Help! Emergency on the PS3

Stacy A

Supporting Founder
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Sep 15, 2003
1,248
0
northeast Texas
Yesterday, the kids dropped in GH3 to play and it started (according to my 18 year old) and he chose a song to play and then the machine locked up. When he turned it off and got it started again the PS3 won't recognize any discs at all, period. I've tried all our PS3 games, a netflix bluray, and DVD's. No joy. It doesn't recognize any disc at all. I'm assuming the drive has died. What do I do? Has anyone dealt with this before?
 
I've read where people have replaced the drive but its usualy by buying another broken ps3 off of ebay which can run you $100 - $200. Not sure what the cost is to send a ps3 into sony for repair but it may be worth it.
 
Or if over a year old, but purchased with a credit card check out the terms of your credit card. Many credit cards extend manufacturer's warranties.
 
I won it from Scott and Eva at the satguys christmas party just over a year ago. :eek: So I don't have a receipt of any kind, although it is out of warranty, just barely.

Anyway, I don't think it's the hard drive. It boots and loads the games I have that are on the hard drive (e.g. - Bejeweled 2, etc..). Just no discs get recognized. I happened to think about the PS Network and went over there and found support info. Apparently, this issue is one they feel needs to have the unit sent in for. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and send it in with payment. :eek:
 
Well if you would rather sell it and get a new one thats always an option to, depending on the problem they do sell for up to $200 broken on ebay.
 
Since I got the thing free, I figure if if $150 is all I have to spend on it for now, it's worth that much. The kids are reall bummed about it and keep asking about getting it fixed.
 
Got bored and did a google,

[ame=http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=h15&oq=&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS265US265&q=replacing+a+ps3+optical+drive]replacing a ps3 optical drive - Google Search[/ame]
 
Good find Van. I just did a search a little bit ago after asking a question on the PSN forums about when Sony takes the $149 repair fee out of your account. Some guy had posted that he found a youtube video about cleaning the lens and I saw there are a number of things I can try on my own to fix the issue - the easiest, and one that seems to work for at least a few people, is to use a can of compressed air to blow out any dust. Apparently in at least a few cases, the optical lens is just too dusty to continue to recognize discs. Failing that, I will just pay the repair fee and send it in.
 
Get the receipt from Scott and call Sony's customer service dept. It's not that far out of warranty that they may in fact extend it as a courtesy.
 
I wouldn't even bother you with that, Eva. It is out of warranty, so I play by the rules. I'll be ordering the coffin for it next week. I read on the PSN forums that it takes about 9-12 days for them to get the machine back to you, sometimes its yours, sometimes its a refurb. I'm surprised they can do the turn around as quickly as they do.
 
I wouldn't even bother you with that, Eva. It is out of warranty, so I play by the rules. I'll be ordering the coffin for it next week. I read on the PSN forums that it takes about 9-12 days for them to get the machine back to you, sometimes its yours, sometimes its a refurb. I'm surprised they can do the turn around as quickly as they do.
The biggest delay is transit time. My 360 RRoDed and I had to send it down to TX. There was about a 1 day span between when they got it and when they sent out another one. The biggest delay was the UPS ground shipping I had to deal with. Hopefully you're close to their repair center.
 
Fortunately I live in Texas, and if I understood correctly, the center is in Laredo, Texas. So, maybe the transit time won't be too long.
 
Fortunately I live in Texas, and if I understood correctly, the center is in Laredo, Texas. So, maybe the transit time won't be too long.
Too bad you can't just drive down there and drop it off then go to work and pick it up, like when you get your oil changed and you drop teh car off in the morning and pick it up after work.
 
Too bad you can't just drive down there and drop it off then go to work and pick it up, like when you get your oil changed and you drop teh car off in the morning and pick it up after work.

Its funny...people forget that Texas is a little large. Stacy A is over 500 miles from Laredo.