Now, I'm starting to get worried. I pull out my laptop, open up Chrome and search "flashing red light on ps3." LOTS of posts about this. I think, "Well, if it's a common problem, someone will know how to fix/reset it." First few articles state it's a warning light for overheating. I get up and take a look at all of the cooling vents on the PS3. Not very much dust, I usually try and keep it clean, but it has always run pretty hot. I turn it on again, same sequence of lights, then beep, beep, beep flashing red LED. Okay, back to the Internet, let's see what else people say. I find some longer, more in-depth posts about all sorts of problems with PS3's. I quickly learn about the dreaded Yellow Ring Of Death and how to tell if that is what's wrong with your PS3. I also recognize the tell-tale signs of that most heinous of hardware failures. My PS3 is dead. I got it the Christmas season of 2006 as a gift to myself, because I had gotten caught up in all of the hype before it came on the market. I remember being in awe of starting it up for the first time. A great piece of machinery, but unfortunately as an early-adopter you sometimes have play the role as beta-tester. There were several articles about how the first-generation 60 GB PS3's, because they had backwards-compatibility, also had PS2 components inside them. That's why they were so big and ran so hot. Now, it seems a lot of those first-gen machines are starting to fail. I can't complain really, I had it for 4 solid years and used it a lot. I played lots of games all of the way through and watched countless Blu-Ray movies so I think I got my money's worth. Still, it was a little sad to see it sitting there, lifeless. Oh, and I had Black Ops in the drive when it died. So, that was my next challenge.
Since, I figured I was going to have to buy another PS3, I wasn't about to have to spend money on buying a new copy of Black Ops. I started searching Google again and came across several YouTube videos of how to take apart your PS3. I watched one video on how to crack it open, and I got it open relatively easily. Here are some pics:
The next video I watched actually showed how to disassemble the Blu-Ray drive, which I needed to do to get my game disc out. I didn't take any pics because I was getting kind of frustrated while I was doing it. After awhile of struggling with it I just wanted to get done as quickly as possible and stopped documenting my progress. I finally got it out and then proceeded to attempt to put it back together. It didn't quite fit back the way it was originally, so I might have just really broken it beyond repair completely. Either way, I already got a new one, a slim version. It's nice and small, and it doesn't run super loud or hot. Articles comparing the different versions say the new ones should have a much longer lifespan, just no backwards-compatibility. I never played PS2 games on it anyway. At some point I probably will attempt to "fix" it, just because it would be fun to have 2 in the house for LAN parties. We'll see, it might just sit in my closet for years, that happens around here sometimes.
