As the title suggests, I was curious if anyone has been successful in repairing their PS3 and if so, how was it? Easy? Difficult? Like to hear the unsuccessful stories as well.

You see my PS3 got YLOD of death a month or so back (I guess Game of Thrones Season 2 was too much for it). With it being a launch 60 GB backwards compatible PS3, I would really like to perform life support on it to play upcoming titles like Dragons Crown, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, etc. A fix is detailed here.

I am a PC Technician for a living so I do this kind of thing on a normal basis, but I thought I could get some feedback from the GB community. Thanks in advance.

I didn't have any luck with mine. I tried the heat gun method, which apparently works 90% of the time, but it didn't work. I replaced every part except the mother board and the blu-ray drive and still didn't get it to work. Eventually I bought a new slim PS3. Even if you manage to get yours to work again it will only be temporary, maybe 3 months at best.

I tried a handfull of things with the system, and was never able to get it back. Even if I could've, it seems that the PS3's life is only extended for a handfull of months (if that).

PS3s have a tendency to break when new shit is coming out. Mine broke on the week of Portal 2/Socom 4/Mortal Kombat

I, too, tried that heat-gun / flux method (bought one specially for it) but to no avail, so bought a slim replacement.

I kept the machine, though just in case there's a breakthrough in science one day that means they can resurrect it for a few seconds to allow me to get my Skyrim save off of it. It's a real bummer that Sony don't allow you to access the hard drive somehow by plugging it into something.

@wacomole: @mosespippy: @turboman: Thanks for letting me know. Couldn't hurt to try to get a few months more out of it. I just don't want to waste money on a PS3 with a PS4 right around the corner if I don't have to. Did any of you have a disk in the BD drive? If so, is it easy to get without damaging the disk? At the very least if I am unsuccessful with fixing the PS3 I will have to remove the disk inside.

I was able to get the machine to cough up the disc as the power supply was not completely dead (and it sound like yours isn't either). If I remember rightly, I just held down the eject button (or it may have been eject +standby) while turning on the machine with the mains switch. It then does its dust-cleaning fan power-up which also included ejecting the disc.

Mine didn't have a disc in at the time.

I'd still buy a replacement PS3 even with PS4 coming out soon since PS4 won't have backwards compatibility.

@wacomole: I tried that. No dice.

@mosespippy: Yes that is true. I guess I will just take the hit.

I definitely would not recommend sending it in to be repaired. Two of my ps3's have broken on me, and I paid for expensive repair services which resulted in failure both times, and they never give full refunds for that stuff. So if you're going to go the repair route, I'd say you definitely need to do it yourself. It's definitely not a sure thing though. You could probably get decent money for it on ebay, even broken.

@hunter5024: Who did you send it to and how much did they charge you (if you don't mind)? Even though they were unable to fix it they still charged you full price?

I fixed mine by using the fix you linked but it only lasted for about another 2 months. It really isn't worth the time. I'd just buy another one.

I've tried, but I was only able to get it up and running without the Blu-Ray drive, which was keeping it from accessing a lot of features. The best I could do was stick it back in so the system would recognize it (but not necessarily work). So if you can confirm that it's the drive itself conking out on you, I'd definitely recommend sending it in.

@iigrayfoxii: The first time I gave it to a local game store, the second time I sent it to Fix My Playstation. Both times I got charged for a 20 dollar diagnostic fee, and in the latter case I also had to pay for shipping, which along with the diagnostic fee ended up costing about 50 dollars, for nothing.

@bocam: @hunter5024: @snakelinksonic: Thanks for the input. I will probably end up taking it part just to remove the disk and purchase another one.

I was in the same boat as you, with the PS4 coming out later this year and all, although my old PS3 only needed some BD-laser cleaning. No YLOD occurred so I can't judge on repairing that, opening the innards is quite easy. Just have a couple of tabs open with vids showing how to disassemble and fix things like a stuck disc or applying new thermal paste.

If there's one piece of advice I can give, it would be to make sure to put back the little white disc holder in the drive, 'cause believe you me, your PS3 will make you understand they didn't put it in for show.

btw, I don't have any real tech experience so it certainly shouldn't be too much of a problem for you.

@doejonathan: Good to know. In any case I need to get my blu-ray out so I am glad it is not difficult.

@iigrayfoxii: When I had my fat PS3 and it YLOD on me I used http://gophermods.com/ great service and didn't get rid of my data or anything I would highly recommend it.