An insight into how faulty PS3s are dealt with

The incident

At the weekend I was playing LittleBigPlanet but after I had completed a particular level, instead of the next one loading up the screen went totally white and the system seemed to freeze.  The PS3 then restarted and spat out the disc.  I’d had enough gaming for one night anyway, so I turned the system off and went away.

I came back to the PS3 the following day only to find that none of my PS3 disks would load.  It was the same with DVDs and CDs.  I have to admit, I then panicked.  But it was weird because apart from that, the rest of the PS3 worked totally fine.  I could play games that were on the hard disk, connect to the PlayStation Network, and browse the PlayStation Store.  But what use is a PS3 that won’t load game disks?

Continue reading An insight into how faulty PS3s are dealt with

PS3 Fan Noise Controversy

Updated December 2008

I’ve been reading an interesting article in PS3 Fanboy entitled ‘Clean your PS3 fan with quick-n-easy test‘ which is for 40Gb PS3s and works by running a fan test, which speeds up the fan and also supposedly ‘blows out the dust…essentially cleaning it up’. Fair enough.

What is interesting though is the controversy and misinformation about PS3 fan noise in the comments section at the end of the article. To be honest, it looks like it has turned into a bit of a flame war so let’s try and rationalise things a little bit.

Some people are saying that the 40Gb PS3 sounds really loud, and the 60Gb version doesn’t (who knows about the 80Gb version, whatever) and they use examples such as this on YouTube. Now, I have a 40Gb PS3 and let me tell you it doesn’t sound like that at all; in fact, I can barely hear it. So I’m thinking that with the YouTube example given, and what such people are saying, I can infer two conclusions: either a faulty PS3, or a PS3 being run with the fan test. It’s as simple as that.

Other people have been saying that the 60Gb is louder than the 40Gb, although I couldn’t possibly comment on that. However I’ve been gaming with a mate who has a 60Gb PS3 and it sounds comparable to mine; I believe any difference will be negligible.

So what on earth is the point I am trying to make? Once they’ve started up PS3s are very quiet, I mean sometimes it doesn’t even sound like they’re turned on (although the lights are lit up of course). In general, PS3s are made to a very high quality; they keep very cool and the sound is kept to a minimum so if you have a particularly loud PS3 then there is a good possibility that there might be something wrong with it.

December 2008 update: I now find myself in possession of an 80GB PS3.  As to why this is the case, I direct you here for more information.  It is my observation that the fan noise on this model is slightly louder than my old 40GB model.  Why is this the case?  I honestly don’t know, and can only speculate.  Still though, the noise is not really that noticable and nothing for concern.

If your PS3 sounds very loud, then my advice above still stands.  There might be something wrong with your PS3, so get it checked out.  The people to call are the Sony care line.  In addition, you may want to check out the comprehensive PS3 fan guide.