PS3 blu-ray drive seems to be dead/dying after GT5

Ok so, before I start this out with a rant, I will start and end this calmly with an open mind.


I was playing GT5 in B-Spec mode for about an hour today, when I looked over at the TV and I was like oh, the race is finished I better go over and hit accept and get my car, so I walked over and the controller wasn't on and the car was just driving around the track idly at 50 or so mph, and I turned the controller back on, and I couldn't press ok/accept or anything, so from then I hit quit game, it wouldn't, screen went black for over 5 minutes, I just hit the eject button, from there it went back to the XMB menu.

Now from there, there was no GT5 icon, I was like uh oh... so I took out the game put it back in, still no icon loaded. tried other games, same thing. turned off the PS3 via the controller and turned it back on, still nothing, I instantly came on to google some stuff and I came across this.

http://www.community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Gran-Turismo/GT5-BROKE-MY-PS3/td-p/11932751


http://www.community.eu.playstation...ay-next-morning-my-bluray-drive/td-p/11932036

http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/...-to-GT5-Full-HDD-install-feature/m-p/46530712

There is A LOT more than just that about it, apparently its a big thing, now before people flame me and say "they aren't going to develop a game for 6 years that'll cause this sort of problem, they do massive testing on these things" well, I ask you all this, is it just a coincidence that my PS3 died while playing GT5? are all of the other people saying that GT5's load that it puts on the laser on the PS3 not true? I just want some answers from some real tech heads, throw some techy stuff at me, I'll take it all in, I've been doing computers/micro-processing for over 19 years, and I'm up to date on 95% of the newest tech on most things. I know how to solder, so if anyone needs me to do anything I can do most anything common sense related and then some.

So anyways back on the topic of what happened, I then contacted sony and talked to a semi not professional (I read from a book, and tell you whats wrong) sort of customer service, she ran me through some things, told me what error codes were what, clearing the error codes from the PS3, nothing, same thing, sometimes it would load the disc, and show an icon, and get halfway into the game and freeze (on multiple games after the incident), none would fully load, I then was told to reinstall the whole game and try again, I told her well... the game data file has nothing to do with the blu-ray drive not spinning, she told me to do it just incase, I then just went ahead with it and told her well, you know this install takes 20-30 mins right? shes like oh... I didn't, shoot.... So I tried to re install, the game hung at like 5% in, and it stayed there for 30 mins and the blu-ray drive had stopped spinning. At this point she basically gave me the "well you can send it in and get it refurbished for 130 dollars, or you can just trade it in and we'll give you a slim for 99.99" I said well... I'll just see what I can do then.

So now I'm stuck reading LOTS of people having the same problem, I know it's common sense to know that a system is obviously going to break while someone is doing something, it's not going to mysteriously not turn on one day without something having caused it. (although anything could happen)


So, now what do I do, take apart the PS3 and see what the PS3 arm for the laser is doing? where it's at? It does read the discs but it freezes halfway during an operation, or it just doesn't read the disc at all, is that a bad lens? did it get stuck on accident during B-spec mode and now end up needing to be pushed back into a position?

Do I buy a new slim (I have been eyeing that move/eye bundle) but I've heard mixed reviews about it, first off I know it only has 2 USB slots instead of 4, I also know it's not backwards compatible like mine is, I also know that it doesn't have a card reader and that it is slimmer, now with heat issues, smaller space/compact components = gets hotter quicker, as far as my thermal dynamics tell me. I also read that they had to make the RSX a 40NM for the slim version, and also the slim is "energy efficient" which means it uses less power than the old one put out, so that does in turn stress the system more, unless they've done something with how its power is displaced.

Anyways, I would love any suggestions on where to go from here, it's already bad enough I was 53% into GT5 with over 200 cars and had lots of awesome stuff going on ( I did read that kaz is going to implement a feature to backup save files ) if only my PS3 would of held out a little longer.

Any advice would be great, thanks in advance!

You can replace your Blu-ray laser. A quick search of eBay shows there are quite a few on sale for less than $40. I know quite a few people that have had to replace their lasers over the past few years.

I also highly, highly doubt GT5 has anything to do with the issue. People also blamed Final Fantasy XIII for killing their PS3's as well, but the vast majority who played the game have had no issues.


Good luck on getting your PS3 fixed.



Parker

Very common fault with PS3's happened to me before !

Best to buy a new one than fiddling with it, sell it on as faulty.

So what about the slims? reason I ask, is it just better to fix this PS3 and put in the 40 dollar laser, assuming its just the laser and not a gear in the blu-ray drive or something, and If I buy a slim, what are the heating issues like? I've read tons of stuff on that too, heat works in a lot of interesting ways, if you shove a bunch of heat in a smaller area that works both ways of A) there being a lot of heat in 1 area which heats the components longer, but at the same time B) the more heat that's compacted into a smaller area the easier it is to get it to vent out (assuming the slims PS3 cooling system has decent cooling management on the exhaust fans).

Also, The PS3 slim takes 2/3rds the power to run (as I was told by someone at sony on the phone), that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, I wouldn't take my beast of a PC and put a 300W PSU in it when it needs the 800W it has. If the FAT PS3s are truly better, I may just get a new blu-ray drive for it, incase it is something other than the lens (motor/arms) they are only 60, would be worth it if the slims aren't worth that much to swap over too.


Edit : found this little article on the slim

The Playstation 3 from Sony is arguably the best console – hardware wise – in the market currently. The PS3 has a Nvidia
RSX GPU with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and, a Cell Microprocessor designed by IBM.PS3 RSX GPU With the launch of the PS3 Slim Model, the Cell CPU of PS3 moved to a 45nm manufacturing process. This led to a decrease in power consumption, lower temperatures, and reduction in the cost of production.

Now Playstation University reports that the new PS3 Slim RSX GPU will be based on the 40nm fabrication process. At the time of its launch, the PS3 RSX GPU used the 65nm fabrication process. The shift to a lower fabrication process has many advantages including the reduction of the Yellow Light Of Death on the PS3s. Thanks to the shift in lower fabrication process, the cooling unit of the new PS3 Slim has also been redesigned. It is now less complex compared to its predecessor.

It is reported that the drop in power consumption is around 15%. The power supply has also seen a weight reduction, and now weighs in at 412g. The original PS3 power adapter used to weigh 815g. Quite a few chips have also been removed from around the Nvidia RSX GPU, leading to a lower cost of production.

The main benefit of the shift to 40nm fabrication process is the lower cost of production. The new PS3 Slim, even though cheaper by 100$, will allow Sony to earn profit on every console sold. Until now, Sony has been incurring losses on every PS3 they have sold.

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It's pretty bad when I can find that out on the internet, yet the sony rep on the phone told me "the only thing that has been changed in the slim is it just takes less power to run and is "energy efficient" I said are you sure that's all? no hardware changes at all? he replied "nope!" but after reading (Quite a few chips have also been removed from around the Nvidia RSX GPU, leading to a lower cost of production) makes me wonder how it will perform. tho most end users won't notice things, I'm one of those that can notice the difference between 24 fps and 30.

This is a very interesting comparison video http://www.tomsguide.com/us/PS3-Slim-Slower-Faster-phat,news-4539.html

CRXFREAK001 Hi again .. i too have an original 60gb B/C but last saturday i bought a 320gb as on my 60gb - On GT5 when i played (tuned a car then wanted to go back to the home it would freeze this is on the 1st day of play when i got the game) did it many times so i wondered if mine was on it's last legs and i want to keep it working for posperity. (it isn't though as my son played lego batman on it for around 5hrs that very same day and not a single glitch) .. The 320gb has never faulted yet been on it everyday non stop .. So you may have a point re the game on old PS3's lol. As i said i use to repair ps3's and many many many of them were from playing Call of duty online they YLOD. The originals just do not seem to cope too well with intense game play. I know for a fact my laser is not going as it is only 3 month old and rarely used plus it worked fine on lego batman and movies i have watched. But your problem seems much more than mine was as you can't play other games right ? I don't know what to say regarding this .. wish i could advise more but that is a new one to me as it "reads discs" then stalls if it reads it works but if it stalls what is making it stall ?.

P.S. on the 60gb it stuck at 30 seconds left to instal for ages so i cancelled the instal. I played awhile then turned the ps3 off to go out. Came home started it up again it asked me to instal again it took ages again at 30 secs to go i went to make a coffee after watching about 5mins of "30 secs to go" stage . i came back it was still on 30 secs to go then as i finished my coffee it completed lol so more like 10 mins and 30 secs left to instal.
But on the 320gb it installed very quickly with no hanging around ( the 60gb has the latest updates for the ps3 and has the 1.03 update for GT5 ) Just thought i would let you know my experience on my 60gb .. hence why i bought a slim .. i didn't want my 60gb getting toasted from game playing.

tatfa

P.S. on the 60gb it stuck at 30 seconds left to instal for ages so i cancelled the instal. I played awhile then turned the ps3 off to go out. Came home started it up again it asked me to instal again it took ages again at 30 secs to go i went to make a coffee after watching about 5mins of "30 secs to go" stage . i came back it was still on 30 secs to go then as i finished my coffee it completed lol so more like 10 mins and 30 secs left to instal.
But on the 320gb it installed very quickly with no hanging around ( the 60gb has the latest updates for the ps3 and has the 1.03 update for GT5 ) Just thought i would let you know my experience on my 60gb .. hence why i bought a slim .. i didn't want my 60gb getting toasted from game playing.

Click to expand...

It could be the laser itself, because of the fact of how it's acting, sometimes it'll put up a logo and spin, and sometimes it won't, I wonder if that's a sensing issue or a laser issue or both, I think what I'm going to do is, buy another PS3 (slim) and just get another Blu-ray drive for this later in the future, are they completely inter-changeable? If I buy the 60gb blu-ray drive that's the same model is mine, do i need to do anything with that board that you mentioned? what if the board is bad in my old one? can I not put a new blu-ray drive in it?

If you go down the renewing the laser route then there are 2 types the single laser and the double laser .. If yours is a 60gb original i believe it requires the KES-400A *Single laser only* or you can buy the KEM-400AAA which is the *laser and the decking* .. Be extremely careful when you open the drive as there are very fiddley cogs and springs for the loading mechanism.Which are very easily disturbed resulting in a pain staking reconstructing of the loading mechanism which is not easy ..
Regarding if you buy the complete Bluray drive , you will not get a logic board with it you need to use yours easy to fit just a few cables/ribbons and a few screws.
Which ever option you choose if the PS3 still has disc read errors then it could be the logic board in which case the PS3 is now best served as a door wedge (there is a way to change the chip on logic board but it is very tricky soldering operation search youtube for the video) You will require anothe logic board to exchange the chip from yours onto.Or if you buy the PS3 you can data transfer the complete contents of the 60gb HDD to the new one via the ethernet cable.Then do a full system restore of the 60gb to see if it was the bluray code which had gone astray .. Another option which is over looked is a simple manual lens clean using a cotton bud and cleaner .. Again very simple and easy to do youtube is full of vidoes on how to do it. You may have the lucky touch and it just be a spec of dirt on the lens ??
Anything other than this i don't know what to advice ..

P.S. if you do open the PS3 i would advice you strip it down and clean all the dust out from it .. you can remove the Mainboard in it's casing without breaking the chip to heatsink seals and then clean under neath from all the dirt it is very worth while to do this while the PS3 is open but do not remove the heatsink and fan from the chip. Once you reconstruct the PS3 if you encounter YLOD do not panic as YLOD is not always mainboard failure it is just a warning that some componant is malfunctioning so re-open the ps3 and check you have connected all power cables and ribbons correctly.

PPS download and instal a free game if it plays it is your lens at fault if it does not it is your logic board .. The PS3 will not play from the HDD if the bluray logic board is faulty ( sorry i should have said this long ago but it slipped my mind) That is the easiest test to see what the bluray fault is. But again this code be the logic board or needing a system restore as i had a few PS3's which did this and 1 of them the system restore made the drive work again.Try a dvd or PS2 or PS game in the drive, again if it plays then it is the bluray reading lens which has gone and not the complete lens.

Well, since the internet is a wonderful reference tool, and I'm sure a few may of had that happen, if you are on the old save locked file (that hadn't been updated yet) and you end up getting a new PS3, use the data transfer utility between the old PS3 (with the locked ps3 save file that didn't have the 1.05 update) and the new PS3, then reinstall GT5 on the new machine, update it, it will make that save file unlocked and you'll be good to go. Also, if you are upgrading your new PS3's HD like I did, once that process is done, just copy the save file to a flash drive (any size will work) it's only 500kb. then install your new HD in and you have your save file ready to put back on the new HD

I'm sure someone will run into this, as not everyone may be able to update GT5, and they're blu-ray drive may die on them, or something else, that's the beauty of the internet, this will stay cached for a while