I've been doing a few odd jobs here and there with virus removal, computer clean-up, builds etc. I needed a new challenge so I decided to start working on the ole' Jeep again and get it ready for this year. And right in the middle of my plans an old friend of mine calls me up. "Hey dude I hear you own your own computer shop now and I need some help BAD!!" I was like sure, so what's going on? "My PS3 won't turn on and I'm about to buy a new one, do you think you can backup the hard drive in it so I still have my saved games?" Sure why the hell not right? WRONG!
Sony has decided it would be most wise to encrypt the HD in them with Err-PS3 file format. Which means no computer on earth can read the shit, and the only way you can is if you format the drive FIRST with Fat32 in a windows computer then put it in the PS3 and then let it save game etc on it. Complete shit. OK so what about a sector by sector backup, I have special programs to recover things off bad drives etc and it doesn't matter encryption or not. WRONG! Why? Because when you boot up a PS3 it saves a ghost image somewhere on the HD that ties that HD to the serial numbers of the system you are using. If you take the disk out and put it into your new PS3 it says, "wait this isn't mine!!!REFORMAT REFORMAT REFORMAT!!" losing all your fucking data.......hummm.
Well lets find out what happens when I try to start it up......red light, power button, yellow light, 3 beeps and a flashing red light comes on, fan running at full fucking speed. Dead as a door nail. Hummm, I do a little reading online about PS3's and find out the two most probable causes for this yellow light issue. Either a bad power supply or the solder on the chips has broken and need to be re-flowed.......
So I call him back, can't do anything for you, Sony charges $150 to fix them out of warranty. I think I may be able to fix it, if you are going to throw it away anyways you want me to at least try? "Sure" he says. So I tear into this thing like a Rapist in a school for the blind. Re-flowed the motherboard, applied some Artic Silver 5 (Sony uses some cheap ass shit) put that bitch back together and BBAAAAMMMMM working PS3, thank you very fucking much.
How much does it cost to fix this way? Less than $150 I'll tell ya that. Fucking Sony rip offs, $150 + tax + shipping = Over $200 for a sub $30 fix plus labor. So if you know anyone needing a broken PS3 with a yellow light of death, a red screen of death, or red light of death lemme know I now know how to fix them all.........
WOOHOO another weapon to add to my resume lol
