PS3 Broke?

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I bought the PS3 nearly 2 years ago now, its a 120gb slim model and i think it wasnt long after they came out. Basically needed to burn some argos vouchers i got from work but otherwise i wouldnt really have bothered

So i got it with MGS4, Farcry2 and Prince of Persia, only played a few levels into MGS and barely played past the intro of farcry, then i put it down and didnt touch it again, i could have sold it but its media player functionality was better than that of the xbox and i thought when i buy a decent TV ill want it for that

Fast forward to a week ago, out buying a game for my younger sister who just got a 360 and i spot dead rising 2 on the xbox but i think i dont use the PS3 nearly enough so i grab the ps3 copy instead, i also pickup Wipeout HD Fury and the god of war 1/2 collection

When i get home in install DR2, play it for 30-40mins or so.. following day i fire up the PS3 and install Wipeout HD... 2 minutes into playing it just goes off! No flashing lights, no nothing. I pull the power cord and plug it back in to be able to turn it on again and it does the same

Now im confused, if there was a hardware issue id have expected to see it the night before while i was playing DR2, it didnt start till after i installed wipeout but now that it started it happens in wipeout and gow also

My PS3 hasnt been connected to the net in a very long time, so its not running the most recent firmware, could wipeout hd have slipped in a firmware upgrade during the install? Googling for similar issues suggests i should see some flashing yellow light, or if it were overheating here the fans spinning up before it dies. The room isnt particularly hot and it's well ventilated so i dont believe its that

I looked into the warrantee but its only 1yr which is rubbish, have yet to call sony but im expecting them to either tell me to go jump or offer to severely lighten my wallet
 
exactly the same thing happened to my 18 month old console last weekend.

I called sony on the monday to see if there was anything they could do for me and i had a replacement delivered to me on the tuesday free of charge.

Give em a call tomorrow.
 
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If its still under warranty dont mess with it send it to Sony. If its not it sounds as if your PS3 overheated and shut itself off. This could be the start of the dreaded YLOD where the chips comes away from the mobo due to the solder being overheated . If your reasonably handy have a look a Gilksy's vids on YouTube. Very easy to do but its not a permanent fix. Get the chips Reballed that should fix it for good.
 
I looked at the Gilksy vids, but i couldnt find any evidence this was overheating or dry/cracked solder joints. If it were the solder issue id expect not to be able to start a game not have it cut out after 2-3 minutes at some random point and if it were actually overheating id expect the fans to become audible at least

I found here there is a way to do a fan test > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfZTig1FcH8 which i tried and i could definately hear the fans, which i could not when it was just shutting off

After finding this vid and a couple similar, i was fairly confident i had the slim psu issue rather than ylod > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7OwDB7l21w

So i tried it and its now working perfectly again. I didnt bother calling sony at all since im a year out of the warantee and tbh not to scared of opening a console up (modded a couple of ps2's back in the day)

So errr on the xbox360 vs ps3 score, i've had 3 xbox360s now, 1st got stolen :(, 2nd i swapped for the 3rd to gain the hdmi port, all worked perfectly without issue.. and 1 ps3 that failed on me after very little usage
 
Just to add should anyone else have the same issue and attempt this fix

the videos fail to mention that the 3 screws under the front lip are actually security torx bits, they look like a normal torx bit but there is a pin in the middle of the screw head that prevents a normal torx driver going in and you need a torx bit with a hole in the tip to be able to unscrew them. Lucky for me i had a set of security bits handy
 
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