Expert: Octane - 11/18/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello,Octane!I know several common issues about malfunctioned PS3.And I need to know what the cause and how to prevent it from happening.Can you help me?

#1.PS3 turned on,and it will goes to standby mode immediately.How come?And what to do to prevent it from happening?

#2.PS3 does not recognized the disc,there are rolling disc icon..Many of my friend's unit had to replace their lens to solve this problem.How so?And how to prevent it?

#3.HDD corrupt..Another common issue..Any solution to prevent it?Maybe we must let at least 10 or 15 gigs free while playing?I'm just guessing here..

#4.Some games or firmware updates makes PS3 goes wrong..
How come?

And lately I heard that PS3 will face #2 issues if its not used for at least 2 hour per day.
This issues related to humidity of neither lens or motherboard.Can you give some info about this?

I'm kinda of worried because I bought my PS3 last year and out of warranty.Furthermore,I've played it for 1-2 weeks(at least 8 hours/day) every 4/6 month.When unused,I wrap it with white material that come with PS3,and put it back to its box.I stored it safely at my cupboard.
Will I face #2 issues..

Sorry for the trouble.I'm waiting your solution.

Regards
-Dewa-

ANSWER: Gday Dewa,

Some good questions there.  Unfortunately the only way really to preserve your PS3 is never to use it and never take it out of the box.  Any modern Video game unit will have a higher tendance to fail because it has a lot more moving parts (Hard drives and Optical/Disc/CD/DVD/Bluray drives) then some of the older cartridge counterparts.  It is also much more complicated machine code/operating systems which overtime will also become corrupted (or even effected with a virus).  Operating environment also is a key factor.  Unlike say a NES which will operate in terrible temperature extremes your PS3 is very susceptible to heat and needs to run in a fairly cool, dry and dirt/smoke free environment.  Because it is also using a superior media these factors will effect it more than those of DVD or even CD based storage.  If you keep it in a clean, smoke/pet free environment, at a cool temperature in a fairly ventilated area it is going to last better than a letting your cat use it as a scratching post.  Storing it in a cupboard would be better for it than storing it in a attic or basement where temperatures are more likely to swing and dust or dirt are more prevalent.

#1.  I think the console is designed to do this.  From a complete poweroff (IE off switch from the back) it will go into standby then you turn it on.  (My PS2 is the exact same thing)

#2  90% of all failures with unable to read media are either problems with the media (Scratches, scuffs, dirt/dust etc) or the optical lens is dirty.  Harks back to the clean environment and also taking a little care and actually cleaning your lens or disk occasionally.  The other 10% is failure.  Think of anything that uses a laser like any cd based game unit as like a light bulb in the house.  The more you use it the more chance it has the possibility of failing.  The more times it is turned off and on the more it may fail.  The longer it is on the higher chance it will fail.  That is not saying it will fail just your chances increase, eventually lasers will burn out or loose intensity and need adjusting/boosting to work.  Humidity is a factor but unless you have high humidly or a lot of water in you environment I would not worry about it.  (Also helps to never use you video gaming unit as a drink coaster)

#3. Your theory on the hard drive is fairly sound.  I would leave at least 25% of you Hard drive for paging and stuff like that.  Just like you don't run you PC with a full hard drive.  Your PS3 is exactly the same.  If you Hard drive is constantly being corrupted it will be 3 things.  The machine is not being powered off properly causing the drive to crash, the drive is failing or the drive is not installed properly.  Occasionally the hard drive is not installed properly and needs to be taken out and replugged in again. (And it fixes the constant corruption)

#4  Firmware can crash your system or game because it is not fully tested for every posibility.  There is no way it can be.  And more often than not most gamers will have that posibility in place and crash there system.  It takes time to test this and sometime right after a release is released another one is released.  (To fix the bugs up in the previously release)  Common rule of thumb, I work with computers and use the same rule, is never pull down a major patch until it has been tested by everyone else for a week or so.  That way you system remains safe while everyone else does the testing.

I think providing it is stored in a safe place and maybe run an optical cleaner thru the machine before you play it.  It should be fine.

Hope this helps

Octane


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again Octane!
A little correction for my #1 question.
I mean about PS3 which will switch back to standby mode when it's about entering the XMB menu.So the operation is like: turned on the machine from back switch > press the power button > then it's supposed to go to XMB menu but no,its switched back to standby mode instead..

And how about a must to make use PS3 for at least 2 hours per day..Do you think there are some internal battery inside PS3 that needs to be charged periodically and when it wears out because of very rare usage, it'll simply mess PS3.
About lens cleaner..are you sure?If I'm not mistaken,at PS3's instruction manual there are a warning about not to use any type of lens cleaner.We just need to make sure the ventilation clean,appropriate environment temperature,the media inserted clean but nothing to do about lens.

Thank you for your answer,Octane !!

Regards
-Dewa-

Answer
Gday again Dewa,

The XMB menu back to standby is a weird occurrence.  Definitely something is not right there.  I really have no idea on that.

The play it for 2 hours things is really not correct.  There is no internal batteries that need to be recharges, although technically capacitors do fit that description and do sort of work like batteries storing a charge.  But they really should not effect it if it is played or not.  It really should not wear out from lack of use if anything it should protect the moving parts in it.  What I have noticed with really old electronic equipment, over 10-15 years  (PC/Arcade machines) is they usually will work great if they are left on constantly but as soon as you start turning them off they start having problems.

I do believe you are correct that the manual does state not to use a lens cleaner.  But if you PS3 suddenly starts to read less and less disks and it is out of warranty I would be running a lens cleaner on it.  I heard the Maxell ones are fairly good.  (Its going to attract some sort of dust over time and I would bet Sony if you send it back to be fixed for such a problem will run a lens cleaner on it)

Really I would only worry about the usage of it if it is one of the first Gen machine that where released as they had a number of known problems (Simply because they where rushed to get out in time)

Hope this helps.

Octane