PS3 being dodgy

So lately my PS3 has been giving me problems. When a game hits a cutscene, it plays a second, then freezes for a few seconds, plays for a second, freezes again, etc, etc, and it's been getting worse. From what I can see on the web, it's either that the hdd is on its way out, or there's some file corruption. There was also a mention that the lens could be faulty, but it's happening on downloaded games, so it can't be that.

To try fix the problem, I've gone into recovery mode and done a restore on the file system and rebuilt the database, neither helped. So I figured the last thing to try before getting a new hdd is to try do a full format / restore, so I put in an external drive and told it to back up. It took about 9.5 hours. There was a big storm near the end, which caused some power fluctuations, which worried me, but eventually it said that the backup was complete, so I tried my luck and formatted, and then tried to restore my backup, and that failed, so it must have gotten corrupted, which sucks.

Not the end of the world though, I downloaded my profile from PSN, and I've queued up a few games to re-download, and thanks to PSN+, it's been backing up all my recent save games to the cloud, so I can just download those again.

Anyone else had this issue with cutscenes starting and stopping?

I haven't had this issue but too me it sounds like your hard drive is giving issues. I would maybe look at replacing the hard drive and see if that improves performance as I think it is all about the way the PS3 is accessing data from your hard drive. If this is the issue then the hard drives has read write issues and needs replacing.

If the game is streaming off of the Blue Ray and it has these same issues then I guess your rom is giving issues.

But I am more inclined to blame your hard drive for the issues you are experiencing. If it is the drive then formatting won't help and you will need a new one. It is affordable as you can get any similar 2.5" drive from a PC store and replace your current one.

Hope this helps.

dampi256 said:

I haven't had this issue but too me it sounds like your hard drive is giving issues. I would maybe look at replacing the hard drive and see if that improves performance as I think it is all about the way the PS3 is accessing data from your hard drive. If this is the issue then the hard drives has read write issues and needs replacing.

If the game is streaming off of the Blue Ray and it has these same issues then I guess your rom is giving issues.

But I am more inclined to blame your hard drive for the issues you are experiencing. If it is the drive then formatting won't help and you will need a new one. It is affordable as you can get any similar 2.5" drive from a PC store and replace your current one.

Hope this helps.

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Ya, that's pretty much the conclusion I've come up with. I'm trying the format in the hope that it helps, but if it doesn't, I guess it'll have to be a new drive. At least then I can put in a bigger one as well. Thankfully, I have uncapped ADSL so I can download the games again, although I might get throttled if I push it too much.

The games play perfectly, it's just the cutscenes that are giving me issues.

In case I do have to get a new hard drive, I see that you can't put one in which is thicker than 9.5mm (the bigger ones can be 12.5mm thick), but Rectron has a Seagate Laptop Thin HDD 500GB Serial ATA 300 (3Gbps) With 16MB Cache @ 5400rpm, which apparently is 7mm thick.

From a bit of Googling, it seems that it should be fine. I saw a thread on MyBB where someone says he used one. Does anyone here have any experience with a thinner drive?

Welcome to my world. Right now, my PS3 serves as very expensive blu ray player.
I've been on the constant lookout for a new one.

Weird thing is, some games play OK, but Uncharted 3, Killzone 3 and Resistance 3 are completely unplayable.

I had similar issues, but it turned out to be the lens.
After I bought a new HDD and restored everything...

I have also read about the thin ones working fine. I bought a 9.5mm though.

After I replaced the lens, I just popped the 340gb HDD (std PS3) back into the console and everything was still working 100%

The 500gb HDD I popped into a external cover. Once the 340gb gets to small I will swap it out again.

it's been on the net while you not home and it's heard about the PS4, since it is Japanese it sees the only honorable thing would be to commit Seppuku (harikari/ritual suicide) so you do not feel guilty about buying a PS4 and also so it does not suffer the shame of being stuffed away in the cupboard.

Gforced said:

it's been on the net while you not home and it's heard about the PS4, since it is Japanese it sees the only honorable thing would be to commit Seppuku (harikari/ritual suicide) so you do not feel guilty about buying a PS4 and also so it does not suffer the shame of being stuffed away in the cupboard.

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LOL ^^

But ya, restore didn't work, I re-downloaded Metal Gear Rising Revengeance again, it was corrupt, so I downloaded it yet again (thank god for uncapped), and it's back to how it was, stuttering cutscenes and all. I've ordered a new 500GB HDD to try extend the life of this PS3 for a bit. Should arrive tomorrow. I'm a little worried about the 7mm height thing. I could have gotten a Toshiba one in the correct height, for a little cheaper, but I would rather have a Seagate drive than a Toshiba one. I'll post here if it fits and stuff

Ok new drive installed nicely despite being thinner than spec. I had to download the latest system update onto a flash stick to get it to work, only 200MB though. Installed and restored my latest backup and looking good so far. I'll play a bit tonight and see if the problem has been fixed. If so then I've fixed it and doubled the storage in one go. Here's hoping

matt said:

Ok new drive installed nicely despite being thinner than spec. I had to download the latest system update onto a flash stick to get it to work, only 200MB though. Installed and restored my latest backup and looking good so far. I'll play a bit tonight and see if the problem has been fixed. If so then I've fixed it and doubled the storage in one go. Here's hoping

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ANd the verdict?we all want to know what happened next.This is like a help manual for future use.

KofDelight said:

ANd the verdict?we all want to know what happened next.This is like a help manual for future use.

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Looks like it's sorted out the problem. Played for a good while last night and everything worked nice and smoothly.

Ok, in front of an actual keyboard now.

If people are finding this thread helpful, I'll put up a summary.
In retrospect, I should have taken some pics. I've found some here that will have to do instead

Changing the hdd is super easy, here's how it goes on the model I have:

Step 1: Unplug the PS3 from power, TV, network, etc and put it upside down on a nice working surface .....

Then

You open a little flap to expose a screw. Undo the screw.





That lets you remove the little plastic plate covering the hard drive (it's the bit with all the Blu-ray, CD, DVD, Dolby, etc logos).



You pull the bracket out using the handy little handle on it



Undo the 4 screws to take out the old hard drive, insert the fresh one and put the screws back



Then do everything else in reverse: Put the drive bracket back in the hole it came from, put the face-plate back, put the screw back in and close the little flap.

Before changing the hdd, you can back your existing data up to an external hard drive. The drive must be FAT32, and have sufficient space. The backing up and restoring is the most tedious part of the process. My initial backup that failed was 150GB and it took 9.5 hours or so. Now it was about 35GB and it took about 1.5 hours for backup or restore.

To back up, go to Settings > System Settings > Backup Utility > Back up

I would advise making more than one backup in case the first one gets corrupted. If you have a PlayStation Network account, you can also sync your trophies before changing the hdd just in case, and if you have PS+, and you've been backing up your save games to the cloud, then there is even less risk of loss.

To restore your data once the PS3 is back up and running, it's the same thing, just instead of choosing back up, choose restore. But to get it back up and running with the new hdd might require one more step, detailed in the next post.

Ok, so once I had backup up my old drive, and then swapped it out for a new drive, I switched on the PS3, and got this screen



What this means is that I had to download the latest system software to install onto the new drive. Details here
You can get the update from the system software update page

You can put it on a CD, HDD, Flash stick, etc. I put it on a Flash stick. Basically, make a folder on the root called "PS3", and another one in there called "UPDATE" (note: all caps), and save the file (called "PS3UPDAT.PUP") in there. It was about 200MB.

Start up the PS3 with a controller connected with a USB cable, and when you see the message above, insert the flash stick, and press Start and Select at the same time to start the installation. Just follow the prompts, accept EULA's etc to format the drive and install the PS3 system software.

Once the installation is complete, you'll need to go through the first time setup (username, date/time, time zone, etc), this isn't important because you're going to restore your backup anyway, you just need to get the system running normally.

Once you get the normal XBM, you can restore your backup: Connect the external drive that you made the backup on, then go to Settings > System Settings > Backup Utility > Restore. Select the backup and follow prompts, and wait for it to finish.

My main worry in choosing a hard drive was that there is no list of supported hard drives, only that it should be SATA, 5400RPM, and a 2" (laptop) drive, 9.5mm high. I got a new thin drive from Seagate that is only 7mm high, and I was worried about if it would work....

It works perfectly. The screw holes and connectors are all in the same places, it's just a couple mm shorter, but that comes off the top, so everything still lines up nicely. You just shouldn't get the 12mm thick ones, because they won't fit in the drive cage.

So far the new drive seems to have fixed my problem, and I've doubled my storage space as well, which is awesome. I had a nice long session of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance last night, which was giving me plenty problems before, and it didn't freeze or stutter even once.

Awesome,thanx matt.

I have MGRising,playing that on Xbox.Got free DLC on Xbox Live where you can play as Jetstream and Blade wolf.

KofDelight said:

Awesome,thanx matt.

I have MGRising,playing that on Xbox.Got free DLC on Xbox Live where you can play as Jetstream and Blade wolf.

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Lekker, might check out that DLC. Blade Wolf was the first really tough boss I fought and he is pretty awesome.

My Ps3 blu ray laser is dead and it costs 1500 to repair dont know if it is worth it considering ps4 out.

XbatousaiX said:

My Ps3 blu ray laser is dead and it costs 1500 to repair dont know if it is worth it considering ps4 out.

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if you only use your ps3's Blu ray drive for games think about going digital and getting ps+
you will be able to sell your games that you currently have on disc and perhaps only have to buy one or 2 of them digitally if you want to play them again. But ps+ will keep you busy enough with new games.

Yes you have a very good point will look into it the only problem my favorite game is gt6 and digital version is not that hot according to the web lol.