PS3 starting to glitch :(

[Lekko]

My launch 20GB system is starting to have some issues lately. It's about 90% perfect, been using the hell out of it the last two and a half years, upgraded the HDD and kept rather good care of it.

Anyways, just recently it has been starting to struggle with games. I've been going through RE5 and started noticing some glitching in the graphics. Basically, there are occasional blue flashes in the game and then periodically some of the object models have one vertex that is off in the middle of nowhere, so some object has a sharp point going off into infinity. It's not that bad, since it is only like 1-5 things that have that issue in an entire level. Some times there's no problems, sometimes there's like 10. The worst is when it does a ground texture straight up and pulls texture with it, so you have this wall you can walk through, but can't see through.

At first I thought overheating, so I blew the dust out (there was a bit of it) and it was good for a day or so, then.. started again. I'm guessing it's GPU related since hardware-wise everything else is perfect, plays movies fine, not glitches in XMB and a good chunk of my other games like rock band and such, but has glitched in other games lately, but mostly minor stuff you can work through.

Reason I'm posting this is: what should I do? I have a launch 20 (don't want to get rid of a launch system, had to sit out in the cold for it) and want to keep the BC and such, so sending it in is a bit scary since I won't know what I'll get back. Pondering opening it and trying to re-apply the thermal paste to see if that works, but if that fails can I still send it in to Sony for a repair? It's out of warranty, so no worries on voiding that.

Other than that, I'm almost thinking it isn't heat-related since the fan never really ramps up to insane levels. seems to think it might be nice and cool. Only thing I'm thinking is possibly a ram chip for the GPU is overheating since that wouldn't have its own sensor and would explain the geometry issues.

Thoguhts?

[JasonXe]

i never knew that there was a launch 20gb. Interesting. Others here are more experience in fixing there ps3 (taking it apart and what not). My noob suggestion is to keep it off for the day and put it where it can be well ventilated.

I'm sure others will give better advice and make sure you have warranty just incase.

[Segitz]

The "vertex shooting off into space" is usually a overheating GPU... but I can't say for sure

[Lekko]

only thing that confuses me is that the fan is pretty darn quiet, so it doesn't think itself very hot at all, and 99% of the game is perfect. shaders are all flawless, textures are perfect, just only geometry data getting screwy, and not much at all.

Its just more annoying than anything since games are still playable, just occasionally annoying. I already have plenty of thermal paste (I build lots of custom systems) so that's easy for me to do.

[Segitz]

That doesn't have to mean the die itself is 100% covered with thermal paste to transport the heat away... but I can't say for sure either. It could also be too much goo too... It could also mean, that the RSX chip inside your system runs at its total capacity... Too many possibilities to answer this correctly.

[Lekko]

thing is it's been sealed and mostly left stationary for the last 2 years without being moved too much. Only had to move it a few times, under 5. Should still have factory thermal goop on. It does tend to get more and more errors the longer it is on, so I'm guessing thermal.

Before I open it up to clean/re-apply paste, any word on how that would affect repairs or if I do have to send it in if they will send back a BC system?

[Segitz]

Well, Frosty says, that if you are out of warranty, it doen't matter, if it is sealed or not. But I cannot say anything about this, since mine still runs fine... so don't take my words for granted.

[Lekko]

Update: Well, it's rather warm out today, and I had time to open the system up completely, did re-apply the thermal paste, and turned it back on.

Well... the system is quite easy to take apart and rebuild, it has arrows that basically tell you what to put where, just keep track of which screws you take out in what order, and it's easy.

Fired up RE5 to test it, and same issue. I did bend the tension backplates on the GPU and CELL just to make sure it has good contact pressure, but.. so far that wasn't a permanent fix.

I still think it is overheating, will try again tonight to see if cold air helps it.

[frosty]

did you clean all the dust out when taking it apart? that helps. and just so you know, my ps3 did that for over a year before it finally burned up, and that was without me taking it apart and putting new thermal paste in it. make sure you've cleaned it out nicely, make sure it has good airflow inside, and you should be fine.

[Lekko]

yeah, I dusted it pretty darn well. The only place I didn't dust out was under the metal shielding over the mobo. The only other thing that I think might be causing it could be the firmware not giving correct fan speedup values. Maybe it thinks itself a newer PS3 so the fan spins lower than what it should be with the older chips.

I'd re-flash the firmware but not sure how to force it to do that. The fan is always on the lowest setting despite the apparent overheating issue.

[CreativeWriter]

I had this same GPU overheating issue last year. You can search for my Assassin's Creed Glitch thread if you want pics to confirm, but it sounds identical to the problem you're describing (random vertices shooting off into the distance). Time to take out the harddrive and send it in to Sony. Luckily, they sent me a 20GB back, so I kept backwards compat. Took them only 12 days to get one back to me. The $150 isn't fun, but you'll get a new 3 month warranty :/

[Lekko]

Yeah. I can play through the glitchy stuff, but now it's not letting me pass a certain point in the game at all, it load glitches too.

Darn $150. I just am scared I'll lose BC if I send it in now. :/

And I just bought like 4 new games for it too!

[Freeman_JI]

Hopefully they can fix your existing machine since the Built in EE and GS makes yours a rare PS3.

[frosty]

They will not send you a new unit, they'll refurbish your old one and send it back. so, you keep b/c. you also have to send the hard drive with it, according to the rep i talked to. you can back all your stuff up though beforehand.

[Lekko]

Well I actually put in a 250 GB drive early on, so I have everything on that.

[jaxmkii]

The fan is always on the lowest setting despite the apparent overheating issue.

"there's your problem" said Jax with his best mechanix accent.

the thermal coupler that detects die temp has fail and is sending the wrong signal all the time... or the "carbon pile resistior" that varys the current to the main DC fan has a internal circut inturuption making only the high resistance path the only path keeping the fan stuck on low... or its not overheating at all and you just have bad ram/gpu/cell chip dieing

i wish we could get parts for consoles like we do for cars....

[Segitz]

Well, Jax, you can... problem is, most stuff on the motherboards is SOO small that most people cannot solder it... I am quite adept at solder (modded my friends PSTWO myself), but I fear the PS3...

If the fan always runs at the lowest speed (we are talking launch unit), even when using Folding or somesuch, then the temp diode is most likely shot. Eihter, you can make the fan run at a constant high speed (just solder it to a 12V point) or put a poti between it and the ("high") voltage and make it user switchable... but this is just some bullshit I made up in my mind

[SadPanda]

... its just that fan at high... is just balls loud.

[Segitz]

Yeah, but with a poti you can dial on, how fast it turns