Evening all, I have a UK 250gb slim that when I turn it on gives no signal to my tv then after about 15-20 seconds turns itself off leaving me with a flashing red light.
I have checked the fan and tried fitting a new power pack but the fault remains the same.
I have repaired numerous phat consoles but I haven't seen this fault with any of them, I am unsure if this is a slim only fault and if so what could be causing it.
I had a trawl through this site (and Google) but couldn't find anyone with the same problem. Could this be a fluke fault only aligned to my unit or has anyone else suffered the same frustration as myself.
I have used Afterdawn for quite a few years now and have always managed to find solutions to all my PS3 and PSP issues, but this one is keeping itself painfully hidden.
I've just experienced almost the exact same problem with my Phat (formerly 60gb, now 650gb) PS3.
I was on the XMB when my PS3 suddenly shut down. No warning. Just shut down and beeped three times. I switch it off using the switch on the back, unplugged it, waited 30 seconds, then reversed and tried to restart.
No joy. The green LED comes on, it flashes yellow then red and shuts down again immediately and I get three beeps. I dont get to wait 15 to 20 seconds as you do. If I did I might have had time to eject my COD disc.
I think I we both may have the YLOD fault. I understand that this is caused by insufficient airflow inside the PS3 (this in turn being caused by a combination of the compact design of the insides of the PS3 and a build up of household dust and detritus clogging the fans) leading to overheating of the processor and other any other components that heat up.
I understand that the robots that build these devices at the factory only use the tiniest amount of solder to make the electrical connections to the motherboard so when the PS3 gets too hot these solder joints easily re-melt causing the electrical connections betwen the processor (or another similar component) to become bad or non existent. Either that or a fusible link somewhere melts to protect the CPU from being destroyed by too much heat. Anyway, whatever the trigger, the solution is to open the PS3 and clean it out with one of those air jet canisters and then replacing the fusable link and/or remaking the solder joints.
I'm taking my sick PS3 to my local repair shop as soon as I can after Easter. I may be able to open my PS3 and air jet it out but my soldering skills aren't up to the job. My only regret is that I didn't get around to using the vacuum cleaner on the air slots on my PS3 more often than I did. A year or two ago I did this about every three months. Over time I forgot to do this, so now I have to fork out £75 +VAT. Rats!
If it is still under warranty get it replaced by Sony. If not then you are still down on one ps3, from posts I have read this really is a hardware fault and probably cannot be fixed without knowing what exactly is at fault...
Could be hardware...but that could also be a symptom of a damaged file system. Before you send it off somewhere, see if you can get to the recovery menu...if it does not come up, you can try removing the hard disk and starting the system. If it still shuts down after 20 seconds without displaying anything, then it is probably bad solder joints; requiring a reflow or a reball. If you choose to repair, make sure to set the fan speed higher so that this does not happen again in 1-2 months.
Thanks guys, a much more formative answers. I have attempted the recovery menu but that isn't appearing either, however I have never tried it with the hard drive removed so I will try out your suggestions and get back to you.
