PS3 Blu-ray issue not firmware-related

By Robert Purchese Published 1 October, 2009

Despite it hitting right after patch 3.01.

Sony has told Eurogamer that a firmware update cannot affect the Blu-ray drive on a PS3.

The problem that PS3 owners are reporting following 3.01 is "not an issue with the firmware".

Most, if not all, claim to have had no previous problem with their console, but having applied the firmware update discovered Blu-ray films and PS3 games froze and could not continue.

Sony customer services have been telling sufferers that they must send their machine back for repair, which costs £128 if out of one-year warranty, but there's still no real explanation for what's happened.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (95) 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Doctor_What #1 2 years ago

    Their repair cost is pretty shocking.

  • RedPanda #2 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • altitude2k #3 2 years ago

    Luckily I haven't had this problem with the Slim, but my brother-in-law's phat version has done exactly this and they actually wanted to charge £99 (still a massive rip-off, mind).

    I think everyone who has the problem should mention that Sony haven't recieved the best press recently with Watchdog and that they're sure the BBC would be very interested to hear about these problems.

    Even if they're out of warranty, it's effectively the same as Sony coming into your house, breaking your PS3 and expecting you to fork out for the repair. It's actually quite sickening and some ass needs to be kicked.

    This is an interesting read and does give some pointers - I think it's important that EVERYONE knows about this:

    http://ww w.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/mar...
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 09:06

  • Negotiator #4 2 years ago

    Sony are lying stealing crooks.

  • kipper #5 2 years ago

    What surprised me after the Watchdog program was the vast majority of forum comments were quite vigorously defending Sony.
    So are there any Sony fans wanting to defend them from these accusations now? Anyone?

  • LHH #6 2 years ago

    Sony taking the Microsoft head in the sand approach huh?

  • davisorle #7 2 years ago

    I know ill be an asshole but since i do it good.. if you read my last few posts saying my opinion about Sony and their tactics making you send in after the warranty and pay half price of your hardware and i was being minus rated just for saying what ive been through ill just say this now and PLEASE oh PLEASE minues rate me till i break a record on this one.

    Im actually glad Sony is butthurting the ones that would just vote my posts about that one just to deffend Sony. Im sorry but you were waiting for it pantiless and bent over so now take it greasless. Ive paid so much in repairs to Sony. You didnt want RRoD that u can get ur console fo 3 years for free? well just pay for it.. and keep on laughing every time u pay about RRoD and about Wiimotes. Keep paying till u get a Wand in your hand and blow some steam off. Its not the firmware.. Just pay for it subs.

    P.S. For those that arent Sony fans and suckers i do feel bad about though and thats only why id mention how it works with that part of Sony biz when it comes to being inresponsible and making even more out of your repair paychecks. Sucks doesnt it? been there too many times :/ And no i dont like MS, just Win 7 are finally good windows and my 360 is a lucky champ. kept working. Just for those wondering why i might sound like this, no reason.. I just enjoy proving a point and being right. Nothing wrong with it.

    Peace :)

    EDIT: @ kipper Wanna bet there are many that will still defend them? Its rather sad. Anyhow.. cant force ppll to not be submisive when they enjoy it right? :p
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 09:24

  • bad09 #8 2 years ago

    Hold on £128 repair if my PS3 buggers? I can get a 360 arcade with a game for £135!!!

    Sony you better hope mine don't bugger as that 130 quid will go on a stand alone blu.....

  • strelok #9 2 years ago

    I don't know if the update brakes systems but it CERTAINLY does cause freezes. Something is buggy in the new friends/message code.

  • abigsmurf #10 2 years ago

    It probably isn't the firmware.

    The Blu Ray diodes in some PS3's are incredibly sensitive and has a habbit of burning out, especially if you use the hard power switch whilst a game is in the drive. Lots of people have had their consoles sit around for a while, a game has come out that they want, so they dust off the PS3 to play, update it, the warn out diode shows signs it's failing so they assume the update caused the drive to fail.

    Only seems to affect drives with a combination blu-ray + DVD laser. Ones with two lasers don't seem to suffer from the issue (which makes me think Sony know this is a problem as a dual laser setup is more expensive to produce)

  • etherfiend #11 2 years ago

    Right well seeing as I haven't watched any Blurays and had to turn on my PS3 for a while I'll remember to ensure I cancel the update request then.

  • Beano #12 2 years ago

    "What surprised me after the Watchdog program was the vast majority of forum comments were quite vigorously defending Sony. "

    Maybe because the Watchdog program was BS?

  • RedPanda #13 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • kangarootoo #14 2 years ago

    @davisorle

    I've read that twice and I have no idea what you are going on about. I can't even tell if you are pro-Sony or against them. Seriously.

  • PrivateJoker #15 2 years ago

    @RedPanda..."Nice little money-maker for Sony then"

    Sony doesn't make any money from repairs actually.

    As for the majority of ignorant comments on here. I seriously hope you're all still at school, cus' you still got a lot to learn.

  • davisorle #16 2 years ago

    @RedPanda
    No but yet you can copy paste my nick better even if you werent English either... :p its "orle" the last bit ^^

    But no sorry if I dont make much sence and such. I always come out different when typing stuff out. I hate chatting for that matter lol

  • RedPanda #17 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • mkreku #18 2 years ago

    Some of these comments sound almost like those "Yes, I've got RROD three times, but the warranty is so good I actually enjoy it" type posts we got back when Microsoft had a problem. Fanboys are weird.

  • rotmm #19 2 years ago

    I doubt (though I could be wrong) that these reported problems have anything to do with the firmware update. Those machines were about to die anyway and that they died after updating the firmware is just coincidence.

    It's the same as all of the forum comments stating that Halo 3 caused a RROD. No, just shitloads of people bought Halo 3 at the same time, a few consoles that were going to die anyway just gave up the ghost, and therefore people put 1 and 1 together and come up with 4.

  • Negotiator #20 2 years ago

    Sony lie with every breath that they can muster, and still the Sony fanboys follow like a group of suicide lemmings.

  • davisorle #21 2 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    Against them as a company cause they always make you pay more than half their hardware's price for repairs right out of waranty. In general. Been pointing that one out a lot the past 1-2 weeks. I cant be apologising all the time for my english people.. ffs lol Gimme a break

  • seasidebaz #22 2 years ago

    I have a simple solution:

    If you have YLOD: CLEAN YOUR HOUSE you dirty buggers.
    If you got this failure: DON'T PUT TOAST IN THE DISC SLOT.

    That is all.

  • bad09 #23 2 years ago

    @ rotmm

    I dunno Halo 3 hit my 360 with RROD, but you are right it was probably due to the 2 7 hour sessions (I kid you not, I could not put it down) over a 24 period i battered my already abused 360 with.

    / hugs legendary mode

    She's still battling on to the old workhorsel! :)

    *cough* fixed for free *cough* ;)

  • man.the.king #24 2 years ago

    I have updated to FW 3.00 and then 3.01 as well. Have had no problems whatsoever with BR movies or games. If it's not affecting everybody, could be some custom setting that's not working well with the update and the movie display?

  • MeBrains #25 2 years ago

    must say that these type of reports are on the rise && I do not think people should pay for the repairs. 10y life cycle, so make sure your HW is up for it!

    negotiator: do you think MS is anything different? with RRoD figures as high as they seem, they should have recalled. They did not? Any clue as to why that would be?

  • nuanimal #26 2 years ago

    Screw it... if this happens to me I will be forking our for £128 for a 360!

    Still, I think customers should at least know what the specific problem is? It seems unfair and opaque!

  • Beano #27 2 years ago

    No problems here either. Launch EU PS3 with 320GB HDD.

  • miiiguel #28 2 years ago

    "Yes, I've got RROD three times, but the warranty is so good I actually enjoy it"

    I don't actually enjoy it, but it's true that it makes no real diference besides not having the system for 18 days, as it costs zero euros, and I don't even need to leave my apartment. On the other hand Sony even refused to replace my PSP which came with 4 dead pixels out of the box.
    And..., why you guys in UK only have 1 year warranty? I thought it was 2 years (like in Portugal) all across EU.

  • GreyBeard #29 2 years ago

    Just looking through that list of forum posts (on the PSBLog) you can see that people are blaming the firmware update for any fault that happened to occur over the period where 3.00 and 3.01 were released.

    There's YLOD's, Blu-ray diode failures (where DVD's and CD's still play), stuttering issues (the reason for the 3.01 release), etc, etc... Basically everyway a PS3 can fail is being blamed on the update!

    The thing is this, if Sony had done something with the firmware that caused machines to go pop, there'd be a lot more issues than there are being reported because everybody needed to install it. And I'm sorry a few hundred failures is a drop in the ocean when there are 20 odd million PS3's in the wild.

    If there really was an issue with the firmware "bricking" machines, Sony would do something about it becauese it'd be too big a problem to ignore.
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 09:49

  • jonthepymm #30 2 years ago

    @ PrivateJoker:

    How can Sony NOT make any money from repairs? Are you saying that all breakages cost EXACTLY half the price of a new console to fix? Different things breaking must mean different replacement costs and man-hour costs, surely.

  • Beano #31 2 years ago

    "must say that these type of reports are on the rise && I do not think people should pay for the repairs. 10y life cycle, so make sure your HW is up for it! "

    I'm not defending Sony's repair policy (or sick price!), but do you really expect Sony to offer a 10 year warrenty just because they claim a 10 year product cycle? PSone and PS2 also had a 10+ year product cycle.
    Watchdog also hit this, which is quite misunderstood and something only the tabloid press would claim for cheap points.
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 09:51

  • LilithsCurves #32 2 years ago

    Reading some angry and furious comments in here...

    Some guys in here seem to have had a painful breakup with a PS3 - very sorry that she left you but now, not every PS3 is a bad PS3. It must be that or your PS2 was not a good caretaker and now you think all PS3 are evil and you are not giving them a chance?

  • Goodfella #33 2 years ago

    @ GreyBeard

    Exactly, as usual a vocal minority make it sound like there's a widespread problem, when there isn't.

  • munki83 #34 2 years ago

    Sony should of gave everyone a three year warranty I just find it a bit cheap of them to say that they want the Playstation 3 to be around 10-15 years but if you bought it on release you will only be covered for about 5% of the consoles commercial lifespan

  • PrivateJoker #35 2 years ago

    @jonthepymm

    Sony actually subsidies repairs due to the high cost of the equipment used.

  • Goodfella #36 2 years ago

    People like munki83 are the problem. You see, people like that can't understand that when Sony say they want the PS3 to be around for 10 years they actually mean the brand, not each individual console they manufacture. Durrrr!

  • Skurmedel #37 2 years ago

    It all coincides with the launch of the Slim! Gentlemen, put your tin foil hats on and start spinning those theories.
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 10:07

  • laz1973 #38 2 years ago

    @seasidebaz You talk a load of SH!T ."clean your house" if you where in front of me saying that I would beep beep beep you.SONY are to blame end of ,Wait for 5 years and most of them will have died some how and thats SH!T .No wonder the slim is selling well everyone trading in their fat ps3 as most of them dont want to be left with a dead machine.SONY still failing their own PLEDGE OF QUALITY to customers"High-quality,reliable prouducts that our costumers can use with confidence" bla bla bla SONY suck right now and I cant see them ever getting better which is a shame .

  • Skurmedel #39 2 years ago

    Man without humour or sense of irony spotted above me.

  • M_of_the_sys #40 2 years ago

    "@seasidebaz You talk a load of SH!T ."clean your house" if you where in front of me saying that I would beep beep beep you."

    You'd give him the YLOD?! :o

  • Petulant_Radish #41 2 years ago

    @ Greybeard:

    Did they ever admit to the inherent faults of the PS1 or 2 though? That’s an honest question, I only ask as almost everyone I know had a fault with either one or both, I know my PS1 had to be turned upside down, have mugs rested on the disc tray etc. and the PS2 died a few times to Which Sony just asked for money…

  • Darren #42 2 years ago

    My own PS3 went belly up not long after I'd installed the 3.01 firmware but I'm sure that was just coincidence as the console wouldn't even stay on long enough for me to be able to eject the game disc (the infamous Yellow Light of Death I believe). That made me realise that while disc slots are very modern and nice and all that, they're a bugger if the mechanism breaks down as removing the disc is near impossible. At least with a tray you can use the old pin trick to release it and make it open.

    Fortunately I took out a three year extended warranty when I bought my launch machine from GAME and that purely based on the dodgy reputation of the Xbox 360 at that time. Sony quoted me £128 to have mine repaired by them when I rang, an obscene amount considering I'd paid £425 for the console some two and a half years ago, and then it only came with a lousy three month guarantee. Depending on the condition of my returned unit, which will have six months left on the GAMEcare plan, I may trade it in for a newer slim PS3, although I'd lose out on all the nice extras my launch model has.

    I'm a little disappointed that my PS3 broke down but accept that these things do happen and at least, for me, the machine has lasted far longer than any of my Xbox 360s have. That said, you're pretty much covered with the Xbox 360 for free repairs for three years so that does help soften the blow of having to keep sending the console off for repairs twice a year (which is what it honestly seems like in my case).

  • GamesConnoisseur #43 2 years ago

    My mate docbarnett the ps3 owner got his PS3 returned from consoledoctor.com who done the job much cheaper than pretty much anyone else. He updated firmware and guess what?! Back with the consoledoctor.com and he thought it was them not doing a good repair but it certainly looking like firmware as his latest problem was disc not being read and not ylod.

    Seem there are fanboys on all sides, but denying apparently clear link of PS3 fine and post firmware of PS3 not fine points to a strange coindence OR some unforeseen code having sideeffect somewhere.

    Sure my PS3 not affected by the update, yet there have been many many firmware patches and different component suppliers, that PS3 is already approaching the complexities of PC hardware and software compatibilities?!

    Sony still need to be on top either way and being seen as arrogant would do more damages... If at least to the concerned PS3 owner with the faulty PS3!

  • Darren #44 2 years ago

    Also is it reasonable to expect to have to pay to have a console repaired after just a year anyway or even three? I mean can the user really be blamed for a faulty or dodgy component? Sure, nothing lasts forever and wear and tear will eventually result in electronic goods failing at some point but after one year? That's not acceptable in my opinion and asking £128 to repair a console that is no longer in production through no fault of the user is just mean... downright mean, in fact.

    Personally, I think all game consoles should come with a minimum warranty of three years and ideally five. They've become so complex now that the likelihood of them developing a fault before they've exceeded their useful life is much greater. Most consoles don't break down through wear and tear or misuse but poor design or dodgy components that aren't made to last in the first place.

    Anyone else agree?

  • kipper #45 2 years ago

    @ Beano
    "I'm not defending Sony's repair policy (or sick price!), but do you really expect Sony to offer a 10 year warrenty just because they claim a 10 year product cycle?"

    I wouldn't expect a 10 year warranty, but for a premium product at a premium (launch) price, you would expect a longer warranty than what you would get with a pocket calculator. Under UK law, a product should last for a reasonable time, it's called being 'fit for purpose'.

    A 3 year warranty like the Microsoft one would give Sony customers more peace of mind, assuming Sony have faith that their products will last for 3 years.

  • sneetch #46 2 years ago

    @EarlBassett

    Thanks for translating, I had absolutely no idea what "beep beep" meant. What a wonderful language English is, so rich and subtle.

  • Malek86 #47 2 years ago

    "Sony has told Eurogamer that a firmware update cannot affect the Blu-ray drive on a PS3. [...] Sony customer services have been telling sufferers that they must send their machine back for repair, which costs £128 if out of one-year warranty, but there's still no real explanation for what's happened."

    Very smooth there.

    Fortunately, I don't seem to be having these problem. Granted, I haven't been using the PS3 too much lately, but those few Uncharted and Singstar sessions didn't have any trouble.

  • seasidebaz #48 2 years ago

    Woo, original comment on -3......

    OK then. All you people whingeing about this. I have a PS3 which works brilliantly, didn't get borked by the firmware updates, hasn't YLOD'd, anything like that.

    I also have an Xbox360. It's 1 month out of warranty. 1 MONTH. And the DVD drive has given up the ghost. It started to fail at EXACTLY the same time as the NXE came out. Coincidence? I don't know, I don't care. It'll cost me £60 to get it repaired. I could buy a similar DVD drive from eBuyer for about a fiver. I'm not whingeing about it, though. It's an electronics device. THEY DON'T LAST FOREVER.

  • Kengro #49 2 years ago

    3,01 killed my Ps3 again, this is the 3 time it's away for repairs. I still got my original 360 from launch day...
    I don't think i ever will buy a sony console on launch again
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 11:31

  • kipper #50 2 years ago

    @ Seasidebaz
    "I also have an Xbox360. It's 1 month out of warranty. 1 MONTH. And the DVD drive has given up the ghost. It started to fail at EXACTLY the same time as the NXE came out."

    Um, the NXE has been out longer than a month. If the dvd drive started failing then, you should have logged the problem with MS and you would have been in warranty, surely?

  • seasidebaz #51 2 years ago

    @kipper:

    No cos at the time it was just the occasional disc read error if I tried to install a game without playing it first, but it was still working pretty much perfectly. Over the past month it's turned into full-blown grinding and ticking, with about 20 attempts needed to get a game to run.

  • Freek #52 2 years ago

    That's the one good thing about your Xbox breaking, the costumer service and extended warranty is excelent.
    Well, it had to be, to deal with so many borked xbox 360's.

  • seasidebaz #53 2 years ago

    @Freek:

    I thought the extended warranty only extended to E74 and RRoD's though?

  • kipper #54 2 years ago

    @seasidebaz

    I see. I only mentioned it as I work in (not game console) tech support and occasionally get calls from customers who say their problem started months ago but for whatever reason they are only calling us now, and by then sometimes its too late.

  • lambtron #55 2 years ago

    I think what is clear here is that both the PS3 AND the Xbox360 have unacceptable failure rates. Sony have always been pretty bad in this respect - up until the 360 I'd only ever had Sony consoles die on me, first the PS1, then the PS2. Nintendo and Sega machines never had the slightest problem (at least in my experience).

  • Darren #56 2 years ago

    @seasidebaz - It does but I'd still claim that my Xbox 360 has RRODed anyway to get a free repair. After all, they can be intermittent and the 360s are tested after repair (presumably?) so whatever fault you have will end up being fixed, including dodgy DVD drivers, etc. I can't imagine Microsoft being so tight as to charge someone for a repair just because it turned out the fault wasn't E74 or RROD related.

  • Penguinzoot #57 2 years ago

    Seasidebaz, just to reiterate what Darren is saying, my RROD Elite came back from repair a couple of weeks ago. MS also tested and replaced the DVD drive. I hadn't asked them to, I had no idea there was a problem with it actually - but it was replaced at the same time as the motherboard was, essentially gratis since my Elite is 2.5 years old.

    On topic, I haven't experienced this issue on my launch PS3 yet. I haven't played any BRD, but have been replaying Uncharted again in readiness for U2.
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 12:34

  • EvilBob_leeds #58 2 years ago

    @jonthepym

    How can Sony NOT make any money from repairs?

    By charging what it costs them?

    Are you saying that all breakages cost EXACTLY half the price of a new console to fix?

    It does have to be does it? Why couldn't it be that that price represents the average cost to Sony.

  • Tetsuo_Shima #59 2 years ago

    lambtron - "Nintendo and Sega machines never had the slightest problem (at least in my experience)."

    My NES, SNES and Gameboy Advance are still as good as they ever were (and that's 19 years down the line for the NES), but I'd say that's more to do with the fact that they are all cartridge consoles with no moving parts. The first Nintendo console I had problems with was the Gamecube, frequent disc read errors (and those were pretty common on the GC until they fixed the hardware) so I'd say it's mostly mechanical wear and tear from moving lenses/spinning discs etc.

  • mkreku #60 2 years ago

    I think the cost stems from the fact that they probably don't actually REPAIR anything. It's probably just a case of replacing the motherboard with a new one, or something like that. That ought to be expensive.

  • GreyBeard #61 2 years ago

    TBH I'd be more concerned about this:

    [link url=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/announcement.php?f=2&a=38 ]http://ww w.neogaf.com/forum/announcement...[/link]

    (Assuming its true.)

    Although regardless of anything else, this is the sort of issue I'd expect to see from a shoddy fw update, not random stuff like somehow killing/disabling the blu-ray. Which is associating a pure hardware failure with a software change, and therefore extremely unlikely.

  • Darren #62 2 years ago

    @EvilBob_leeds - I was told by the Sony bod over the phone that launch PS3s are repaired using parts from unsold and returned machines at no profit to themselves (I thought it was amusing how that part was emphasised) so that £128 cost cannot be covering parts, they're salvaged after all, so it must be predominantly labour costs. I can't believe it costs that much to repair a PS3 when the Xbox 360 costs half of that. Therefore I can only conclude that Sony are profiting from these repairs despite what they claim to the contrary. Feel free to enlighten me though as I'm no expert on the intricacies of running a business.

  • EvilBob_leeds #63 2 years ago

    @Darren

    Launch machines maybe. Which doesn't mean all PS3s are repaired that way.

    There is a cost involved in taking back machines, and since the PS3s cost is that much higher than the XBoxes, you'd have to think that that plays a part (you don't need to be an expert on business to suss that out either ;-P). Part of the reason for that higher cost is that the PS3 comes with a lot more stuff (Blu Ray, WiFi etc) on board, but can all the parts of the PS3s they bring back be recycled? (rhetorical question, I don't know either)

    You'd also think that the fact that since a comparitively huge number of XBoxes came back to Microsoft, and where covered by the $1,000,000,000 Xbox repair fund, that MS have a large amount of spare parts, that don't necessarily have to be worked into the budget for OOW repairs.

    You'd also think that since the XBox's faliure rate was so high there's a chance that they're willing to provide even out of warranty repairs at a loss.

    It's all conjecture at the end of the day. I don't think a good case can be made that they're making a profit though.
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 14:11

  • rprince #64 2 years ago

    Is that repair cost flat rate? I assumed it was £128 for the not-turning-on-problem. I didn't realise it was the same to repair the Blu-ray drive. Their excuse in the letter to Watchdog for the high price of the repair for re-soldering the overheated chips back on was because of the very professional and very high cost hardware they need to do it!

  • EvilBob_leeds #65 2 years ago

    Nah, £99 for a knackered blu-ray, according to post #3

  • Spekingur #66 2 years ago

    I'm sorry but I just find MS repair policy alot better than Sony's. The costs of sending back the machines are so high? Seriously?

    Also, if you are out of (the 3 year) warranty on the X360 the DVD breaks down why go to an offical repair place and pay more than you have to for a new DVD? A very small amount of research reveals to us what DVD drives are okay to use with the machine and how you are supposed to install them.

  • Skinme #67 2 years ago

    My own personal gripe about all this is that consumers are being ripped off. In the UK ALL electrical goods have a 6 year warranty already put in place by the consumer rights act (the 6 year figure comes from previous cases that have gone through the courts). But no retailer or manufacturer is going to tell you this because that could potentially cost them a fortune.

    However, given the current situation in the UK it's not surprising that it's the consumer who ends up paying. The lack of guidance from the government on exactly how long "a reasonable length of time" is, added to the fact that they allow retailers to sell "extended" warranties that aren't worth the paper they're printed on, has created a mindset that consumers are only covered for 12 months.

    It wouldn't surprise me if, in a few years, we'll all be able to sue the likes of Currys and Argos over the "miss-selling" of extended warranties.

    If anyone here has paid for a repair I strongly urge you to demand a refund from the retailer (not Sony) that you bought your PS3 from. If they won't budge I strongly suggest going through the small-claims court. It doesn't cost much (around the £30 mark I believe) and you will have that refunded if you win.

    I would also like to point out that Sony are not, technically, in the wrong by charging for repairs. However, it should be the retailers paying for it, not the PS3 owners.

  • Mnia786 #68 2 years ago

    My PS3 has had the BR read error twice previously and when I sent it back to Sony, they gave me a new 1 year warranty...
    I bought mine as launch in the UK and sent it back in Feb 08 and Jan 09 and I still got a 1 year warranty. To be honest, I'd rather buy the fiver a month continuous play and make sure its accidentally insured too. And Sony is right when it comes to £128 repairs when most 3rd parties do it for about £100 and use no where near advanced repair techniques as Sony's manufacturing plants. My 2 pence though...

  • seasidebaz #69 2 years ago

    @Spekingur:

    The DVD drive isn't covered by a 3 year warranty. It's covered for 1 year (same as any other Xbox problem that isn't RRoD or E74).
    My 360 is 13 months old. If I replace the drive myself, I void 2 years worth of RRoD / E74 warranty that I have remaining.

  • BarcaAzul #70 2 years ago

    I don’t know if the issue is the same one I incurred about a year ago. Basically, There was a FW update, that incidentally changed settings for Video. I had been playing a Blu ray film before and then did the update. Once the FW update finished, the machine could no longer recognise any disk that I put in the drive.

    I spoke with Sony Spain and they took my serial number and said it was part of a batch that was prone to Blu ray Lens failure and that it was common in the range of 60GB and early 40GB machines. The machine was in warranty and was replaced (not refurbished). In spain, the period of Warranty by law for electrical appliances is two years anyway, although it failed in the first year. It took about 2 weeks to get a replacement.

    The biggest pain though is that even if you have your stuff backed up, it doesn’t allow you to re install some things on the new machine, like trophies. Even though they are stored on a server, its somehow linked to your MAC address or serial number. I think its to stop people copying others Trophy achievements.

  • sneetch #71 2 years ago

    BTW, "Sony has told Eurogamer that a firmware update cannot affect the Blu-ray drive on a PS3."

    They're right, it can't affect the drive, it can however completely balls up the drivers that the PS3 uses for that Blu-ray drive and the net effect would be that the Blu-ray drive on a PS3 just stops working.

    It could be physically 100% fine and completely buggered at the same time.

  • MeBrains #72 2 years ago

    @beano: about the 10y lifecycle and I expecting a warranty that long...

    much like what Skipper said. No, I do not expect a warranty that long. Customers abuse their consoles far too much to be able to give that amount of warranty.

    I _do_ expect a premium priced product to last as long as its intended lifecycle if it is treated "like a good housefather does" - meaning outside of extremes, with care etc etc. I hope you catch what I am trying to say. Apparently, this gen of HW is uncapable of doing so. With 360 it's been very very obvious. With PS3 a little less so, but as I said in the very first post: these kind of reports seem to be on the increase. My PS1 is still working, my PS2 is, my SNES is, my Game Boy Color is etc etc. They have been treated well and should continue to function as long as they are treated well - so to say...

  • DevilsNeverCry #73 2 years ago

    Lol, 128 shmackos.

    What a fuckin joke.

    Also, what Sony has just said is CRAP.

    If Firmware can't affect the Blu-ray player, how come the Blu-ray player got upgraded to the 2.0 firmware thing? So, there-in, FW CAN in fact affect the Blu-Ray.

    I love the PS3 but damn Sony have some strange business ethics.

  • blackbriar101 #74 2 years ago

    Out of 10 blu-rays viewed only one froze,'The Watchmen'.I researched the problem and adjusted the video settings and the last 2 blu - rays worked perfectly,Blu - ray discs fracture very easily (easier than DvDs) so unless you are certain its the blu-ray drive then dont send it for repair

  • TONYgr #75 2 years ago

    Is there anywhere someone who is sure that his ps3 was able to read games on disk and after they updated to 3.1 stopped reading properly immediatly????

  • belziah #76 2 years ago

    PS3's dont break, they merely unveil a new feature...................:)

  • Theorendil #77 2 years ago

    Well i've been running 3.00 with no issues so far. Well sort of, the other day while on the song selection menu of Guitar Hero World Tour, the screen went black while the sound kept playing, but it came back after a couple of seconds, it could've been my fault though... I haven't tried Uncharted yet as i'm busy playing other ganes at the moment, including Arkham Asylum which some people in other forums blame for breaking their PS3s...

    I have to say though that the ONLY problem i've experienced with my PS3 so far was that once, while i tried to quit TR Underworld, the screen froze during the please wait message and the PS3 rebooted itself! I have a 40 gig one BTW and i have only used it as a Blu Ray player twice! A bit of advice: it's better to use a console for one purpose only, i mean that if you use it as both a DVD/Blu Ray player and a gaming console, the laser thingy is gonna break down a lot faster! Now i'm not a technician or anything like that, but i do think that a firmware update CAN'T cause hardware damage... I might be wrong though...

    BTW, is the 3.01 update mandatory? Cause i still run 3.00 and i am able to access the net and the PS Store without ay problems or messages urging me to upgrade the firmware... If it's not mandatory, then i probably won't get it, just to be on the safe side lol! If it ain't broke don't fix it, probably the wisest thing anyone has ever said... Sorry for any grammar mistakes etc, English is not my first language!

    PS. If all 3.01 does is fix the uncharted problem, wouldn't it be more logical to just release a patch for the game itself instead of the whole damned firmware? You know, like they did when they added trophies to it... It would have saved them A LOT of trouble it appears...
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 17:28

  • GreyBeard #78 2 years ago

    @Devilsnevercry

    BD profile2.0 compatibility is all software based and has absolutely no bearing on the machine's ability to physically read data off the disk. Think of it as an upgrade to the BluRay playback operating system.

    The issue people are talking about happens when the bluray diode that drives the pickup laser fails. The machine suddenly cannot recognize BD media because it has no way to read the disc.

    Its like a lightbulb popping, it can just happen. You go to turn it on, and... nothing.

  • bing #79 2 years ago

    @EFH 'I'm not aware of the problem and I don't have the problem. So, meh.'

    Not aware of it, yet posting in the comments blog on an article about it, I really don't understand that??

  • sneetch #80 2 years ago

    @bing
    @EFH 'I'm not aware of the problem and I don't have the problem. So, meh.'

    Not aware of it, yet posting in the comments blog on an article about it, I really don't understand that??

    Yeah, also surely he'd have to be at least partially aware of the problem in order to even be aware that there is a problem that he's (apparently) not aware of?

    How can you come to this comments thread and post a comment and still remain unaware of the problem?

    Does not compute!

  • bing #81 2 years ago

    @sneetch yeah I did find it a bit funny, dont like to be pedantic, but sometimes I can't resist ;)

  • Negotiator #82 2 years ago

    PS3 is fine, working great....please install firmware 3.01, ok whats the worst that can happen....install complete, PS3 stops working. Ring,ring ring, hello Mr Sony, I installed your firmware update and my PS3 Blu-ray drive has stopped working the way it was before the update. Hello, hello, Mr Sony (sounds of people shitting their pants), yes hello, the problem you have that occurred right after the update is not related what so ever. Are you sure Mr Sony, oh yes, I never lie,(Customer) what about E3 2005 Mr Sony,(Mr Sony) well forget about that, nobody's perfect. Send me the PS3 with money in an envelope and I'll fix it for you, mmkay.

  • Chazmeister #83 2 years ago

    If it hasn't already been mentioned, that 1 year warranty should not affect your statutory rights with the retailer you bought the machine from.

    Check out this site here on how to deal with the retailer about trying to get your PS3 repaired for free after the warranty has expired. Just make sure you kept the receipt/proof of purchase. Hope it helps.

    http://wh atconsumer.co.uk/faulty-playsta...

  • MeBrains #84 2 years ago

    @negotiator: woooaaahh... the Haallloooh machine is brand new cool shit stuff. Wow. Lovely. ... nah. what the hell?! three red lights? let's call Mr. MS. Heey MS, got this three red lights here. Oh, you know about it. Oh, it's named RRoD? Oh, it was just ill-engineered?! Oh but fixing it is free. Wow... that is friggen stellar man!

    2weeks later. WoooaahH shit. Master Chief's got RRoD'd again?! Yeah, halo mr. MS (get it, get it?!). Yeah. Another RRoD. Send it back?! Sure thing. For free. You guys are so fucking awesome!

    2 more weeks on. Damn. Another RRoD. Well Mr. MS, got that crap RRoD again. I'm getting pissed! Oh right. All things break. Oh so true, Mr. MS. I will put up with this, since yes, I have a 3y warranty. If only all other companies ill-engineered their products and offered us a 3y warranty. You are the bestest MS!

    like so negotiator?

  • HeinzHarald #85 2 years ago

    Let's do some experimental math. Say the PS3 has a 5% failure rate (quite reasonable). Now say it sells a constant 500 000 worldwide every month year after year. That gives us 25 000 failing every month no matter if there's an update or not. Even if I'm completely off the mark there's bound to be thousands of PS3s failing every month. Most likely many of the owners are heavy Internet users and if they can pinpoint something to put the blame on they probably will (and type it out loud).

    Now if a new type of failure suddenly becomes prevalent that's interesting, but as far as I can tell that's not really the case here but rather that a group of people have found something they have in common and use it to stir up an even bigger storm.

    This is not proof by any means, but I'd say the chances of the update having nothing to do with the trouble people are experiencing is quite a bit higher than the opposite.

    All this being said the cost of repair seems a bit over the top, though the blu-ray is bound to be quite expensive to replace.
    Edited by 3 at 01/10/09 @ 19:42

  • Power_n_Glory #86 2 years ago

    I was just on the verge of buying a 250 gig slim PS3 for £284 with Fifa 10, Killzone and Liitle Big Planet. I was set on getting one tomorrow after work but this report is quite worrying. My brother has a PS3 and he advised me to put a 2 year warranty on it because he's had the YLOD out of warranty and has had to buy a new Slim.

    I'm hoping these new Slim lines are more reliable but who knows. Sony has to do something about that warranty. I've got a 360 it's broken down twice and it's annoying. But I'd be fuming if I had to pay over £100 to get it fixed only to get a 3 month warranty.

    All those who've had a problem with the PS3, what model was it? I doubt anyone can report a problem with the Slim yet, but I'm hoping it's just the 60gigs that have the problem.

  • Darren #87 2 years ago

    Sorry to repeat what's been said but it really pisses me off that Sony think it is OK to charge their customers £128 to have a £250-£425 console repaired after a year when, in all likelihood, it broke down because of poor quality parts. £128 is over 50% of the cost of a new PS3!!! Even if I used my PS3 24/7 for watching movies and playing games I think a one year lifespan is completely unacceptable but that's what Sony are saying when they ask money for repairs outside of the warranty period. Same for any manufacturer that charges for repairs after just 12 months.

    It's disgraceful IMO and someone ought to do something about this so electronic goods (not just consoles) have longer guarantees than the bog-standard 12 months. Dunno about anyone but I'm at the point now where if I buy something electronic I expect to break down within a few years and if it lasts more than three years then that's a bonus. I'm beginning to wonder if quality doesn't matter anymore because manufacturers expect their customers to keep buying new products every two or three years. Maybe it's all a conspiracy to make us spend more money? :?
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 22:43

  • davisorle #88 2 years ago

    I only like Sony partially thanks to their statement and repair pricing.. For sticking it where it belongs when it comes to fanboys. Im sorry but I do. Enjoy the ride fellas. lol
    Edited by 1 at 02/10/09 @ 16:40

  • T-e-x #89 2 years ago

    Sony has told Eurogamer that a firmware update cannot affect the Blu-ray drive on a PS3.

    what a joke!!!!!!!! so the ps3 as the ultimate ("stand alone blu-ray player";), with the feature to be updated from sony 1 or 2 twice a year was a lie!?)
    and how come Uncharted 1 worked so well with FW3.00??

    if they make a new firmware to fix this issue then PLEASE! add an auto-eject feature just before installing ps3 firmware updates on the system (especially if there is a bios flash update for the blu-ray drive in the firmware) like in FW3.00/FW3.01 "uncharted would Froze/ not read disc (ring a bell??)" if someone remember

    this quote confirms my opinion i would say
    "was on killzone 2 was going 2 play multiplayer on line when it said i needed 2 up date to firmware 3.00 downloaded and ***installed firmware when ps rebooted the blue ray drive had dissappeared the splash screen ps3 still boots but wont recognise any discs blue ray dvd or cd was working perfect before update 3.00 as i was playing killzone 2 since updated to 3.01 drive still missing can anyone help me many thanks in advance."****

    there's a easy way to test this thing out if anyone out there still got a 60Gb ps3 whit Firmware 2.80 then put Killzone2 in the drive and update to Firmware 3.00 and see how long the drive works...

    [link url=http://community.eu. playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=147&thr ead.id=43125
    ]http://co mmunity.eu.playstation.com/play...[/link]
    [link url=http://community.eu. playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=147&thr ead.id=42160
    ]http://co mmunity.eu.playstation.com/play...[/link]
    [link url=http://community.eu .playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=62&thr ead.id=1609584
    ]http://co mmunity.eu.playstation.com/play...[/link]

    @Eurogamer Get Sony back on the phone! and ask some critical questions!!

    Did they flash the bios of the blu-ray drive do to (the ps3slim`s NEW blu-ray drive hardware) so the old ones(60GB) are up to date!? FW2.80 / FW3.00 / FW3.01 ???

    and why make Firmware 3.01!!? do to reading errors of uncharted 1 with firmware 3.00 (and then say firmware update cannot affect the Blu-ray drive on a PS3)

    Does flashing of a drives bios/firmware with a media in the drive have any effect on the drive/lens ?
    Edited by 2 at 02/10/09 @ 05:03

  • Chazmeister #90 2 years ago

    @Milkybkid

    It is not a six year warranty, and it is something that is covered by your statutory rights under the Sales of Goods Act, as I have already linked to here: http://wh atconsumer.co.uk/faulty-playsta...

  • davisorle #91 2 years ago

    @seasidebaz
    "I thought the extended warranty only extended to E74 and RRoD's though? "

    Well other than the E74 everything else hardware related is always displayed to the owner of the console with a specific amount of red lights on it. So for those that threw it off the balcony when they lost a round online, no its not covered.. lol

    Stil amused though to read a few posts in the last page and yet even the ones that say that got YRoD etc are ok with paying the repairs and not think Sony's fault. Then you ppl like you are accused are too filthy and your PS3 freaked cause of the duust so rather be insulted than your consoles? The submition has no limits for some ppl. From women torwards guys in bed its sexy. This isnt, just a heads up :p Btw a friend of mine that has a PS3 ( old version ) we were talking and he was telling me that he has no issues and today he text me:

    "Fuck you dude

    P.S. 3...."

    XD Poor thing :p

  • Theorendil #92 2 years ago

    Hmmm i have to say that i haven't a read a single post here about someone saying that his/her PS3 stopped working or whatever after the firmware upgrade, though i have to say that in other sites, especially the PS Blog, there are litteraly hundreds of them... I smell a rat!

    What i think happened is that by pure coincidence, some machines that were already dying, did break down after the upgrade and a lot of people with simillar PS3 problems started posting in an attempt to get their consoles fixed for free by Sony... Also, major flaming and fanboy sites like IGN and Gametrailers don't have a single news posting or forum thread about this problem!

    As my PS3 is already 2 years old i have to say that i was a bit worried about this, but some of the posts i read were simply ludicrous! One guy blamed the update because his Blu-Ray broke down 15 days after he installed it! Another says that his console was freezing a lot more after the upgrade than before he installed it, thus indicating that it was probably on its way out anyway... Most of the posters though say that the errors started while watching blu Ray movies which further proves my theory that a console should either be used as a gaming machine or a media player, NOT both!

    Then of course there are the" i'm on my nth Xbox or Ps3 now" people! I think that when a machine breaks down repeadetly when you're using it, then you're probably doing something wrong... One of them actually found it weird that his PS3 died after a continuous 48 hour Modern Warfare session!
    Edited by 1 at 02/10/09 @ 17:42

  • davisorle #93 2 years ago

    @Theorendil
    When a normal person would just realise that the fanboys wouldnt dare to say such thing in this site, just to the official forums in order to avoid paying the repairs?

    Is it just me or some people think in a VERY very weird way way too much lately? o.O

    Edit: I have the 360 from day one and healthy thankfully even if Its been in use hardcore the first 2 years ( now im too busy to pay mor than a bit each month :S ). Never RRoD but when they said that so many died within a couple of dies after an update back in the days I never said that its anyone else's fault than MS. Defending MS would be mazohism even if I wasnt the one that got fucked by the phenomenon. So.. You know what Id say next :p

    Edit2: Wireless keyboard started eating up letters as you can see again so dont mind that much. I ll finish my smoke and probably change batteries. Should do :)
    Edited by 2 at 02/10/09 @ 17:55

  • Theorendil #94 2 years ago

    Hmmm, apparently i was wrong... According to these guys: http://ww w.homemediamagazine.com/playsta... Sony has aknowledged the problem and is looking into it... An IT consultant says that a fix that makes the Blu Ray Drive spin faster in order to reduce access times, is what gives the older machines trouble by overheating them or something...

  • xillius200 #95 2 years ago

    Been looking into it with a team of PS3 hackers and the problem is caused by the firmware update on certain machines thanks to updating the firmware of the blu-ray drive itself however because of some being a different model etc it has had a bad effect. Please not before you say anything i am not xillius the user he stole my name lol.

    PS: Just as the above person says it is caused by a chip which is different on ps3 slim and normal. the slim can read discs up to 12x disc speed however the old normal ps3 cannot read at this disc speed making this problem.
    Edited by 2 at 08/10/09 @ 21:29