Saturday, October 2, 2010

More Than Just Music...

With all the posts about music I've been doing, I'm sure most of you forgot that this blog is actually for digital media in general as well as bands (I know I forgot!).
So here is my first posting about video games!

For many of us gamers, the console wars of this new generation are the most competitive so far! But it seems as though, even with all the cool new technology, the failure rates of consoles are at an all time high! The big question has always been, which gaming console is the best? But I am urging you all to rethink this question, as each console is nearest to perfect in it's own respect:

 -  The PS3 may be a gaming console, but it's actually a multipurpose multimedia entertainment system.
 -  The Wii is a gaming console aimed not at graphics, but uniqueness and individuality.
 -  The Xbox 360 is a gaming console made with only one thing in mind; gaming.

That being said, I am a PS3 owner, and a recent encounter with the Yellow Light of Death, or YLOD (the PS3s instance of RROD), has made me consider new factors in the gaming field: console failure rates and what the companies are doing about it.

Sony, unfortunately, does very little for their end users concerning YLOD- unlike Microsoft who spent over $1 billion in an effort to supply a solution for the RROD. My personal conclusion for this is that YLOD is nowhere near as publicized as RROD, and thus Sony does not feel the need to spend such large sums of money to fix it.

Now, I must admit when I first got YLOD I had NO IDEA what was happening. I, like many of you probably, didn't even know there was such a thing. So I searched... and searched... and searched more. And after two hours of searching I learned everything I thought I needed to know and began a grueling process of taking matters into my own hands and reviving a supposedly dead PS3.
During my time searching, however, I also came across the failure rates for all three next-gen consoles, *they are as follows:
Xbox 360 has the highest failure rate of 23.7%
PS3 has the next highest failure rate of 10%
Wii has the lowest failure rate with a mere 2.7%

*please note that these are legit statistics taken in Sept. '09
You can read the full statistics here.

It's obvious that with so much attention being drawn to the 360s alarmingly high failure rate, Sony can be slack on their out-of-warranty repairs.

So how did I take matters into my own hands you might ask? Well, since my PS3 was out of warranty I was left with only a few options. 1) Send it to Sony and get charged 150 bucks for a refurbished system and lose ALL saved data and not have a system for up to 6 weeks, 2) Send it to one of the many Ebay users who charge anywhere from $35 to $90 + shipping and handling, or 3) fix it myself for dirt cheap.
Also note that options 2 and 3 void warranty and literally make your console a ghost in the eyes of Sony.
I went with option 3, and thanks to a little guidance from Gilksy's ad found here I was able to repair it. It now works perfectly fine.

So I hope this post is useful and informative. And if nothing else, maybe it will encourage you to take matters into your own hands on occasion when life sticks you the finger. :]

5 comments:

  1. is there a fix for my old ps2 in that guide?

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  2. also, I'm looking to upgrade to ps3 or xbox, any ideas on how to do it on the cheap? Scared of the ebay route...

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  3. Hey Jeff, that guide is only for the ps3 i believe.
    As for upgrading, what are your plans for it?

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  4. Console Failure SUCKS!
    Glad you could fix yours on the cheap. :D

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  5. nice little post, thanks for popping by man <3

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