PS3 Repair Blog | searching for green lights

Ya, no. But we hear this every time a popular new title is released. In November it was MW3 and Battlefield3 that had our phones ringing.

Yes, these new titles push the envelope of PS3 GPU power and might have been at the helm when the YLOD struck. The problem, however, still stems from the owner’s failure to clean their heat sink after the first 3 years (since purchase, regardless of game play time).

Take an hour or so to clean your heat sink (if you’re out of warranty and don’t care about ever sending the unit to Sony for repair) and hopefully you can avoid the dreaded yellow light.

http://www.fixmyplaystation.com/ylod.html

The 2nd most common repair in the PS3 world is laser replacement.  Around the 3 1/2 year mark, 400A and 410 BluRay lasers lose either their BluRay reading capacity.  50% can still read DVD movies (or PS2 games if the system is a CECHA01, B01 or E01 model)… which is cool, because you know for sure that the laser is the problem.  The other 50% can’t read any disc, so cleaning or replacement are the only troubleshooting options.

Check out our step-by-step how to repair a PS3 laser video:

FORMAT THE HARD DRIVE?  NO!
Will formatting your hard drive fix your dead laser?  In a word… no. It’s a bit of an internet myth that formatting the hard drive automatically fixes a dead laser.  But there is a but of truth to it.  In about 2% of “disc read error” units that we receive the problem is that there is some corrupt data on the hard drive, which stops communication between the motherboard and disc drive.  In those situations alone, doing a quick format on the hard drive removes the bad data and the laser springs to life again.

CLEAN BEFORE REPLACING
BluRay lasers are very sensitive to dust and cigarette smoke. If there are smokers in the house, be sure to simply clean the laser lens(es) with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol before actually replacing the laser. The ONLY lasers we’ve been able to fix by cleaning came from homes with heavy smokers.

DO A DRY RUN OR 2 FIRST
Before you buy a $70 replacement laser, first watch our video and do at least 2 dry runs. Remove and replace your own laser 2x. Then you’ll be sure you can safely replace it.

Have you replaced your own PS3 laser? Tell us about it in a comment below!

This Sunday morning started with a customer calling for information about a web browser for his PS2.  My first thought was, “why hasn’t anyone asked about this before?”

After 20 minutes of Googling, I’m not finding a definitive answer.

So… I’ll leave it to my fellow FMPers.

1. Which PS2 web browser do/did you use?
2. Is it available for download and CD-R burning?
3. Is it commercially available?