Jump to content

My PS3 is bricked...


archosman

Recommended Posts

Was in the middle of GTA4 and it froze up and shut down. Now when I try and turn it on it stays on for 3 seconds then shuts down and beeps 3 times. The light flashes red as well. Anyone know if this can be fixed or is it going to be a trip to Sony? I've got one of the early 80 gig ones that has the hardware emulation for older Playstation games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could try a different hard drive to see if that's it, but I'd still expect it to boot even with a bad HD since the base OS is kept in on-board rom.

You'll probably end up having to ship it back to Sony, their turnaround time is pretty quick from what I hear, but you won't necessarily get your PS3 back and they don't have any of the originals left so most likely you'll get stuck with a newer one that doesn't have the hardware emulation chip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a long shot, but you could try turning it on and holding your finger on the power button for about 5-10 seconds. Normally you'll hear two beeps which indicates the system settings have been reset to the default values. Probably not much chance it will help, but there's no harm in trying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not still under warranty? That blows.

Nope. Got it when they first came out.

What I've been told by Gamestop is they will most likely send me a new one instead of repairing the old one. I'll lose everything on the drive, but that's not the end of the world.

I did pull the drive out and try to save the data, but evidently it's some sort of proprietary format. My Mac wouldn't read it. Wonder if I should try the Windows side of my machine.

Also found out the system can't share drives with one another.

Other bad thing is mine has the hardware emulation chips in it instead of the newer software emulation for older PS2 games. You can't get the hardware one anymore. Starting to miss it since I've been picking up more Blu-Rays.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, from my understanding they encrypt the PS3 partitions with some key that's unique to each PS3. I think they use some odd partition table format too that no operating systems currently will read (My bet would be on Linux doing this first).

You could mirror the entire drive on a Mac from the command line using dd (not for the feint of heart), but even if you restore it to the new drive the new PS3 would not be able to decrypt the data and would want to format it.

I know nothing of Gamestop since they don't exist in this part of the world, but personally I'd argue with them that losing your data is not acceptable. I don't know if you have any Playstation store downloads, but personally I've bought some retail price things like Siren: Blood Curse and if they tried to tell me I wasn't getting that back I'd be hassling them no end. This is a problem they are going to deal with more and more as digital downloads become more common and the more people that complain to them about it the sooner they'll come up with a solution.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

So this exact situation just happened to me with my PS3. Was in the middle of playing oblivion when bam, shuts down. Same thing when I try to turn it back on, with the 3 beeps and all. I can't remember exactly when I bought it, I hope it was under warranty.

For the record I have one of the newer 40gig models.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's my update...

Last week I bought a PS3 motherboard off of Craigslist. Completely took apart the PS3 and replaced the motherboard. Fired it up and it came back. I did lose all of my data since it thought it was another PS3.

Only problem I have is the new board came out of a kiosk so I have to enter in a security code when I turn it on. Also have a bit of trouble accessing the playstation store. Other than that it works. Will probably pick up a new one though when I get a chance.

If yours is doing the same thing mine is you're screwed. The guy I bought the board off of buys dead PS3s and brings them back. He's done a few and seem to know exactly what was wrong with mine.

So your choices are if it's under warranty send it in. In not it's $150 plus waiting for Sony to send you the shipping "coffin".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.