Dealspwn writes: The YLOD. The Yellow Light of Death. This is the dreaded sickness that PlayStation 3 owners fear. With my PS3 nearing its sixth birthday, it finally happened to me. While hardly as prevalent as the Red Ring of Death in the Xbox 360’s early days, the flashing yellow light is still cautiously feared amongst the PS3 community.
In order to cope with this grim occurrence I’ve incorporated the experience into my regular feature, The Sunday Seven. This isn’t a guide on how to fix the problem yourself, no, no, that’s a different fire hazard for a different day and for someone else to tell. This is what was running through my mind as I tried to come to terms with it and ultimately how to bring it back to life.
Hopefully, this won’t happen to you. So use this as a cautionary tale, an amusing anecdote by someone clearly a bit too much attached to a console or as a comparable accompaniment to your own past woes. Let’s face it; this is probably some form of karmic retribution any smugness of having a PS3 when everyone’s 360s were melting.
Console gaming used to be cheaper, more convenient, and reliable--at least until the current generation arrived. Now, it's worse than PC gaming. Here's why.
Replies(7)
Lol, No. This is getting more and more ridiculous the more we hear about the next gen consoles.
give me god of war series, the last of us, little big planet series, uncharted series, yakuza, gran turismo, infamous series, Resistance series, MGS, ICO, Killzone series, Motorstorm series, Yakuza series, Heavenly Sword, Folklore etc on PC.. i'll shift with my eyes closed... until then.
plus i find console logistic more simple. buy one and use it for years to come. no upgrades. no nothing. i agree they break (just like my PS3 broke last weekend) but that was after like 5 years. yeah.. i am sad. for now Vita is gonna keep me busy. and Vita is another beast. i want every PS3 games on it.
Give me Day-z, Sim City, Leaugue of Legends, Starcraft II, Dota II, Elder Scrolls Online, Smite, KOTOR, Torchlight, Company of heroes, and Thousands of quality indie games on Consoles..
It works both ways dude. There are, and always will be pros and cons to the Console vs. Pc war.
@nix
unfortunately for the PS4 none of those games will be on it, at launch anyways. Its going to have to build the library over years. Essentially PS4 will start life with 0 games.
PC has a library ready and set to go as of today and it can only get bigger as the next consoles arrive. It literally has 1000's of games on board.
Console gaming library is pretty small when you think about it compared to PC and in the end thats what really matters. New consoles hardly will have any games.
Its not hard getting a PS4 for those exclusives by the way. I am sure Sony will release 2-3 of those 8 hours games every year. No biggie get a console for those. No point compromising the entire multiplat library over those few games. Might as well buy them on the platform where you really can build a library.
PS: some of those PS exclusives are already there on the PC via PS2 emulation. Again unfortunately its the next PS that wont be playing em.
How about all the fantastic games that are only on pc?
Oh . . . that's right. They don't have Sony on the case, therefor you don't consider them good and you don't care.
@sofresh412 Day-Z is headed to consoles and if you have no interest in most of the PC exclusives why bother building a gaming PC? I love both so I have both, but I know lots of people who just don't care about the vast majority of PC exclusives. Also, I wouldn't mention Sim City 3 as a reason to get a PC...
Not to mention all the other free to play games the PC has to offer like Warthunder, Warface, Warframe, Loaded, Firefall, Neverwinter, Hawken, PlanetSide 2, Tribes, Smite and all the others f2p games out there, right now you can't compete with PC gaming, it has better hardware and it has free games and good quality games like Planetside 2 Hawken and Warthunder, then you got all the MMO's out there and the best race simulation and if that isnt enough you can mod your games so you can play Skyrim with next gen graphics or the unique experience of DayZ.
@Sy_Wolf
Rocket said there is a chance it will be on consoles if the games sell well on PC and he said that Sony i think did the approach beside that it still a PC only game
These days I find my PS3 Slim freezes / locks up far far more than my PC does. Now that's not to say it was always the case but I feel that the PC drivers have matured a lot.
Then there's the argument of cost; well I'm on my 2nd PS3 but my PC has remained much the same when put together some 5 years ago (3Ghz dual Core/8800GT512/4GB ram) and while I can't play some new games with all the visual features on there's not one game that doesn't look far better than the PS3 games - mostly due to anti-aliasing, very little texture compression, decent draw distances.
While I liked the frontend menus of the PS3 and adding a theme these days it's been taken over with links that take up most of the screen and more recently blasted adverts - it's virtually pointless using a theme now and knowing I have no control over this reminds me how much nicer the PC is to use these days - why does Sony think I'm unable to use a subdirectory to click for psn store etc as with settings!!
Don't get me wrong I enjoy using the PS3 and there's been some great unique games but today I was playing UT99 with extreme hi-res textures and a new Nali Weapons mod and C&C Generals Zero hour - both games older than the PS3 (UT99=14yrs). Both look and play fantastic even today and both genres just don't play well on consoles due to the simple inflexibility of not supporting keyboard and mouse/trackball.
@OpenGL
"Some games on PS3 like Gran Turismo 5: Prologue..."
Stop right there, GT5P could most certainly be played w/o logging in to PSN. Now you're getting silly...
^ You should've read his entire sentence.
GT5:Prologue requires online if you buy the digital version.
people who like MMOs and Strategy games, build a PC, people who like all the other genres buy a home console, people who love both, build a PC and buy a home console.
The amount of like/dislike disparity clearly shows N4G is filled with console fanboys. If SONY has some exclusives then PC has many great exclusives too. Infact the exclusives like on PC are so rare that they are not even found on other consoles.
If PS3 has Last of Us then Xbox/PC has Left4Dead series. If SONY has UNcharted, then MS XBOX has Gears of War.
But both these consoles cannopt run games like Starcraft 2, Simcity, DOTA2 and many others.
Replying to sofresh412
None of those games you listed interests me.
They're nothing like the games nix listed.
Will this nonsense ever end?
It's about the games! It has always been.
If you are a gamer you see all of them as platforms, cunduits to exhilarating experiences with varying playstyles and different social communities.
We are lucky to have these many options; let the companies fight between themselves for our coin and try not to be manipulated by media sensasionalisations.
Don't hate on your own kind by being a prejudicial drone.
It's pointless, rediculously stupid and it makes you look like a fanboy every single time.
free, awesome deals, easier messaging system, not cluttered with endless menus to flip through.You can buy games that came out a year ago for $5 on Steam, and Xbox Live tries to sell last gen games for $20. Both services have an online storefront, but Steam's storefront is easier to navigate. In addition, they are more upfront about game details than Xbox Live. Also, Steam offers better gaming previews with footage of almost all of the games whereas Xbox Live only does this for select titles.
-Free
-Dedicated servers >>>>>> P2P
-Cheap games
-Steam Cloud
-Less Advertising
-Custom community groups for anything
Best to play video games on a pc.
Steam? That almost-always-online service that requires an intrusive third party client to be installed on your computer and reserve itself the right to confiscate everything you bought? No thanks.
I had to move to consoles a yea ago because I realized that Steam-free gaming on the PC is not possible anymore - even physical disks are encrypted with Steam. Even worse, when game publishers and Microsoft realized how easily PC gamers betrayed all their principles for cheaper prices, now console gamers have to fight a desperate war not to allow those rotten services take hold on the console market.
You may choke with your Steam DRM and always online crap like Diablo 3 and SimCity (that sold millions), I'm staying with my console. I prefer slightly worse graphics and more expensive prices to intrusive services and DRM.
So instead you prefer console DRM. Which restricts you from playing any of your old games on the next machine.
You pretty much have 0% chance of playing a PS3 game on a PS4. At least on PC you can play your old games many many years later.
I wouldn't consider that DRM, DRM is something added for a specific purpose, the PS4's inability to play old games was an unfortunate inevitability given they were no longer using the Cell processor.
I've had my Steam account since 2004 and every game I purchased then will be playable forever and the service as a whole has been very convenient.
PS4 on the other hand is making all of my PS3 PSN purchases irrelevant, hardly convenient and much worse than Steam's DRM, which by the way works in offline mode. Some games on PS3 like Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and Warhawk cannot be launched without connecting to PSN if you don't own the physical version(yes Warhawk can be played offline in split-screen), so the PS3 already has always-on DRM for some games.
@decrypt a generation for a pc gpu is 2 years,console are fixed hardware, they can't improve technologically with out making cut backs in some areas to have a better system over all.
@OpenGL not sure about gt but warhawk is a multiplayer game so that comparison doesn't make sense as there is no single player component.
Consoles almost always have a different architecture each gen, and the lack of backward compatibility is an unfortunate side effect of that. Believe me, if Sony could easily add backward compatibility to the PS4 (and PS3) they would gladly do it. PC, on the other hand, has the same Windows and the same x86 architecture since 95, so backward compatibility is a non-brainer. And yet, sometimes you have to struggle to run old games.
Steam, on the other hand, is a completely artificial barrier that stand between the software - the game, and the hardware - the PC. When I purchase a [physical] console game and I have the hardware - that's it. I don't need to call the shop I bought the game from and ask a permission to run it. This is one of the reasons people are so mad at Microsoft - they want to add that artificial barrier to the Xbox 720, because they see that PC gamers so happily accepted it.
@ Nyromith
"Believe me, if Sony could easily add backward compatibility to the PS4 (and PS3) they would gladly do it"
Actually no, they don't want BC on their new consoles. It's not profitable to Sony. Sony want's to sell the same game again and again. That's what happened this generation and that's what's going to happened next gen with the PS4.
...and for Steam being always online, it's not true. For single player games you only have to install it and play it once (to activate), then you can play your steam single player game offline any time you want.
@Nyromith the cfw scene recently got backwards compatibility to work with "non backwards compatible consoles", almost all games...Google it yourself, PS2 classics manager. That is something Sony should have offered for free...A way to to rip your old games and convert into PS2 classic format but no they charge you for your game again. Sony could easily come up with something similar for PS4 to play PS3 games. There's no such thing as non backwards compatible in this day in age with the tech available.. but there certainly is a such thing as greed.
tell that to max payne 3... amongst others... and actually Sony would have added ps3 backwards compatibility at least in launch consoles if they could if for no other reason than, that in Japana such a feature is very important to them. However it really isn't currentlly possible to emulate the cell using x86 architecture- not at the moment anyway..
I dont care what you guys say im getting a ps4 day one since gaming on consoles is what I actually like and not on pc, and if I want to game on pc ill just buy my games on it dont you think
STEAM is an open service it allows gamers to run their own mods and servers. Extremely cheap games and simplified modding via steamworks just point and click the mod you want hassle free. Is just a better service than what you get on PSN or xbox live
You're definitely the type of person who has never used Steam before. I don't know of a single person who uses it and dislikes it. That aside, you don't HAVE TO BE online to play games on your steam account. Time and time again people make this stupid mistake.
Not to be rude or anything, but why do you think consoles are the best? Just asking, not going to be hostile towards your opinion.
Edit: Why the disagree, just asking lol.
Why are people even comparing Consoles to PC's, why don't we just compare Vita and 3DS to Iphones and Androids now....
Agreed that the state of consoles has worsened, though not that PCs are any better. These days no console game is ever "finished", and the constant system updates makes one pine for the good ol' days when a console was locked down. But he left out the primary cause: the consumer has also gotten a lot worse. Conditioned by years of atrocious PC software and OSes, they simply accept and buy any form of abuse. In-game advertising, games shipped as beta tests, everything-as-a-service, patched-patches, and now a whole new set of invasive abuses on the horizon. This situation only exists because so many are willing to suck it down and cough it up.
Thank you that's what I been trying to say. It started on the pc with CD keys, long ass hour installation games onto the pc hard drive. Endless patches, freezing and crashing games. Until now that PC gamers said enough is enough. That's what console gamers need to do is to stand up and not put up with the bs of these corporations.
There is really no argument about what is the more feature rich platform (PC), the only advantage that consoles have is the price of entry. I own a 360 for exclusives and all I have to say is 'eighty dollar controllers'. And the games all look fuzzy.
The PC is an open platform with limitless possibilities, better input devices, superior networking, and can also help you do your taxes and make 3D models for work. And watch movies. And shop any store. surf the internet. All for no additional 'subscription' cost over your internet bill.
"My PS3 YLODed six months ago. As a videogames journalist, who needs its console to work, I had the necessity to buy a new one the next day. However, this is the story of how i felt (and I think it matches with the story of those who went through the same."
Source: MyGames.pt
it's true. All fat ps3s will ylod eventually regardless of how good you take care of it. I got me a slim, but even I'm not sure when that one is going to last. Sony needs to do something about the heat.
My fat 60GB died, I re-balled it and it's been working even better than before for one whole year. Anyone who tries that ghetto hair dryer technique doesn't deserve to own a PS3 in the first place.
When you spend so much on a product it only makes sense that you would try to fix it the best way possible and not the dumbest way possible.
My Phat 80gig died on me. The first time I didn't re-ball good enough. I was scared of over doing it. Then it died again and so did my buddies. I showed him how to do it and we got them both going again. Don't use it too often but it works like a charm. Phat 60 is still going strong though
I had mine for about the same time and it died. I reballed it and then it died. Reballed and it died again. You see the pattern? That's why I kept my ps1 and ps2.
Well, that was yours, my psone still works.
My PS2 is blind after my long term abuse and torture, and my PS3 is still as good as ever.
It does matter how you take care of them
then may I ask you why mine ylod then? I can assure you that I took good care of the ps3, but it still ylod on me. Just because yours works like a charm doesn't mean it won't happen. I have people that disagreed with me before and then a year later they come back telling me that their console finally ylod. Nothing lasts forever, but people just find this hard to believe.
I always clean the vents every week
It is standing on a wooden platform so it can release the heat easily.
I let it rest every 3 to 4 hr
And I keep it in a well ventilated and cool room.
Still, it depends that which serie of which country too.
Most of the ylods happen in USA as it seems.
Every single ylod victim that I've met in forums and such places came from USA
Tristan Charles Writes: September, 25th 2010 marks a day which will live in video gaming infamy. This travesty took place the day I recieved my copy of ” Start The Party” in the mail for review. Ironically, the “party” surely didn’t start for this aspiring games journalist. This day of epic woeful proportions was the day my PlayStation 3 console fell victim to the heinous Yellow Light of Death.
Honestly the first thing I did when this tragedy unfolded was cry out loud like a little school girl… no exaggeration. Second, I tried my utmost best to recall every single instance of possible system abuse I can imagine. I listed everything ranging from excessive prolonged use to downloading EA’s immensely disappointing NBA Elite 11 Demo. Honestly, I would completely understand if my PS3 decided to commit suicide after running that monstrosity on my system and thats no lie.
More after the jump
Quite a good guide
Im a YLOD victim, my 40gig (500hdd upgraded) has had YLOD 3 times in 15 months, i aint payin 2 hav a refurb, ill buy a Slim when my 40 totally dies (ive already backed up my files)
Touch wood my PS3 is runnin cool and quietly at the mo, last time i got YLOD (2 months ago) i used the none clean Flux and Clamp bendin guide from Gilsky, ive removed the HDD cover to let sum air in and every once in a while i take the shiney plastic cover off to also let sum air in/out
My PS3 will fight 2 the end
Ive been a YLOD victim twice
Each time I've had to pay $150 to get it repaired...
I wish I didn't because I keep all of my electronics in great condition so its the fault of faulty hardware yet I still have to pay to get it fixed.
makes me wonder how many times you have had your 360 repaired or how many you have bought.
Highly unlikely as you require a PS3 to have the misfortune of YLOD...back to your bridge troll and get ready for your casual box to provide seconds of entertainment on it's industry changing Kinect
I have had to have my PS3 repaired/refurb twice. The first time I had blu-ray failure which cost me £145. The second time was YLOD and got a refurb for free the next day. Sony did this for free as I had already paid before for a refurb, even though my guarantee had expired ages ago. This new refurb PS3 I have noticed the fan comes on fairly quickly, way before the system gets hot, and keeps it cool. It runs with the fan going but I've noticed this PS3 never gets hot only warm. I was just wondering if Sony have made the fan start working quicker so that it stays cool and doesn't melt the solder which was a big problem in the old models of PS3.
@ greenringoflife: Sony only charged me once for a refurb even though my guarantee ran out.
Wow you guys are a bunch of idiots. I guess it's impossible for someone's PS3 to YLOD twice, right?
Reball with better Solder
Replace existing fan with 19 blade original Sony fan
Replace Thermal Paste with better premium paste.
That should do it
I think it's very easy to fix a YLOD'ed PS3. Most of the time, YLOD happens when the thermal paste, that Sony uses to pull heat away from the processors, dries out which causes the system to over heat. I just recently replaced the thermal paste on my 60gb PS3(I also replaced the original power unit with the one that comes in the old 40gb phat PS3s which runs cooler and more energy efficient) even though my PS3 hasn't YLOD'ed yet since you never know when a hardware failure will strike. The thermal paste I used is IC Diamond 7 because it's superior to the Arctic Silver 5 paste and vastly superior to the cheap paste Sony originally used on the system.
2 weeks ago it lasted 3 years aand 6mnth havent got the 250 at moment send back to sony but with all the games coming out i went out and got a ps3 slim 320gb . i took my dvd out of the machine now i can send it back to sony australia has i put the machine back together when im ready its going back to sony to get repaired
My 20gb JUST recently YLOD. Ive had it since release, and it sucked, but oh well. I bought a new 120 gb PS3 and its nice and much quieter. Still it sucked having that happen, and now my Socom game is stuck inside.
Honestly, I think waiting for the slim was the smartest move I've made in my past purchases.
has got to be at least 25%
Come on people speak up, make a stink about this, Sony should not be allowed to get away with lying about this and charging 150 bux for everyone they fix.
I've never seen any data to suggest anything that high. Even the very first models don't seem to have that high a failure rate.
Every XBox owner I know has had at least one RROD, I just got a call last night from the last friend who still hadn't suffered a dad 360. His lasted 2 years and 8 months, but he doesn't use it much. I don't know a single PS3 owner that's had a YLOD.
My first PS3 is an 80gb fat (now 640gb) and is still running fine. I vacuum it monthly and backup every week or two.
If the fan is noisy then it may very well be covered in dust. If you're out of warranty then you may want to crack it open and give it a really thorough cleaning. Dust is the enemy.
The original PS3 model is nearing 4 years old. Naturally there will be more and more reports of consoles failing. Eventually the failure rate of all consoles will rise.
As far as I know the YLOD can be caused from several issues aside from worn solder. A dead fan, old thermal paste, and failing power supply can cause the YLOD.
I generally rate a console's failure on two factors. The first is time of failure in a given expected lifecycle. The second is the frequency of the same cause. In the case of the original PS3 the solder is indeed the weakest link in the hardware reliability. However, if the PS3 lasts 3+ years before failing then I probably wouldn't add it to the failure rates of defective units.
how come my Intellivision (yea most around here are to young to know that one), SNES, N64, GameCube PS2 both fatty and slim) and my PS3... all running fine
gave away the PS1
Their life expectancy was much longer. They were built to last. Now that online and digital downloading are here we are getting hardware with shorter lifecycles. The industry is shifting away from ownership and more towards service.
If Xbox Live, Onlive, and PSN are any indication it's a step toward access to content with no ownership rights. Just a license. Logically this can only conclude that, in their eyes, a console doesn't need the same reliability anymore. Why? When they move on it won't matter if the console works or not. They control the software and will likely end your access.(Think about the original Xbox Live service)So, regardless if the console lasts 30 years or more, the console isn't worth anything anymore.
Right now Sony's PS3 has the longest life expectancy. Back in the days of Intellivision they built things with ownership in mind. You can't say that today and that's regarding most entertainment products. Again, my original post points to life expectency...which is much shorter today than yesterday.
as long as your PS3 is out in the open getting air and dust your vents once a month and it should last another 10 years.
You're wrong. There is a problem in the conception of the console. Dust can help it to overheat, but cleaning the vents is not the key to prevent any YLOD.
Beside that, YLOD is a generic issue. It signifies overheating problem, but it can comes from severals parts of the console.
Like xtreampro_REVENGE! says:
"Reball with better Solder
Replace existing fan with 19 blade original Sony fan
Replace Thermal Paste with better premium paste. "
Can help to prevent, but you can never be sure.
My 60gb died 1 month after warranty, i had to pay 200€ to get another second hand one. My friend is on his second YLOD. We are both very carefully with our hardware, pc or console. There is obviously some hardware issue with the old fatties, especially the 60gb.
I had my blu ray laser fixed for $150 only a month after my warranty ended. Then it lasted another year and got YLOD. I payed my game store $100 to fix it and it lasted a week so they put that $100 towards a 160GB and I've had it for a month. It feels so good to not have to worry anymore if I'm going to go without a PS3 to play. I think the main reason I've had my PS3 fail on me is because I play for long periods of time. About that part in the article where he said to shut off the power switch, well my slim doesn't have a main power switch.
YLOD is just as old as RRoD, not necessary for this day and age.
Do not try to fix the YLOD. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
What truth?
There is no YLOD.
I've never had a YLOD since I've had my PS3...RROD though....well thats a different story
I remember I once got it when Halo 3 came out...waited all year for the sequel and I had to send my 360 away on the day it came out :|
God, I really hate the term 'YLOD', it just implies that the problem was as bad as the RROD and it wasn't even close.
I've had to RRoD and one YLOD. The YLOD happened right before kz3 came out. Lol I'm still not the same since my phat ps3 died... I have 4 years worth of gaming on my baby... Someday I will ressurect her to pull my files. Until then I will continue to cope and live with a slim.