When my PS3 died for a day!

Sometimes the most feared events occur to the unexpected times. One such incident was my Play Station3 giving a scare just after SONY announced their "Welcome Back" Package for PSN users. I was really happy with the package as I always wanted to play inFamous and Little Big Planet. Obviously I opted for inFamous and Little Big Planet (and the other games also :P). However, I saw that the installation files were really huge. So I had to download these games only in the night as the Internet is more or less always used in our home. So first games I downloaded were the ones with smaller files - Little Big Planet (and et al) . I kept inFamous for the last; the setup file is 7000+ MB. All other games are in the range of 2GB. After the small games I went on to try Playstation Plus service. First thing I saw was Burnout: Paradise City was free for Plus service. So I decided that first. By the time I saw Burnout on PSN, the other games were already downloaded with the exception of inFamous. Since Burnout was available till 14th June I thought I better finish with Burnout. The setup file was only 3GB so I thought in 1 day the whole game will be done downloading. This is where my problem started.

The next day, I checked the download it was 50% done. I cursed BSNL for some time and went on to my routine. Sometime in the evening I noticed that the PS3 had switched off. No one had touched through the day. So I didn't really understand why it had switched off. Anyways I switched on my PS3 and it started behaving a little abnormal. Every operation was slow. But then I observed a new OS version had been out so tried to install that. It installed correctly, but still it acted weirdly. So I decided to take PS3 into recovery mode. Once there I restored default settings of PS3 (bad move). This was not required. Well we always do stupid things. Maybe I should have called the Customer Care. Restoring Default settings erased the PSN login data which meant PS3 gave new names to all the profiles on my system. I tried to change the names to the old ones. But the system started to give up. I couldn't switch off the system, the light would keep blinking and the system would restart (which happens when it is hung), but still wouldn't switch off. Consequently, I had to pull the power cord. Each time I did this my PS3 became more complicated to handle. At one stage, no icons appeared, just rotating arrows, which usually indicating the software is loading. Even waiting for 10 minutes didn't help. I didn't know what to do. When I tried to ring up the customer care, automated answering machine said the service was open only from 9am to 730pm. It was already 10pm. So I turned towards the Internet community. After despairingly searching for a solution I concluded from various threads that the main problem might be corruption of data on the Hard Disk. One person had suggested that I upgrade my Hard disk. Another source suggested that I try to "Restore File System" from the recovery mode. I tried this option too and prayed it would work. Alas it didn't help. Every time I went into recovery mode I had to switch off the PS3. After few times, I felt very guilty of pulling the power cord each time. So I stopped. I went to bed wishing the Customer Care would serve me a solution.

First thing in the morning I did was to call the Customer Care. He directed me to take the system to the service centre as I had already done the preliminary steps to check for errors. At the service centre, I thought they would give me a solution instead I had an option- Either to keep my faulty PS3 or to exchange it for a discounted brand new PS3. The worst part of the visit to the service centre was that they didn’t even know what the problem was and didn’t really care what it was. All they said was - "PS3 is irreparable in India", "If you want we can provide a discount on the new PS3 you buy". This was not according to my plan. I wanted everything which I had downloaded the past week-the welcome back pack, everything else on the hard drive. So I thought -"My PS3 is dead". Dreadful news for me but I couldn't do anything. It was 18 months since I bought my PS3 which meant, the warranty is not applicable.  

Almost everywhere on the internet they suggest you to make a back-up and then use System Restore which makes your PS3 Off-the-shelf (except for the OS). So I tried that, my last hope. But then I realised the back-up wouldn't include any games. So what about the games? I had to download them again. It is even irritating to imagine downloading those games again. I switched on my PS3; again those evil rotating arrows showed up, I pulled the plug. Sometime in the evening I realised that I had some important photos which I had put only on PS3 and didn’t have a copy anywhere else. To confirm I switched on PS3, to my surprise the icons appeared. I waited, and then went back and forth in the menu, to see if there was any lag, there was nothing. Then checked downloads section, Burnout still was at 70%. I was happy all data was as before. The left the download to finish so left it as it is. I checked again after 30 minutes, still found the download status at 70%. This was not good. I checked if other games were downloading. All were fine except Burnout. So I had to do it - I cancelled the download. The offer on Burnout was still valid, so again I downloaded it. I left it to download all night. The download was done. The game installed fine. Next I checked if games were booting correctly. Everything was fine.

But I still can't figure out what was wrong with my PS3. It was not the deadly, YLOD or the Red light of Death problem. Maybe it was corrupted Hard Disk. And, of course continuous use, I had kept it on for roughly 36 hours straight!

Now I am happy, but also cautious.I don't want to struggle with my PS3 again! Oh God not again. Not my PS3. The HORROR!!!