Major Gear Failure...Yellow Ring of Death!

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bmilla35

Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Messages
1,601
I'm officially in panic mode guys. The PS3 finally bit the dust. My bro was playing oblivion when it just shut off, so we turned it back on and had it for about a minute and it did the same exact thing. We tried turning it back on and now it won't even start. The light turns green then yellow and then blinks red (as seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQWTZcvSvkI).

I've tried researching online, and have read everything from the power supply failed, fan broke, or maybe complete hardware failure. I would like to try and not send it in to Sony because then I lose all my saved data.

Anybody else encounter this problem or possibly have any insight on how to fix it? I would really appreciate it, so much so that I almost posted it into the survival forum.
 
Update**

News gets worse...I went to look at the hardrive and the HDD cartridge used to pull the hardrive out isn't even there (if you look up a video on youtube about removing the hardrive you will see the case I talk about, as well as the blue screw which I don't have). Instead, there is a napkin rolled up and squeezed on the side. I bought it on Ebay, and tracked the person I bought it from and sent an email to him telling him what happened. Is this something I should complain to Ebay about?

Also, I don't really want to make this a whine n cheese thread, just want answers lol. Thanks!
 
Can you back up the hard drive? Then you won't lose anything no matter what you have to do to get it fixed.
 
Give him a reasonable time to respond before going to eBay. He might be able to help you get it up and running, which beats revenge any day.
 
odds are the guy tried a HDD swap, which without a hack won't work on the PS3, and in the process broke or lost the pieces, and decided to sell it. a quick search online should get the the model number of the drive you need, and you can try to swap it on your own to see if it was a HDD failure. if it was a HDD failure, your save data is gone. the other option is to find a working ps3, and swap your drive into it, however, I would not do this untill you've done the first test I mentioned, as it is possible that a broken HDD could kill the working PS3. but if your PS3 works with a new drive, then the old drive should be safe to swap.

In all honesty, it may not matter, I'd suspect that your data is corrupted anyway, and whatever buddy boy did befor you got it would have voided the warranty.
 
how do you back up a harddrive? Also, not sure if it matters but it has been over a year since i bought it. Im not sure if that means ebay wont get involved
 
you take it to a computer shop that can make an image of it. for something like that it would be expensive in my estimation as Sony does things differently than standard. it honestly would not surprise me in the least that the best they can do is a clone, with no way to tell if the data is good.
if it's been a year, I doubt ebay would do anything. if I sold something electronic that failed after over a year, I wouldn't do much either, there is nothing that he can reasonably do. yes it was odd that it was modified like that, but maybe the guy at walmart did it. who could know?
besides what would you expect the guy to do? give you a refund?
 
I wouldnt expect a refund, or atleast a full one. But if he knowingly sold me a messed up play station that i paid 400 for i would atleast expect a hard drive tray. Now i cant even get the hard drive out
 
but how do you prove he knew? lots of big box stores have been nailed for selling box-of-rocks toys. so did he pull it out, or did the guy at best buy?

Back to the topic at hand if the tray holds the drive in, then the drive should just slide out. I just looked at a video of how it works, my first thought would be to push the drive to the side to see if it is loose, and if that doesn't do anything, then carefully use the mounting screw hole as a handle. ideally with a HDD bolt (they are a standard size) just thread it in, and there is your handle.
it looks to me to be a very common slide and rail system, so my guess would be that it just loosened up. upside is, you should be able to get the tray from anyone who has a dead ps3 off warrenty
 
Yeah that would definitely be a problem lol. Maybe he is feeling honest and admits it or looks into it? Anyways, ill take a picture of what it looks like tomorrow and post it if i have time. Stupid gradutations take up a lot of time
 
If it is wedged in there with a napkin, it may just be loose. If you can get it out, try reseating it back in the slot.

You can get a replacement hard drive cage. A quick search says that Sony might ship a replacement hard drive cage to you for free. Their number is 1-800-345-SONY. It seems that it is pretty common to strip the screws that hold the hard drive into the cage. Maybe that is what happened to the previous owner.


Video of Hard drive replacement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B1mQ21XXLE
 
mikeal said:
If it is wedged in there with a napkin, it may just be loose. If you can get it out, try reseating it back in the slot.

You can get a replacement hard drive cage. A quick search says that Sony might ship a replacement hard drive cage to you for free. Their number is 1-800-345-SONY. It seems that it is pretty common to strip the screws that hold the hard drive into the cage. Maybe that is what happened to the previous owner.


Video of Hard drive replacement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B1mQ21XXLE
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's definitely something to look into. I found a way to pierce the tightly rolled napkin(which seems used surprisingly) with a toothpick and get it out along with the hard drive. I cleaned it out as much as I could. Once I get a hex screwdriver I can take the cover off and clean it and look to see if anything is visibly broken. As a last resort, I found a company called Tim's Electronic Repair (or something like that) on Ebay that might be the best option.

Thanks for the all the advice so far!
 
bmilla35 said:
Thanks. That's definitely something to look into. I found a way to pierce the tightly rolled napkin(which seems used surprisingly) with a toothpick and get it out along with the hard drive. I cleaned it out as much as I could. Once I get a hex screwdriver I can take the cover off and clean it and look to see if anything is visibly broken. As a last resort, I found a company called Tim's Electronic Repair (or something like that) on Ebay that might be the best option.

Thanks for the all the advice so far!
Click to expand...

The cover off of the PS3 or the hard drive? I would not take the cover off of the hard drive.
 
in general, voiding the warranty makes things work faster. (ok, maybe not really, but I like to think so)
 
gadgetgeek said:
in general, voiding the warranty makes things work faster. (ok, maybe not really, but I like to think so)
Click to expand...

Lol I know what you mean. Warranty is voided now for sure. Even if I can't get the right screw driver. I could use a small flat or philips head but don't want to risk stripping it.
 
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