PlayStation 3 60GB Problems

Overall Failure Rate

• Overall, the rate for defects and failures for the PlayStation 3 is normal for electronics of its caliber. Percentage wise, just 3 percent of PS3's have been reported to be defective. Similarly, the Nintendo Wii hovers around 3 percent as well. The Microsoft Xbox 360, on the other hard, has experienced a 16 percent console failure rate, mostly due to the infamous "Red Ring of Death" hardware failure that plagued many of the early consoles.

YLOD

• While the Xbox 360 had its "Red Ring of Death," the PS3 experienced a similar issue with its "Yellow Light of Death," or YLOD. This YLOD is caused by a non-specific hardware failure that renders a PS3 inert and displays a yellow light near the PS3's power button. This problem is mainly thought to have affected only 60GB PS3 consoles, but Sony has not released failure rates for any of the versions of its consoles.

Blu-ray Failure

• Another problem that users have experienced with their 60GB PS3s is a Blu-ray laser failure. The Blu-ray laser diode simply dies out, ensuring that Blu-ray games, movies, DVDs and CDs cannot be played in the system's disc drive. Some owners have fingered firmware update 3.0 as the culprit, as that update sped up the systems disc drive in order to load data faster, but pushed the limits of the original consoles and burnt them out.

Leap Year Bug

• On March 1, 2010, 60GB PS3s fell victim to a bug that crippled the system, preventing users from connecting to the PlayStation Network or playing some games and deleting trophy data. The source of this bug was the PS3's internal clock, which mistakenly thought 2010 was a leap year and that March 1 was February 29. This affected all pre-Slim PS3s, including the 60GB, and Sony advised gamers not to turn on their systems until the problem was fixed. The problem was fixed the next day and all affected PS3s are now working properly.

Warranty

• The 60GB PS3 came with a standard one-year warranty that covered the system for all hardware defects for the first year, including the YLOD and Blu-ray failures. If the defect occurred out of warranty, a fee of $179 would be charged to fix the console or replace it with a refurbished model. Alternatively, you can have your 60GB PS3 replaced with a refurbished PS3 Slim for $120.