Sony Responds to Yellow Light of Death Fix

[JohnnyLucky]

I wonder of anyone simply threw their broke Playstations away. Personally I prefer my Atari.

 

[CChick]

0.5% my ass Sony.

This problem is MUCH WORST than your 0.5%

I can say this is the result of Lead Free Solder.

 

[spazm4516]

you guys are freaking ridiculous ...those figures are for the UK alone! jesus christ! LOL!

 

[quick25]

It's much worse than just Playstation problems. For a period of 3-4 years Sony produced LCD projection tv's that had major problems that they knew about, but they still released them. They also dodged responsibility for it and now have lawsuits filed against them. I have one of the tv's and now my 60Gb PS3 is dead. Seems this company is making a name for itself by leaving consumers high and dry. Check out http/sites.google.com/site/sonylcdrptvproblems/sonyrearprojectionlcdtv-opticalblock to read about tv problems.

 

[DustyDinkelman]

I repaired my launch PS3 60GB once so far. IT stopped reading Blu-Ray first then DVDs. I used to drop sync with the controllers, too. Incredibly frustrating when playing games, especially fighting games. It may still have the problem but I'm wired the few times I actually play it. It is mainly used for movies.

 

[will_chellam]

The other issue here is that UK warranties aren't limited to one year - that is the absoloute minimum they are obliged to provide.

The warranty extends to a period of reasonable expectation of correct operation of any product purchased in the uk.

Therefore if your PS3 stops working you have an argument that since it cost three times as much as a nintendo wii or twice as much as an xbox and is marketed as a premium product, and is still well within its expected life cycle you have a reasonable expectation for it still to be functioning, and more importantly, when the shop sold it to you there was a reasonable expectation for it still to work 18 months down the line.

Some shops will not buy this, however some will, I know someone who bought a vaio laptop that broke 15 momths after purchase, and he succesfully argued (at PC World of all places) that there was an expectation for it to last longer than a medion laptop, at they conceded and paid for a repair.

 

[Guest]

Sony have already said that they are NOT making money from repairs. Watchdog actually admit this. Now unfortunately sony are also still not making a great deal of money from the entire ps3 operation. extending the warranty for even the claimed 0.5 percent of customers might sound like a nice idea. In truth the cost of that measure over several years and into the future really outweighs potential for loss of new sales from bad publicity.

It is obviously faaaar cheaper to simply wind up the PR machine and set it off, and it does seem to be working as the reports have been mostly discredited.

 

[Guest]

Sony have already said that they are NOT making money from repairs. Watchdog actually admit this. Now unfortunately sony are also still not making a great deal of money from the entire ps3 operation. extending the warranty for even the claimed 0.5 percent of customers might sound like a nice idea. In truth the cost of that measure over several years and into the future really outweighs potential for loss of new sales from bad publicity.

It is obviously faaaar cheaper to simply wind up the PR machine and set it off, and it does seem to be working as the reports have been mostly discredited.

 

[zak_mckraken]

Can someone who's not a 360 fanboï or a PS3 retard (or is it the other way around?) post a useful comment? It's not about which console is the most durable, it's wheter or not Sony is hiding a well-known manufacturing problem that could cost a lot for the average consumer to have fixed because their warranty will be expired when the problem arise. Microsoft recognized they had such a problem and they extended the warranty of the consoles for it. Will Sony acknowledge theirs and do the same?

 

[jabliese]

Reading between the lines, seems Sony is upset it did not think of the oven fix sooner.

 

[mman74]

Seriously is no-one going to comment about sticking the motherboard into an oven to cure soldering defects. My god, all 16 worked again!!! Wow. I mean if your item is out of warranty, u pay US$200 for repair or US$299 for a brand new slim one, you might just think - what have I got to lose?
Has anyone tried this technique? Does it work for say a computer motherboard? How hot does the oven have to be, to fix the solder but not fry the chipset?

 

[Guest]

Fine, I will say something useful. One person got it right. It has been mandated that all electronic chips no longer use lead based solders. Unfortunately, that is currently the best kind that can take the thermal abuse of sophisticated, compact electronics such as laptops and you guessed it...game consoles. All to save little Timmy from taking apart his game console, removing the chips and start licking the lead based solders. The same Little Timmy that is more likely to die from drinking household detergents or sticking a knife in an electrical socket. All jokes aside, not counting the amounts that end up in landfills and the health of random factory workers who do get paid lots of money for the danger, I WANT MY LEAD!!! Because I don’t like licking random objects, just random females…kidding.

 

[stromm]

IIRC, in the US, replacement parts must be available for seven years from first release. So the only reason that a company would only offer a 3 month to 1 year warranty is that they KNOW the product is going to fail after that period but less than the seven years.

To me, this is a scam. They won't offer a longer warranty on the hope that people won't complain and just send it in and pay for the repair. It's an easy revenue scam.

 

[antilycus]

[citation][nom]dxiii[/nom]I've never even heard of the YLoD. My console was one of the first issued, and I've never had a problem with it. Now my XBOX on the other hand has scratched my discs on several occasions. Bastard XBOX...[/citation]
Here's an idea, don't move your system while its on... Next time hit the powerbutton, wait 10 seconds and stop pointing your finger at the company when its CLEARLY user error/intelligence. Go ahead, put your computer on its side, start playing a DVD or a installing a 1200 program and see what happends when you move it during installation. (same thing)

 

[Major7up]

Interesting but I would bet that the PS3 has a far far lower rate of failure than the Xbox 360 no question. But does that seem to matter? While Sony should pick these up as warranty repairs as a courtesy for customers who shelled out a lot of money for their boxes, I think we need to look at the big picture and realize that some small percentage are going to fail. This is a risk you take with any electronics purchase you make and I think we can all relate to that.

 

[vivi22]

[citation][nom]zak_mckraken[/nom]Can someone who's not a 360 fanboï or a PS3 retard (or is it the other way around?) post a useful comment? It's not about which console is the most durable, it's wheter or not Sony is hiding a well-known manufacturing problem that could cost a lot for the average consumer to have fixed because their warranty will be expired when the problem arise. Microsoft recognized they had such a problem and they extended the warranty of the consoles for it. Will Sony acknowledge theirs and do the same?[/citation]

On what planet is a console problem that affects maybe 1% of users or less, and most have never heard of, a "well-known manufacturing problem?" Any reasonable person would consider that a pretty low failure rate.

And Microsoft had to step up and extend the warranty because they released a console with inherent design flaws and screwing over a third (at the minimum) of your customers is a good way to shorten your stay in the console market. Sony offers a pretty standard warranty as far as I can tell which unfortunately tends not to cover a fairly infrequent console failure. Sucks for those it affects, but I'm not seeing Sony doing anything shady or unreasonable here.

 

[Guest]

I'm from Singapore and we're beginning to get this problem. I just got this problem, so we're pretty sure it only affects the first generation consoles (60GB) and Sony has somehow solved this problem with the slim versions.

So in short,

1) Does this problem exist - YES (the watchdog video and numerous videos posted on line proves ths problem exists.

2) Is it worth talking about it - YES to those who own the 1st gen consoles and who are affected by it. NO to those who don't own it and who don't have this problem.

3) Why do some people get this defect and other don't - ALL 1st gen PS3 consoles will have this problem, but it can be delayed if you're not a heavy user. If you play a 3-5 hours everyday at a stretch and not in a temperature of about 23 degrees celsius, your console should last about 2 years before the soldering melts over time. MY ps3 console is on a vertical position on a tiled floor and airy and still had this problem.

4) Sony should admit that this problem exists instead of saying it doesn't. whether they would want to do repairs for free after the warranty period is another issue, but saying that there is no such thing as YLOD, especially when there are videos to prove it, is entirely wrong and not ethical.

 

[spazm4516]

"ALL 1st gen PS3 consoles will have this problem, but it can be delayed if you're not a heavy user"

my 1st gen has been on 24/7 for 2 years...seriously!
its next to a 42" TV and a receiver, which brings my little apartment to a smoldering temperature

it has nothing to do with usage, the less than 1 percent of all of them are defective, it happens to all electronics

 

[spazm4516]

i forget to add, not only does it stay on but i use it quite a bit, blu ray & dvd, a couple media servers, gaming, web browser, pretty much all its got...i would call myself a heavy user, my home theater and gaming worlds revolve around it

 

[Guest]

There's a way to go about fixing this yourself instead of paying the ridiculous amount of money that Sony is charging people to fix it if they're out of warranty...here, I found it: http/wheretobuyps3.com/index.php/2009/10/ps3-yellow-light-of-death-fix/