PlayStation Plus' new "free" game download killed PS3 Slim? "Came home to find it dead."

"A friend called me Friday afternoon and said he was having PS3 issues. His system would cut on, but the television was not displaying any video footage from the system. I asked him a series of questions (did he do a hard-reset, did he check/unplug the cables, did he unplug the television, etc.), seeing what all he had tried. After realizing he had done pretty much everything suggested on the PlayStation 3 forums, he mentioned he had even already taken it to Game Stop, where they tested it and told him they thought it was fried and/or a chip in it had stopped working.

I replied something like, "But your television still works right? And no other electronics are messed up?", trying to make sure it wasn't a lightning strike that hadn't been mentioned yet. I asked if he had the box still, and he said he was actually looking for the PS3 box as we were talking. I told him I would check back with him later that night, to see if he had made any progress.

After I sent a general text o...

[PirateThom]

What an odd conclusion to come to. A corrupted file is not going to lead to system failure like that. I had an issue with the Dust 514 auto update where it just froze and I had to turn the system off and on again and, guess what, the PS3 still works.

So, I'd say the corrupted data was, at best, a symptom, but not a cause.

[Abash]

"Free = Fried?"

I literally rolled my eyes when I read that, there could be so many captions that are actually witty and creative to use.... "Free = Fried?" though is just atrociously bad

[MmaFan-Qc]

my jeep is burning a lot of oil, i blame Sony for it.

[jadenkorri]

wow just wow, this shit happens all the time on computers and even the 360. I dled borderlands and installed it, no problems, as I am sure the millions of other people had no problem doing the same. 1 person, even out of 10000 dls is not a major issue.

[Veneno]

Is it a Turquoise Jeep?

Smang it, Playa

[jeseth]

What is really odd ....

I bought the GOTY Edition off Amazon and tried playing it today for the first time and my PS3 (320gb Slim) froze at the Main Menu every time. I tried about 5 or 6 times and couldn't get it to start, had to reset my PS3 every time because it froze.

I'm kind of bummed about it.

[SilentNegotiator]

I farted on the day jfk was shot. I must have killed him :(

This is such a BS coincidence. The author must not have the slightest clue about how computer hardware/software works.

[nrvalleytime]

Sentionalism looks as symptoms as the problem. Sadly, causes are usually ignored in articles like these because it won't gain hits.

[Awesome_Gamer]

Didn't happen to me...

[QuodEratDemonstrandm]

Of course not. Would you read a story if the headline was, "Some Guy's PS3 Breaks?"

[Armyless]

I am very close to taking N4G out of my daily website viewing rotation.

This is not an article, this is not journalism.

[bostoner]

Well The same thing happened to me with the corrupted data and the display not working when going into a game. The only difference is I'm not dumb enough to just go buy a new one. I was still able to do a back up with this problem and with a little compromise I was able to back up the important stuff on my 500GBs fairly quickly. Then a restore and a re load and problem solved. Also the system kept trying to pull a game in on start up with any game in there. I had to insert a disc and just eject it again and that headache was over. Corrupted files don't always cause chaos like this. I find though that a corrupted file not dealt with like restoring file system after incorrect shut down or such can have devastating effects on your system down the line. One which you may not be able to back up anything before the restore.

[Campy da Camper]

Agreed. I have about 5 corrupted files. They usually occurred when I was being impatient. I would go to delete a game file and before it populated the file name and size I already hit delete. After 5 minutes of freezing I would have to do a hard reboot via unplug the power supply. When I turned it back on I had a corrupted file.

I have noticed that when you are installing or deleting a file, you have to wait a few seconds once it opens for the name and file size to appear. If you just hit the action (delete/install) before this the system locks up and even the power buttons do not work. You have to literally unplug the system and then plug it back in. Once you boot up you have one of those lightning bolt thingy and it says corrupted file.

That said, my PS3 still works fine and I have a few of them lol

[morkendo23]

sony should be sued my shoe lace came undone, I've fallen cant get up.

[NewZealander]

corrupted data on ps3 pisses me off, every time i try to delete the corrupted data the console just locks up, why cant you get rid of it?

other issues im having is while watching TV on demand the system randomly tells me that there is not enough memory so the image has been replaced by a blank screen....WTF?
so ill reload watch the rest of my program then the console will freeze, hitting power gives three beeps, and when i boot back up it tells me data may have been corrupted and system is going to restore files, this is too regular for my liking!

[jjb1981]

A corrupted data file @ 2gb, took me an hour to delete, in the meantime I was watching the big bang theory...

[WeskerChildReborned]

Yea, that's like me blaming Prototype 2 for my PS3 braking, i bought a new PS3 and played Prototype 2 on it and it worked fine.

[Veneno]

GT 5 was the game that busted mine.

[Dee_91]

After a file was corrupt on my slim ps3 I had to reformat it.I lost all of my data I didnt have backed up.
My fat ps3 yellow light while I was downloading ..... coughcoughporncoughcough but it was already on its last leg anyway however corrupt files might can cause a system failure.Although leaving his PS3 on for 12 hours was more than likely what caused it.

[SnakeCQC]

it happened to one of my ps3s(im on my 4th) they died mainly from ylods but one died from that damn 3.60 FW update

[Ryto]

Recently got a ps3 slim and have only played the ps plus downloadable games, not had one crash or problem yet.

Just a silly article, probably damaged the ps3 from other reason, but I read someone else say this... If your DVD player went bust, would you blame the DVD?

[ame22]

I have malaria, must've been Playstation 3. Sue Sony.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I would join you, but we can't do class action suits anymore.

[subtenko]

Hmm that's all companies now or just Apple or AT&T? I'll have to re-look that up because I remember hearing something about it with AT&T at least.

[guitarded77]

@ subtenko

KwietStorm is talking about the agreement between PSN users and Sony, which was made mandatory after the "outage". We cannot go class action on Sony.

[shgadlic]

nope!
chuck testa.

[Blankman85]

". . .update Version 3.60 killing his PS3 system." I cannot be the only one that finds that wickedly chuckle worthy.

[3-4-5]

They somehow transferred the red ring ! lol

[GribbleGrunger]

Ok, we need an age restriction on this site. Do I really have to wade through the playground to get to the University every time I come here?

[BitbyDeath]

Wait, there's a university?

[GribbleGrunger]

well... er... I could have picked a better analogy lol. I just thought, playground (kids), University (adults) and went for it! The educational theme lead my analogy astray...

[BitbyDeath]

Lol, i just meant i haven't seen much of anything outside of the playground :-p

[Reverent]

Well, there is definitely a University here, but it's hidden behind a mile long playground and boxed away in a ball pit fortress.

[glennco]

you have come to the wrong place if you want anything but fanboy talk.

[TheRacingX]

BIG Bubbles for you ......that was rich...

[ftwrthtx]

Electronics fail. Blaming the failure on a game or a system update is not good science. LOL

[wishingW3L]

well, an update did kill my first PS3 phat and another one messed up the bluethooth and wi-fi on my slim. I'm currently on my 3rd PS3 all broken after an update. Way too much coincidence don't you think? PS3's dying right after an update....

[PirateThom]

Yeah, definitely coincidence. I've had a few PS3s and none have died during a firmware or title update. One died while playing Killzone, one died while playing Burnout Paradise and one just stopped reading discs.

[pixelsword]

I put GoW III near my PS3 and it killed my PS3; I saw Kratos' hand come out and cut the cords.

Tha' bastage.

Kidding. :D

[glennco]

i reckon updates are the biggest cause of failure for consoles. then the manufacturer denies any wrong doing. the forums for all 3 consoles are filled with updates bricking consoles. generally firmware though

[wishingW3L]

why do people approve this garbage?

[kB0]

Amen

[pixelsword]

It's truly garbage, but according to a bunch of "journalists", it's the PS3 fans who are actually fanboys, so it can't be because of fanboys...

[JellyJelly]

If it was about the 360 you would hold hands and jump for joy.

[Sketchy_Galore]

Damn, it actually took them longer than I thought to figure out some way that giving away free games could be a terrible terrible thing.

[Hicken]

Oh, they were doing that from the start.

"They're just giving away a bunch of games nobody wants to play, or that they already own. It's not worth it."

Anything. ANYTHING to complain about.

[ceballos77mx]

Its ridiculous stating that an update killed a console, if it is true then every console would be dead after this update, my fat ps3 is still running after this.

[kneon]

Hardware dies, it's a fact of life. Sometimes electronics fail even if you don't use it.

The problem is that there are a lot of machines out there and a lot of whiners. Assuming there are about 60 million PS3s and let us assume a failure rate of just 2% per year, then you would still have over 3000 PS3's dieing every day on average.

[ceballos77mx]

I know hardware die,I've lost a ps3 and a 360 but stating that an update killed them is stupid.

[kneon]

I'm not saying an update killed it, I'm saying that there are so many devices dieing every day that there are sure to be some that die during an update, even though the update has nothing to do with the failure.

[ziggurcat]

*sigh*

post hoc fallacy at its finest...

[sycnation]

My resistance 3 game save data (initial install data) isn't deleting and it just says "invalid" when I click to delete it.

Weird huh?

[idiealot]

R3 is really weird when you try to delete it, it took over 30 minutes for it to completely erase all the files. Look in the forums for help good luck man!

[GribbleGrunger]

Ah, my R3 is corrupted and won't delete either. Is there a workaround?

[MySwordIsHeavenly]

I have that with Resistance 3, Heavy Rain, and Burnout: Paradise.

There is no work-around. You have to format. :/

[BitbyDeath]

I had that happen to me as well with R3.
I searched on google for the solution. (Don't remember the link).
But i had to hold down some buttons on the playstation to get into the backend menu (on booting up) and say repair/recover playstation or something.

After i did that it was then deleteable.

This is the only game i've encountered that before... what a pain.

[Jazz4108]

The ps3 is a terribly designed system with updates thrown ontop of updates. What surpises me is pirate tom one of the big sony fans on here has had three ps3s die and he still thinks sony can do No wrong.i personally have had two ps3s die and my launch 360 died earlier this year. Just from what I read on here from sony fans shows that alot of ps3s have been repurchased because of bricking while ms when they had issues replaced them all free under warranty and ms is supposed to be the bad guy. Dont even get me started on the ps3 hack.

[madjedi]

@jazz No one cares about what a mindless 360 fanboy like you thinks of the ps3.

"while ms when they had issues replaced them all free under warranty and ms is supposed to be the bad guy."

Because for about 2 yrs, all ms was saying was the xbox 360 is well within industry standards.

The reason the they started offering free replacements, is because they were getting close to having a recall forced upon them.

Really a 360 owner is trying bring reliability of another console into question, you might as well give the other side the rifles to shoot you with.

Reliability has not been one of the 360's strong points, not unless your completely stupid. It's online gaming is one of it's strong points.

Lmao the psn hack, you mean were sony disabled psn till it's security and customers credit cards were confirmed to be reasonably safe(nothing is unhackable). Damn sony for not leaving psn on and potentially unsecure. -_-

Why does that have your panties in a bunch, it's not like you even owned the console, your a flat out xbox fanboy.

You were probably laughing your ass off about it, given the comments of your's i have read the last few yrs.

And every 360 owner is still on his/her original 360, that works flawlessly./s ALL electronics will die eventually, you name it and some part in it will stop working.

[tigertron]

It takes AGES to delete R3's game data. If you cancel mid way it will corrupt the file, but don't worry, just delete it again and wait for about 30-45 minutes. It will get deleted eventually, you just have to be patient.

[Blastoise]

Seems legit

[LakerGamerEnthusiast]

plz tell me you simply forgot to add " /s " and don't believe this.

[Lord_Sloth]

"Seems legit" is by itself a sarcastic comment. You should keep up with the memes on the web more if you intend to stay on a site which uses them often.

Examples...

[LakerGamerEnthusiast]

I apologize about my backtrack in memes.. I simply have not been up to date on what means what is all. Thank you for the update Lord_Sloth :)

[kingPoS]

I doubt a single download game all by it self destroyed his ps3. Was it well ventilated? How long was it on? What type of media was used the most? All those factor in untimely ps3 death.

[sandman224]

Nice headline jjboyle. That's a good way to stir things up.

[strange1986]

The author clearly isn't familiar with the concept of sample size. Two people's PS3's dying during an update/download is hardly incriminating evidence. Even if a bunch of other people experienced similar situations, we're talking about an install base of millions of consoles. Also, the friend clearly says in the second text that he left his PS3 on for over 12 hours before he found it dead. It's GOTTA be Sony's fault! What a dumb article.

[Getowned]

I've had my Ps3 on for a day and a hlf before, still works and this was before the summer abuse were its been on allday everyday by 3 or 4 people lol

btw anyone know if it voids warranty if I open my PS3 up and spay it with a air can to clear out dust thats been really building up?

Dust = Bad for any electronics. My slim started sounding loud so I took my vaccume and some q-tips to the vents, it seemed to help a bit, its not as loud now anyway.

[strange1986]

Yeah I have definitely had mine on for many many hours at a time as well - I just thought it was worth pointing out.

Also, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure just opening it up will void the warranty.

[topekomsi]

@strange1986 Give this man a dollar, you are correct, there is a seal and if it has been opened they will not honor factory or best buy black tie protection warranty.

[kneon]

Yes opening it will void the warranty, but unless you have pets or smokers in the house it shouldn't get all that dusty during the warranty period. But once that's over go ahead and crack it open, excessive dust buildup is a sure fire way to fry any electronics. I clean out my PCs and PS3s 2-3 times a year.

[rainslacker]

It is usually good to vacuum out the ventilation about once a month using a basic vacuum attachment, or you can get specialty mini vacuums from computer stores which work well. There's a way to make the fan spin at maximum speed when booting the system to blow out the dust, but it's not applicable to all models, and there is some debate on whether or not it's advisable to do so. Can't remember the button sequence since it's not applicable to my system, I've never used that method.

[Getowned]

ahh, thanks for the advice. I tought it would void warranty but was to lazy to look it up. I forget how old my PS3 phat and slim are, I know for sure the phat is well without warranty now, but the slim not sure I think it may have some warranty still on it I got it in 2010, and I may have bought extra warranty at best buy. still I want to open it and clear out the dust.

[Dualshockers_Carlos]

This should be on a rant video on youtube or something. Not a good writing piece!

[hardcorehippiez]

to rainslacker above. its running a fan test. you hold down eject and the start button and turn on the main switch at the back. it is in most models . for the slim you need to disconnect the power lead hold start and eject and the plug the power lead back in.

[sway_z]

Well, I can say I have upgraded my HDD from 160 - 500GB and have been re-downloading all my stuff again from the store since the 7th sept ...it's still on now some 3 days later....no issues, not even hot!

*Same for my Notebook.....it's always on

[hazelamy]

my first ps3 died overnight while it was off.
same with two of my xboxs.

the solder can crack as it cools down when the console is switched off and it contracts.
then you've got a console dying while you weren't using it.

i don't think corrupt data would do physical damage to a console, if it did, my ps3 would have died some time ago.

[kneon]

Well it's possible that if the OS becomes corrupt rather than just a data file that the fan control will not function correctly. If that happens and you leave it on for too long then it could over heat.

[hazelamy]

that's a possibility i hadn't considered.

[DK99]

I got bored after "A friend"

[BitbyDeath]

I got bored after 'PlayStation Plus' new "free" game download killed PS3 Slim?'

[dumahim]

Odd. I had downloaded Borderlands last week and just fired it up today. When trying to start a new game, it was looking for save files and just got stuck. I had to quit out of the game and relaunch. Now, every time I do, the screen goes black for a couple seconds, comes back for a couple seconds and just repeats. I deleted the game and save data and was going to reinstall, but of course PSN is down.

Now, fired up Ghost Recon Future Soldier to make sure everything else is working, it's stuck on "Logging in to Ubisoft server, please wait."

[Simco876]

Better for this guy, Borderlands is a waste of time (IMO) Disagrees welcome.

[stage88]

My lawnmover broke, I guess I should sue Sony...

[RandomDude655]

How the hell did you get a contraption that moves lawns?

[LakerGamerEnthusiast]

uhh.... ^ :l

[stage88]

Haha I see what I did there. I mean... with the rules of physics anything is possible!

[chukamachine]

More bashing.

Sounds like a case for mulder and scully.

The truth is out there, you just have to know where to look.

[madeinLeeds]

My arse is burning up, should I blame Sony? Nothing to do with the curry I ate, It's definitely Sonys fault!!!!

[chiefdog11]

Consoles eventully die like all electronic devices. WIth all the millions of consoles online odds are some will die during a download. Doesnt't mean it's the download's fault. Jumping to conclusions a little too quick here.

[Freakazoid2012]

It wasnt the free game that caused the issue but the way the guy handled it that caused it to fry.

Cant really blame Sony or Borderlands because the user had an issue and rather than look into the proper steps he simply started it over then left it sitting like it would all work out fine in the end.

[Neko_Mega]

The way I see it, if downloading could kill your PS3. Then PC's would have that happen to (with out the download having a virus), but seeing how that isn't true and I have downloaded this game and all the add ons as well as games that take more memory.

I call bs on this, at best his PS3 had problems before hand.

[HSx9]

The website is very suspicious, it was trying to make me download something, I would advice people to stay away from it.

[Avalanche]

this happened to me to where the tv woould cut on and off when i was playing Borderlands(Free PSN Version). all i did was start the game and it stopped. Basically just kept pressing X until the games opening video played

[fullmetal297]

The author mentions about leaving his PS3 on for twelve hours only to discover a dead PS3. The problem is obviously an overheating issue. Leaving any electronic device running for extended periods will build up heat, causing permanent damage.

[dazzrazz]

You're brain has a permanent damage ! Building up heat while idling console lol

[Pintheshadows]

People in glass houses...

[rainslacker]

Yes...any operating circuit builds up heat during any operation, even at idle. Don't believe me? Take the fan off your computer's CPU. about 30 seconds during the computers post procedures touch the CPU.

[Bladesfist]

@rainslacker

No one do what he says, It only takes 10 seconds with no cooling for a CPU to get damaged from heat and you will have to reapply thermal paste. Most new PCs will not even boot without the CPU fan plugged in to the motherboard.

[rainslacker]

@Bladesfist

I'm well aware of this, although didn't know about newer PC's not booting. My comment was aimed at dazz who thought IC's don't get hot when running and using it for a personal attack against someone else.

Realistically you could touch almost any circuit on a running computer and feel some heat being given off by it. It's not advisable to do so however because static discharge could cause problems in of itself.

[nihonlight]

This article is flame-bait to get the
"Pete Hines/Bethesda thInk skyrIm Is perfect no next gen needed" article pushed back.

BOYCOTT BETHESDA. WE ARE THE PS3 99%

[XB1_PS4]

I'll give this thread credit. It got my attention. That's about all it got from me though.

[Raoh]

Awwwww

How cute.. you got a computer and decided to type nonsense...

(pats retarded child on the head)

[boybato]

girlfriend broke up with me...
d@*n you sony!!!!!!!

[sdplisken]

huh that reminds me i need to start borderlands dling

[FrightfulActions]

The saddest thing is that this article had to get 'approved' before showing up here in the first place. Sigh.

[Bladesfist]

That is extremely unlikely to the point that it is near impossible.

[madjedi]

Right well that was a useless flamebait article, has any ps+ member that dled the digital copy of bl noticed any loading time decrease vs the disc version. Ie going to a new area/zone.

The article couldn't offer any pointers or helpful hints for new borderlands players, something remotely useful, lame.

[ProphecyTheProphet]

I downloaded Borderlands over a year ago, and I don't have any problems with it. I was just that systems time to die.

[linkprk2584]

i should sue sony for soar thumb playing to much

[Iveyboi]

What a pathetic troll attempt. A corrupt file fried a PS3? Good thing my corrupted Resistance 2 game data didn't fry mine *rolls eyes*.

[RyanDJ]

I have this idea. It's a jump to conclusions mat. You see, it'd be this mat, you put on the floor, and it would have a bunch of CONCLUSIONS on it that you could JUMP to!

[ArecxP]

Yeah, nothing to see here. Obviously an overheating issue, especially with it being on for 12 hours. Really doubt that a download could fry anything on the PS3.

[PooEgg]

This is certainly an overheating issue, but am I the only one here who feels like modern electronics should not overheat so easily in the first place?

Seriously, no matter if I am playing my PS3 or my 360 both consoles run unreasonably warm. Same thing with my flat screen TVs. I hope that in the future companies will look for ways to combat this problem, but if we all just have the attitude 'oh its not big deal, just an overheating issue' I suppose there is really no incentive for electronics companies to look for a better cooling solution.

[RyanDJ]

Idea: widescreen television uses basic refrigeration techniques to keep cool. Better yet, build a TV with a built in minifridge: cool your screen and your drinks simultaneously!

[Kidmyst]

I downloaded Borderlands and played it alot, no issues and I too am on my slim model.