Playstation 3 woes - 3 Beeps and RLOD

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

AfricanDave wrote:

I think the Playstation 3 has so much more potential than the Xbox but there aren't enough good games. Also it's too expensive

Definitely. I'dve been a PS man up to the Xbox 360 and PS3 came out. I think Sony have dropped the ball on this one. They may stage a comeback with the PS4.

Be careful now. The ps3 has seen a recent rise in sales since Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots came out. It also was not released till nearly a year after the xbox 360. It is only a year and a half old and has a lot of catching up to do, at the same time it has an awful lot of potential. Plus the decision to produce 40gb models instead of the 60gb has reduced price and vastly improved sales. It's also the cheapest bluray disc player on the market.

It doesnt have reverse compatibility anymore though which is most annoying - particularly for those of us with a lust for Jonah Lomu Rugby.

johnfás wrote:

It doesnt have reverse compatibility anymore though which is most annoying - particularly for those of us with a lust for Jonah Lomu Rugby.

Exactly. This is third time unlucky for Sony. Xbox and the Wii have beaten them this time.

By reverse compatibility do you mean you can't play ps2 games on the ps3?
If that's the case then I definitely wouldn't get one.

The thing about the PS3 is the bluray, which really should be taken advantage of. Imagine the quality of the games you could play when you can fit 25gb on a single disk!

AfricanDave wrote:

By reverse compatibility do you mean you can't play ps2 games on the ps3?
If that's the case then I definitely wouldn't get one.

That is precisely what I mean.

Or ps1 games in the case of Lomu.

The 60gb version they first released had reverse compatibility but they have dropped it in the more recent versions. If you want it you have to buy second hand. The 60gb one isn't even manufactured anymore.

johnfás wrote:

It doesnt have reverse compatibility anymore though which is most annoying - particularly for those of us with a lust for Jonah Lomu Rugby.

60 gb does, though the 40 gb doesn't.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

johnfás wrote:

It doesnt have reverse compatibility anymore though which is most annoying - particularly for those of us with a lust for Jonah Lomu Rugby.

Exactly. This is third time unlucky for Sony. Xbox and the Wii have beaten them this time.

Yet current sales are not indicating that.

http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/07/18/june-npd-wii-overtakes-xbox-360-in-total-sales-ps3-gaining-momentum/

johnfás wrote:

I've got a PS2 and a Wii... I feel fairly fulfilled by them. The only game I play on the Playstation is the Jonah Lomu Rugby and the Pro Evolution Soccer games. I rarely use the Wii - it isn't in fact mine, but my brother's.

The only two games I`ve ever come across worth playing, although I`ve avoided all the football manager ones because I know that they`d destroy my life. Kudos to Johnfás

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

riadach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Does breathing in and out fix playstations ?
I'll go for a drink with anyone who can fix playstations.

Your ps3? Did you download that 2.40 update or something?

I did a firmware upgrade a few months ago alright and all was fine. I don't remember what revision it was.
On thursday last I switched it on and I got 'THE RED BLINKING LIGHT OF DEATH'.
It's 2 months out of warranty.

Couldn't you install the earlier firmware update? Overwrite the new one like.

Pax wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

riadach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Does breathing in and out fix playstations ?
I'll go for a drink with anyone who can fix playstations.

Your ps3? Did you download that 2.40 update or something?

I did a firmware upgrade a few months ago alright and all was fine. I don't remember what revision it was.
On thursday last I switched it on and I got 'THE RED BLINKING LIGHT OF DEATH'.
It's 2 months out of warranty.

Couldn't you install the earlier firmware update? Overwrite the new one like.

I can do nothing Pax. It's not running.

The PSU has a 5V rail (2Amps) and a 12V rail rated at 32 Amps.

The 5V comes up OK and I can see it one corner of the mother board with a small reg to 3.3V. This seems to be powering a standby processor.
The 12V on the PSU has to be enabled by something on the motherboard. Presumably the standby micro. However I can see it is not getting enabled.

Pretty much everything on the PCB is powered from the 12V rail through loads of switching and linear regulators.

So I have to figure out why the standby is not enabling the PSU. It possibly thinks there is an unsafe thermal condition.

Edit: I should add I enabled the PSU out of the unit and the 12V came up OK, I didn't load test it though. But I'm fairly sure the PSU is good.

Ok, which yoke is busted?



Plenty of pictures of ps3 insides

Oh that's different to mine. That one looks newer.

Here's my one.

Anyone trying to follow this conversation would do worse than look here
http://www.tipidpc.com/tpcacronyms.php

or here
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=siteInfo&doc_id=31452

Have you got equiptment which will let you test all the little voltages going everywhere? And is it a matter of finding a unit and soldering a new yoke in or could the printed circuits themselves be fecked and could they be fixed if some are burned out or whatever is wrong or are you convinced it's a unit that's gone.

Well, I can borrow any equipment I need from work, scopes and stuff.
I doubt the printed copper is fecked, I think it is something fairly simple. I strongly suspect it is related to those thermal monitors.

All of those parts can be swapped out except the BGAs (the big flat ones). You need a reflow station to do them.

You're enjoying this more than Resistance: Fall of Man aren't you?

Are you guessing at the moment or have you physically followed the power through the circuits and units? If you need new little units can you get them easily enough or what?

Guessing is the wrong word - you're testing it some way with process of elimination or how are you doing it?

Oh there's guesswork alright. I have no schematic or anything.

An odd thing now is that one of the temp monitors is reading 0.74V on the sensor diode, the other one is reading 0.95V. That seems very high to me..

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Oh there's guesswork alright. I have no schematic or anything.

An odd thing now is that one of the temp monitors is reading 0.74V on the sensor diode, the other one is reading 0.95V. That seems very high to me..

So a regulator before that might be the wrong size? Which temp monitor is which anyway? Maybe you could use something like this to identify them

The PS3 has a system whereby it goes into standby if it gets too hot. According to the manual it blinks red if it is overheating. Mine is blinking red. So I think it thinks it's too hot, when it isn't.

This is the chip used to monitor the temp. ADT7461A

There is one for both the big CPUs, and one for something else. Trouble is, I think the sensor diodes may be INSIDE the CPUs.

Is that ADT7461A the ASIC chip you've pointed out up there? Can you swap the AD chips out for new ones? Maybe the registers in the chips are wrong ?? The chips are hardly showing readings - you're using a yoke to read the voltages are you?

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Pax wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

riadach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Does breathing in and out fix playstations ?
I'll go for a drink with anyone who can fix playstations.

Your ps3? Did you download that 2.40 update or something?

I did a firmware upgrade a few months ago alright and all was fine. I don't remember what revision it was.
On thursday last I switched it on and I got 'THE RED BLINKING LIGHT OF DEATH'.
It's 2 months out of warranty.

Couldn't you install the earlier firmware update? Overwrite the new one like.

I can do nothing Pax. It's not running.

The PSU has a 5V rail (2Amps) and a 12V rail rated at 32 Amps.

The 5V comes up OK and I can see it one corner of the mother board with a small reg to 3.3V. This seems to be powering a standby processor.
The 12V on the PSU has to be enabled by something on the motherboard. Presumably the standby micro. However I can see it is not getting enabled.

Pretty much everything on the PCB is powered from the 12V rail through loads of switching and linear regulators.

So I have to figure out why the standby is not enabling the PSU. It possibly thinks there is an unsafe thermal condition.

Edit: I should add I enabled the PSU out of the unit and the 12V came up OK, I didn't load test it though. But I'm fairly sure the PSU is good.

Seems like you've run the psu diagnostic and its ok.You might still need a replacement power supply.... If there's a problem there you might also have a blown capacitor which could be leaking.

If it's a temp issue then the sensors are in the cpu. If this was an intel based pc or server then I'd be looking accusingly at that or else the northbridge, try and check the equivalent here and give them a blast of cool spray. You could narrow it down to one chip.

Other options might be this 'fix'
http://ps3.qj.net/Possible-PS3-flashing-red-light-fix-from-MXACE/pg/49/aid/75721

Although even if it worked the hard drive could be corrupted or damaged so it might re-occur. Not sure if you could run a chkdsk/fsck/disk utility type app on a DVD to repair it.

I brought the scope home this evening, the 12V enable is not happening.
The 3 thermal Analog Devices monitors are active and there is traffic on the I2C bus.

I tested the fan separately on a bench PSU. Nothing. It's a 3 wire fan, which are normally +12V, ground and tacho out. Nothing.

Got depressed and rang Sony again.
They confirmed the PS3 should still boot without the HD installed.

I'm sick of it now. €600 down the toilet.

Never again Mr. Sony.
A giant piece of shite.

If only I had the source code for that bloody ASIC....

EDIT: I took a chance and downloaded a PS3 repair manual for 25 dollars off the web. Absolute crap. A compendium of delirious rubbish taken from said web and PDF'd. Waste of money. could have got 10 beers for that.

Found this. I don't think it's my problem though. The PS3 should boot even with no HD installed

Quote :

Firmware 2.40 Bricks Playstation 3

Playstation 3 firmware update 2.40 has been one of the most sought for console updates with its addition of in-game XMB and trophies. Unfortunately, it also caused an unusual amount of problems.

Playstation 3 firmware update 2.40 caused a number of problems ranging from causing the console's controllers to malfunction to bricking the system all together. The problems have been confirmed to occur evenly across all Playstation 3 versions (20GB, 40GB, 60GB and 80GB).

A number of theories and workarounds have been proposed by Playstation 3 fans, but none of them is convincing enough yet.

Due to the widespread problems, Sony decided to pull off the once mandatory update and issued an official statement saying that "In order to further assess the issue, we have temporarily taken the firmware offline for further testing. We are working diligently to isolate the problem for those few consumers and to identify a solution before we put the firmware back up."

If you are one of the unlucky gamers who got their Playstation 3s bricked (doesn't boot up) after updating to firmware 2.40, you can take off the console's hard disk drive, connect it to a PC, format it, then put it back into the Playstation 3. Your console will boot and ask you to reformat the hard disk, do it and everything will run normally. Of course, this workaround means losing all your savegames and downloads.

Yes that is what my friend was recommended to do but he just rang Sony and is getting a new one instead.

I wouldn't bother. Sony just announced that they are laying off 16,000 employees. There will be nobody around to fix these when they inevitably screw up.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZIqcnQCtHWQ&refer=home

Nasty!

I saw that in the paper earlier with the employees getting let go. EVM if you fix that yoke maybe you could start a business.

Firmware is nothing to do with cups and saucers of a robust style but software that lives in and runs certain microchips. Can you get at that firmware or are PS3 fans able to hack it at all ? Sometimes problems in Opensource get fixed rapidly because there are trillions of engineers the world over able to work on it all of a sudden. What's more, they want to work on it.