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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

PS3 - Do these things really suck this bad, or is it me?

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So, I'm on my third PS/3 in about five years. The first one began a slow death one cold winter's day, I believe while I was playing Fallout 3. It just started "freezing", with the disk I/O light flashing madly. I made a mistake and pulled the power cord after about five minutes of frustrated waiting, plugged it back in and got the nasty "You didn't shut me down right! Now I have to see if my disk is OK." message. (Ok, the wording was different, I don't remember it, to be honest). Over the next few days, the "freezing" seemed to get worse. No amount of bribing or cajoling helped - neither did carefully blowing out the PS3, reformatting the disk, etc. So, it eventually got binned.

The second PS/3 lasted 1 year, 1 month - almost to the day. It began simply shutting itself off - then proceeded to do the strange "freezing" thing. This time on Skyrim - a notorious source of load for these consoles. I decided to get a bit proactive about it, and disassembled the PS/3 - it being out of warranty anyway. I basically modded it to fit into a PC case, put liquid cooling on it - went all out. It performed very quickly and flawlessly until the coolant leaked...

Third PS/3 - starting to do the same thing. It's not quite a year old yet. This time, on Fallout: New Vegas. (I've noted that all three games share the same antiquated Bethesda engine). Today, I've formatted it and dropped in a 240GB Intel SSD in the hopes that that'll help performance. I have read that the reviews of an SSD PS/3 are mixed, at best - I figure it can't hurt to try, at least - if nothing else, it'll decrease the thermal load.

More information:
- House temperature is a stable ~72 degrees fahrenheit.
- It's kept relatively dust free.
- The PS/3 is stationed on TOP of an entertainment center/platform. Ventilation is not an issue.

Can I do anything at all to preserve the life of these things? Or is it time to just build a damned gaming PC and be done with them?

I really like the PS3 for the "one-shop" ability to play Netflix, Amazon and use a PS/3 media server to play other things.

Given my history, though - I'm damned reluctant to pay money for a PS/4.
 





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I have an original, gen 1 PS3 (the ones with the PS2 emulation in hardware) and I never turn it off. It's been running for YEARS... games, streaming vids, folding at home, more games, both wifi and lan ports active at different times... etc. I mean, it gets used A LOT. I haven't had TV service at my house in over 4 years, so my wife uses it for NetFlix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, etc almost daily. I'm knockin on wood here, but the PS3 imho is a powerhouse of stamina.

Sorry you had some bad luck with 'em... I don't have anything bad to say about my experience with the Sony PS3.

c

ps. I have 3 dogs and 2 cats, so I constantly have to blow dust and cat hair out of all the vent ports. It sits on carpet on the floor. It may as well be submersed in dust.
 
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I have an original, gen 1 PS3 (the ones with the PS2 emulation in hardware) and I never turn it off. It's been running for YEARS... games, streaming vids, folding at home, more games, both wifi and lan ports active at different times... etc. I mean, it gets used A LOT. I haven't had TV service at my house in over 4 years, so my wife uses it for NetFlix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, etc almost daily. I'm knockin on wood here, but the PS3 imho is a powerhouse of stamina.

Sorry you had some bad luck with 'em... I don't have anything bad to say about my experience with the Sony PS3.

c

ps. I have 3 dogs and 2 cats, so I constantly have to blow dust and cat hair out of all the vent ports. It sits on carpet on the floor. It may as well be submersed in dust.

Wow, that's amazing - it's either been a bad batch, or I'm hard on electronics. I have an old Onkyo Integra receiver next to it that's been in operation for about 10 years, so - who knows?
 
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After getting a first gen ps3 2 weeks after launch im on my 5th Ps3 , Ive gone though 4 first gen consoles and 1 Slim console ,

yet My friend is still on his first 1st gen console :D
 
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Got the fat first released PS3 doing just fine till date..

Even when i dropped it onto the floor when i first unpackage it ^^
 

benmwv

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I have the first gen too. Use it almost exclusively for netflix now. Its been running great for years.
 
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The last one was totally stock until today, when I put an Intel SSD into it on my rebuild. Before, I'm pretty sure they were only stock, 5400 (or maybe even 4200) RPM drives.

The stock hard disk in the latest one is a Toshiba MK1676GSX, which according to Toshiba is a 5400 RPM drive "built for gaming consoles", heh.

By the way, watching these things download DLCs over AT&T U-verse is like watching paint grow, grass dry, or some mixture of the above.
 
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Sounds like you've had the same luck with the PS3 as others have had with the 360. I've never owned a PS3 since they were priced too high and I didn't and still don't like BR.

As for the hard drives, I'm not sure why they use crappy 5400 RPM drives. 2.5" hard drives suck as it is. I don't think I've had one that lasted more than 18 months.
 

DJNY

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I´m on my second PS3 right now, first died after 2 years of use.
 

IsaacT

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Still on my first PS3. Had it for a long time never any issues except it froze needing shutdown twice on skyrim..
 
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After replacing the drive with the SSD and letting it redownload everything, the performance actually seems quite zippy. I've done a few comparison runs (having timed the old ones before), and - for your interest, here they are:

Fallout New Vegas:
Initial Game Load (to "Press Start" screen) regular drive: 38 seconds
Initial Game Load (to "Press Start" screen) SSD: 23 seconds
Loading a game (to "Game Loaded." screen) regular: 15 seconds
Loading a game (to "Game Loaded." screen) SSD: 2 seconds
Zoning into game (from "Game Loaded" to actually able to play) regular: 18 seconds
Zoning into game (from "Game Loaded" to actually able to play) SSD: 13 seconds
Zoning from Goodsprings to Vegas Strip regular: 21 seconds
Zoning from Goodsprings to Vegas Strip SSD: 8 seconds

This performance increase COULD be from the SSD, or it could be from having a totally clean installation with no fragmentation. YMMV.

So, it definitely improves load times. That's a plus. I haven't noticed any jittery lags yet, and no "pauses" - only time will tell as far as that goes. It hasn't improved in-game performance at all - but, that was already acceptable for the most part.

I wish I'd thought to try Skyrim and Fallout regular for some before timings.

-------------------------
So, I guess I lied - it's still having trouble. After about an hour of playing, I've started to notice graphical glitches - the whole game devolving into a series of triangles. Oh, well - I'm not replacing this thing again. Time to build an XMBC box or something.
 
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I was first about to ask, when started reading, about the location of the console and ventilation, but you immediately answered that.

It grinds my gears when some people go like "This/that/other company makes crap products, they overheat and die" when they are keeping the said products closed up in a drawer and running games 24/7.

If somebody were to make 100% efficient chips that produce no heat, people would still find a way to f**k that up and blame the company and it's "sh**ty products".

Are you artist by any chance?
Running gag is that everything powered by electricity dies around artists :p

Say, how is the stability of the AC power in your home? There are spots everywhere, where power supply varies in voltage, frequency etc, and consoles, much like any other computer, are VERY sensitive about it, and unlike any other computer, do not have a biga** box that takes special care of the power provided.

Other than that, no idea.

I have personally never had a single computer component die on me, and I do not exactly change computers every night. On the other hand I have a friend who has such terrible luck with electronics, that we never run out of jokes to crack.
 
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Have a ps3 slim since it came out. Bedt piece of gaming hardware up to date :) solid like a rock :beer:
 




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