It’s no secret that the Xbox 360 has had a dismal failure rate, with the fabled “red ring of death.” The current estimates point to over 50% of Xbox 360s having been afffected this issue and it eventually forced Microsoft to extend the warranty to three years for this problem. Recently, BBC1’s Watchdog presented a PS3 article highlighting the ‘yellow light of death,’ prompting Sony to respond even before the program was aired. Is the PS3 destined for a similar level of failure as the Xbox 360?

What causes a yellow light error on the PS3?

The yellow light on on the PS3 indicates simply that something has gone wrong with the hardware and is not specific to any particular fault.

If the PS3 is terminal and won’t boot up after a couple of hours, it might be likely to be a fault with the solder points between the PS3 mainboard and either the Cell processor or the RSX graphics card. The BGA (Ball Grid Area) packaging used by the PS3 parts is more vulnerable to breaking under thermal stress, although it’s a minor disadvantage as BGA technology is in widespread use with low failure rates.

Is there is a design flaw with the PS3?

Sony are currently claiming 12,500 PS3s have been affected by this issue, which when measured against the total number of PS3s sold, is a low failure rate.

Currently, the original 60GB model appears to be more commonly affected than later models although the later versions can also suffer this type of failure. When Sony removed backwards compatibility and some other features to produce the 40GB PS3, they also changed to a new version of the processor (a 65nm version of the Cell, the original uses a 90nm Cell). This version uses less power and generates less heat, which should reduce the chance of this type of problem.

Similarly, the new PS3 slim uses a newer 45nm version of the Cell which again lowers power and heat allowing the console to use a smaller cooling system without increasing the possibility of overheating. Currently the two 60GB models here are both working fine despite one of them running noticeably hotter than the other. Based on unscientific anecdotal evidence, a failed blu-ray drive appears to be a more common cause of failure.

How can the problem be fixed?

It is possible to repair the fault in a similar manner as shown on Watchdog by disassembling the PS3 and using a heatgun to reflow the solder points. There are online guides for this type of thing, for example here on youtube. This is only a temporary repair though and it’s likely after applying this fix the problem will occur again, within a few months.

Sony are currently charging £128 for the repair, claiming that unlike third party repair services they are repairing the fault and not simply heating up the two processors. However, they are only offering three months warranty on the repair.

Some people have reported success with Sony repairing “out of warranty” consoles for free, but there’s no sign of a similar service for the RRoD fix from Microsoft. Given that the original PS3 was the most expensive and bought by many of the most loyal fans, it looks much better for Sony to repair these consoles out of warranty for free.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Sony do offer excellent back up tools on the PS3 allowing the entire console to be backed up, or individual items to a standard FAT32 formatted USB drive. Putting this specific fault aside, it’s never a good idea to rely on a hard drive for all those precious saves and any other data being kept on the hard drive. To back up the entire PS3 hard drive, browse to System->Settings->Backup Utility and then Backup choosing where you want to back up the data. Alternatively if you only want to back up certain files such as game saves then browse to the game tab, choose game saves, press triangle and choose the copy option to back the game save up to an external device, the same procedure can be carried out for most of the data stored on the PS3.

Update: Watchdog have given this issue a brief mention on tonight’s show (25th September) mentioning the high cost of a Sony refurbishment again , an additional 400 complaints they’ve received from viewers who have had this type of failure and a brief mention of the limited legal options as currently the cause of the failure has not been demonstrated to be an inherent fault with the design. Despite also referring back to the successful repairs made to viewer’s PS3s, no mention was made that the repair was almost as expensive as the Sony option and was only temporary.

Are you trading in your original Playstation 3 for a new PS3 Slim, or preparing a PS3 to go away for repair? Are you aware you should be deactivating the system beforehand? If not, read on….

Like the other consoles, Sony have a store where users can purchase games or more content for existing games, on up to five consoles. This means if you set up your account on another PS3, you can download and use the content you’ve paid for, up to five times.

Activating a PS3 occurs automatically after the account has been set up. However, deactivation is not automatic and if you go over the five PS3 limit you will no longer have access to the paid content on the new PS3.

The steps to deactivate a PS3:

1. Move to the Playstation Network section
2. Select Account Management
3. Select System Activation
4. Choose PS3
5. Choose Game (video isn’t available)
6. Select Deactivate your system

Tthis will ensure your traded in or broken PS3 will no longer count towards your five PS3 download limit.

If a Playstation 3 is not deactivated before it is traded in or sent for repair, then the process cannot be carried out on the replacement console.

Instead, contacting Sony and requesting them to deactivate all the PS3s on your account is the best approach. This allows the current PS3s to be reactivated and remain within the limit. It may take a few calls though as customer services may refuse to deactivate the systems. However persistence should pay off – Sony claim this issue should only affect a small number of PS3 owners and they’re probably right as the PS3 failure rate is low.

However over the long term, the five PS3 limit may be an issue. It’s very worthwhile to take the couple of seconds needed to deactivate a PS3 that’s no longer needed, especially those who intentionally take advantage of the five PS3 limit to share content amongst friends.

Some PS3 owners share an account between a group of five, allowing each person to use the content purchased by anyone in the group, but this is a practice that Sony do not approve of. If any of the members of the group have a PS3 that is replaced and not deactivated, they will not be able to use the shared account on the replacement PS3.

2.5in laptop hard drive deals are popular, such as Play’s £43 for a 320GB 5400rpm drive or Ebuyer’s recent deal for a 400GB drive for £44 plus delivery.  Frequently the question is asked, ‘Will this work in my Playstation 3?’ This article attempts to answer that question by giving an overview of the process.

Sony chose to fit the PS3 with a standard laptop hard drive which is very easy to change and doesn’t void the warranty. However, it is recommended that you should keep the original drive, in case the machine needs to be sent back for repair (see here).  As demos, game installs and media can take up a growing amount of space, it’s well worth considering the inexpensive upgrade to a larger hard drive.

Playstation 3 compatible hard drives

The Playstation 3 will work with most 2.5in SATA laptop hard drives (both SATA and SATAII), however 12.5mm drives will not fit (such as the new 750GB and 1TB drives from Western Digital).  The performance benefits from faster drivers tend to be very small, even with ultra expensive solid state drives (SSD). With these two factors in mind, currently 320GB/400GB 5400rpm drives are a good choice.

Changing the hard drive does not affect the Playstation 2 capability of the console. On an original 60GB PAL console, the backwards compatibility will be retained with the new hard drive. However, upgrading on any of the other PAL models will not restore the PS3 backwards compatibility, as these machines are missing required hardware.

Backing up your content

Before swapping the hard drive out, you’ll probably want to back up the content on your PS3’s original hard drive. This can be achieved using either a full backup option (under system settings) or if you only want to back up certain data, such as saved games, this data can be copied manually under game-> saved game utility.  As triophies are not backed up with either method, go into Game->trophy collection press triangle and choose sync with server.

A usb memory stick or hard drive can be used for backing up, depending on what type of backup you’re doing. If it’s a full backup, an external USB laptop drive is ideal – just make sure it’s formatted to FAT32, which is normally the default.  The PS3 doesn’t support NTFS, which means if the drive is in this format it needs to be changed to FAT32. The built-in utility within Windows will limit FAT32 partitions to 32GB, so instead use a free utility like Swissknife to reformat the drive.

Swapping the hard drive

With all the data backed up, it’s time to swap the hard drives out. The drive is mounted on the left hand side of the PS3 under a cover. A screw holds the hard drive caddy in, which can then be slid out. The hard drive can then be removed from the caddy and the new one swapped in.

Once the PS3 is booted up with the new drive, a system upgrade will be required and then the data can be restored from the external drive in the same way it was backed up. A full backup can be restored under system settings, individual parts can be copied back and trophies simply need to be synced again.

That’s it – enjoy all the extra storage your new drive gives you!