your disc, first turn the button on the back off, then put your finger on the eject button, keep it there and turn the back switch back on. As soon as you hear the fan cycle, start tapping the eject button. Hopefully, somewhere during the fan cycle, the disc should eject.

Did that, didn't work. The fan didn't even kick in, which might be why the unit overheated and died in the first place.

Gatekeeper

 

[crouteru]

To retrieve your disc, first turn the button on the back off, then put your finger on the eject button, keep it there and turn the back switch back on. As soon as you hear the fan cycle, start tapping the eject button. Hopefully, somewhere during the fan cycle, the disc should eject.

Did that, didn't work. The fan didn't even kick in, which might be why the unit overheated and died in the first place.

Gatekeeper

That's a shame, sorry to hear that. I know the slim has a manual eject because I've had to use it, not sure about the original model though...

 

[Gatekeeper]

To retrieve your disc, first turn the button on the back off, then put your finger on the eject button, keep it there and turn the back switch back on. As soon as you hear the fan cycle, start tapping the eject button. Hopefully, somewhere during the fan cycle, the disc should eject.

Did that, didn't work. The fan didn't even kick in, which might be why the unit overheated and died in the first place.

Gatekeeper

That's a shame, sorry to hear that. I know the slim has a manual eject because I've had to use it, not sure about the original model though...

Oh, well. You win some, lose some. The PS3 was the first major piece of hardware I've ever lost due to something beyond my control. What can you do? I'll probably try and see if its fixable; in the meantime, I'm busy rebuilding (as much as I can; there's no replacing lost game saves in my case) things with the new PS3 I purchased.

Gatekeeper

 

[firehawk12]

Did you try swapping out the hard drives just to see if the new system can read the files?

 

[BigFoot]

^ That won't work.

 

[firehawk12]

Ah, the hard drive's are locked to a specific system then?

 

[BigFoot]

^ Unfortunately, yes.

 

[Sanji Himura]

You are thinking 360, not PS3. You can use any laptop HDD, with the exception of solid state, to replace your existing HDD in the PS3. Just read the procedure on how to remove the tray to replace your HDD in your PS3 paperwork. Once your HDD is replaced, you will have to undergo a procedure on getting the firmware on your new HDD using a thumb drive.

 

[BigFoot]

^ We're not talking about replacing a hard drive. I know that can be done, I put a 320GB drive in my PS3.

We're talking about taking a hard drive from one PS3 and putting it into another PS3. While that will work, the hard drive will need to be reformatted so the user would lose everything on the drive.