The following post is directly from the official Europe Playstation forums.
No credit to me.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
O.K I was browsing the U.S forums when i came upon this thread.
Now many of you know that there is a recovery menu built inside the PS3, well if your PS3 is not readng disks this may be the solution to fix it.
I recommend backing up your data first.
If you can, I suggest you back up your PS3 first. The menu that you will access to can fully erase your PS3 if you choose the wrong option! I do not take any responsibility! Please proceed at your own risk! If you read and follow the instructions exactly you should not loose any data! Feel free to ask questions if you are confused so you don?t make a mistake!! Sorry, I had to say it, I don?t want anyone mad at me if they make a mistake, don?t back up their data and erase it, and then blame me.
The current version of the ps3 firmware has a ?recovery console?.
You access it by
1. Start with having the system in standby (redlight is on)
2. Hold the power button down; the system will turn on and turn off once again.
3. Press and hold the power button again and keep holding, it will beep as it turns on and then it will double beep. When you hear the double beeps immediately take your finger off the power button (if your system turns off before you get a double beep just try again and hold the button, it should double beep the 2nd time you try)
4. You will be prompted to plug in your controller via USB and then hit the PS button
You will now have a screen with these options
1. Restart System: Restarts the PLAYSTATION®3 System.
2. Restore Default Settings: Reset all system settings back to default.
3.Restore File System: Checks for corrupt/missing system files. - Choose this one!! 4. Rebuild Database: Rebuilds the OS for the PLAYSTATION®3.
5. Restore PS3 System: Fresh restore; Deletes everything and starts from Scratch.
6. System Update: Update the PLAYSTATION®3 System
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT CHOOSE THE WRONG OPTION HERE OR YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR DATA. The one that fixed my blu-ray drive is option 3: RESTORE FILE SYSTEM
I REPEAT CHOOSE RESTORE FILE SYSTEM
After this, it is going to restart and bring up a screen reading something like ?you have Corrupted System Data. Your PS will now replace this data? Then you choose continue and that should be it.
This option reinstalls the system files and drivers inside the PS3 with the original ones that are stored on your hard drive. In this case, it replaced a corrupted driver for the blu ray drive thus fixing my issue and hopefully yours!! This option will only replace all system files thus saving you from loosing any data that?s stored on your hard drive. Again this option does nothing to your hard drive it reads a file from the drive and rewrites it to the PS3 system.
Here is a video of the recovery screen.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0SPmkV-jco
If you want a more technical understanding of what this is really doing continue reading. DO NOT NEED TO READ THIS TO COMPLETE REPAIR. The PS3 does not boot from your hard drive as a computer does. It has a flash memory like a cell phone that stores all system files and system firmware updates that you get when the PS3 updates. This is why reformatting your hard drive will not fix your problem, none of the system files are stored on your hard drive (ex. XMB, system firmware, etc.) nor do they run from the drive. However, your hard drive does contain a full backup of your SYSTEM files and thus when you choose option 3: RESTORE FILE SYSTEM it rewrites the original system files from your drive (which aren?t corrupted) back to the flash memory which is corrupted thus fixing the problem.
I HOPE THIS HELPS AND AGAIN DONT HESITATE TO ASK QUESTIONS!!
From some feedback of the posts in that thread, it seems like this does work for a few people. It is not a guaranteed solution.
I'd like to make it clear that I will hold no responsibility if your PS3 is damaged doing this.
Although I just said that, I'd like to say that this is a safe method and it might just save you $150/£150.
Some hardware problems could have a software origin. In order for the drive to work the software must run first, if it doesnt it makes it apper as if the drive is dead, so yeah this could work for some people.
Originally posted by bigo93: Some hardware problems could have a software origin. In order for the drive to work the software must run first, if it doesnt it makes it apper as if the drive is dead, so yeah this could work for some people.
Just to provide an example:
A PC with brand-new, top-of-the-line, 100% working parts won't do much if it doesn't have an OS installed. Software origin for a hardware problem.
Of course, that means then that the drive isn't actually "broken"; if it's broken, then yeah, it's a hardware problem. But, y'know. If it's just not working, then software could be the issue.
Anyway. Nothing to really advance the conversation here.
I wouldnt see how this would fix BD drives if people's drive just stopped working like months after an update (assuming those system updates are the only thing with access to the drivers) unless they did something else that somehow had the ability to edit the driver and thus corrupting it
I just tried this out on my broken PS3. It didn't work in my case. My PS3 had stopped reading discs after an update about a year ago. I followed this guide, it did tell me that I had corrupted data, but after repairing it, it still doesn't read discs.
It was worth a try I guess. Thanks.
