PS3 starting to seize up... almost dead? fixes?
 

hi all.
(sorry quite disoriented right now since sleepy + I am quite attached to my LAUNCH 60gb PS3 that I know I can't buy anymore)

Long story short, house was going through renos, so I put my PS3 vertical for the first time in my life (to save space) and the next thing you know someone tripped over the power cord and boom it fell flat with a disk inside and running. ...
I immediately turned it off by pressing the power button for 3 seconds, and then examined for cracks, etc... then turned it back on and eject the disk.

This was 1.5 weeks ago

The fan still works, everything still works.... until today (home renos complete, I put PS3 in it's now permanent spot and horizontal)

I was playing Gundam Dynasty warriors 3 with my brother, and all of a sudden it seized up. Thinking it was just maybe a glitch, turned it off and on.
Loaded up a mission and his side of the screen was nothing but graphical jitter. (bands... lines etc...) whereas my side was completely fine and playable (all audio were fine as well). I thought this might be an overheating issue since the new space is somewhat cramped in has poor air flow. I take out, let it cool down for a bit and it was fine for the rest of the night (2 hours or so of gaming)

Just now, I booted up GT5 and played a quick online game with my friends. Midway through, artifacts started showing on the screen (blue pixels flashing on and off). Nothing major, but definitely noticeable. After the race... it just seized up and didn't respond. Music was still on though...

I've read up several things - it might be that due to the small "accident" i had, the motherboard and video card connections were affected, and a simple "heating" or "flowing" process by means of a blow drier should fix the problem.

Another cause may be due to a bad firmware flash (which I performed a system update a day after the PS3 fell flat).

Ideas on how to test... or what to do?

i doubt it's the firmware update
probably got messed up when it face planted

most impotant thing I would do is back up all your save files right now...and probably start looking for ps3 deals.

I doubt reflowing would help much...that's only to poor solder points from overheating and the motherboard from bending

bestbuy's selling their 320GB Infamous 2 bundle with Battlefield 3 + Arkham Asylum

really doesn't get any hotter than that IMO

I would say back up everything you have on it in small bursts (ie, shut it down before it has a chance to jam up). Then crack it open and look for damage. I wouldn't reflow it right away, but I would replace all of the thermal compound between the chips and heatsink, they're sealed together pretty tight by Sony so the impact may have loosened it up a bit so the heat transfer isn't as good.

my ps3 started acting up 10months after purchase, brought it back to costco, got a full refund towards a brand new one.


Costco FTW