Playstation 3 running slow?

[Shoogar]

Hey. I just want to know if this is happening to other people, or whether something is wrong with my PS3, so I can determine whether I should get Sony to have to look.

It seems to run a little bit slowly. It seems to be freezing up, online games are sometimes just a pain because the PS3 can't keep up with the lobbies, I get that, what I call, 'PS3 Lagg' where the Ps3's HDD light just stays full yellow and it just pauses everything for a second or two (VERY annoying when playing a FPS online). Also, games like FALLOUT 3 are extremely laggy, even when playing on component cables (AV), and freezes up a lot.

If this is an issue with my Ps3 (Had it for almost a year, it's a slim 120GB) does anyone have a solution that is fairly easy and wont mean loosing the PS3 for a week or so?

P.S Im not 100% sure whether this is the right topic to post this in.. So if it isn't, please can this be moved.

 

[Dracwolley]

I haven't had exactly that happen before, but my PS3 is definitely slow. GT5 rarely runs better than 30FPS, and once or twice I've had it get to the point of 3-4FPS playing Burnout Paradise, which is a game that is very high in framerate and is not a resource hog.

I'm buying my own replacement since it's well out of warranty, but as far as I know it's not fixable.

Mine is a 2nd-generation 40GB fat.

 

[Shoogar]

I haven't had exactly that happen before, but my PS3 is definitely slow. GT5 rarely runs better than 30FPS, and once or twice I've had it get to the point of 3-4FPS playing Burnout Paradise, which is a game that is very high in framerate and is not a resource hog.

I'm buying my own replacement since it's well out of warranty, but as far as I know it's not fixable.

Mine is a 2nd-generation 40GB fat.

Do you also have it when if your game is loading something, and you press the PS button to look at something, sometimes the whole console will freeze? My console freezes a lot if i've been using for more then 5-6 hours.

 

[Dracwolley]

Yeah, I probably have 1 or 2 freezes per week doing random things. Always something different, probably have had that happen specifically but I don't recall.

Sounds like a serious issue actually. If it's still within warranty call up Sony immediately, if not then still call them up and ask about prices for an out-of-warranty replacement, and then compare that to what Gamestop (or a similar store) would give you for the console.

 

[Shoogar]

Okay, well my problem was solved for a little while, but now it's back.. And worse.

I think this is due to the latest firmware update, but when I turn the PS3 on, it runs REALLY slowly for the first 5-10 minutes and the HDD light is a constant yellow, until it finishes reading the HDD.

Now, this could be because of two things,
1: Signing into the network to load all of my friends list (Which still doesnt load correctly, leaving sign out times off and not loading avatars, also my list is at 95/100, but this was never a problem, even when I had 100/100 friends) and loading my messages, which I can never delete in full, it always takes a stupid ammount of time (20-30 minutes) to delete even half of them.

2: Running on component cables after running on HDMI for approx 2 weeks. Maybe the cross over after having it on HD has done something to the system? Also I have the GT5 custom theme setting set for my ps3, but I got rid of the moving back ground thinking that it was causing the problem.

 

[nick09]

From what I can tell it either the hard drive is slow(try replacing it with an another sata laptop hard drive) or your PS3 is overheating(don't try this if your under warranty since you need to take the PS3 apart). If the hard drive replacement does not help then there is a good chance that it's the PS3 overheating. Go to ifixit.com, look up a tutorial for your specific PS3. You should see a step about replacing the thermal paste. A good brand of thermal paste is Arctic Silver and will only cost around $5-$10.

If the new thermal paste or hard drive does not help then you can call Sony knowing that you have tried your best at fixing the problem.

@'Round the bend: The friendslist is stored on servers so it should not be causing the trouble. As far as I know switching the video mode should not give you any problems.

 

[Jump_Ace]

It sounds to me like you have a YLOD (Yellow Light OF Death - google it for more info) PS3, or the Hard drive has some bad sectors that the PS3 can't write to. I'd first recommend backing up all your data to a USB hard drive (the same or larger than your current PS3 hard drive). See if it will let you do a backup from the XMB, if so, replace the hard drive and run a restore from the SMB. Then see if the HDD light stays lit and if the PS3 responds properly again (try doing the same things you did before that you were certain caused it to go slow). I had an issue with my HD Tivo Box where we could watch and record say 95 hours consistently, but when we reached the 96th hour, the Tivo froze up completely. I replaced the HDD wiht a new Tivo Iso image and it has been fine since. If that at all seems to fit what you are experiencing, then that may be it. Also, let the PS3 run a game with the sound muted and put your ear next to the PS3 HDD, if you hear any beeping, knocking, pinging, scratching or any repeated odd sounds; the HDD is likely bad.

If it is the YLOD issue, I'd suggest contacting Sony if it's still in warranty. I wouldn't recommend fixing it yourself as you could very well void the warranty. Plus if you aren't accustomed to building computers, you may make things worse with the thermal paste. However, if it is out of warranty, I'd say go for it.

Jerome

 

[spiker]

I have this fear that GT5 will be the game that finally bricks my 40GB fatty. I've been considering a Slim but am too lazy and don't want to spend the money.

 

[Shoogar]

Well it hasnt been a year, so I still have warranty, I think I have 2 year warranty.

It's definately not YLOD and the only thing that causes the HDD to run slowly is being connected to the internet. (Other then that it's completely fine)

 

[Dracwolley]

Well by a YLOD i think he means a PS3 that is likely to get one, not one that already has it.

I would just call Sony up and ask... you got a lemon in some form or another.

 

[Shoogar]

Grr.. I don't want to lose my close to 60% GT5. My PS3 doesn't recognise my Portable hard-drive, which is 1TB. It's of WD branding.

 

[nick09]

You will need to format the external hard drive to fat32.

 

[Dracwolley]

You will need to format the external hard drive to fat32.

Or MS-DOS, that's the format that mine is in and I just backed up my PS3 earlier, after it apparently overheated repeatedly

 

[Shoogar]

OKAY! IM SO HAPPY I SOLVED THIS!

It's finally solved!

Here's what's happening. (It's sort of half fixed)

When I turn on the PS3, it automatically signs me into PSN. After mucking around for half an hour, I decided to turn Auto Sign-In off. Because the HDD was running so slowly, once I had done this, it froze. (HDD light turned off)

I re-booted the PS3, and viola, the HDD returned to normal. I then went to sign in, and the HDD started to run slowly again.

THIS MEANS! It's my Playstation Friends List that's broken, not the actual PS3.

Im guessing that this means that there's a glitch in my PSN account.. :'(.

Do I contact Sony and ask them if they can fix it?

If so, how do I contact Sony Australia?




EDIT:

What was wrong was that the latest update (3.55) didn't install correctly, so thanks to some sloppy installation, i've lost my 60% GT5 progress from the System Restore.

It's all good though! I have until February to get it back, maybe a little more. Although I will miss my bright green Maserati with bright purple rims. :'(

 

[jnsmith0123]

Mine is also slow.

 

[risuku13]

How is it now? Have you tried the Recovery Menu?

 

[thedeester1]

Recovery menu didnt work for me...

My tip keep a back up of your playstation system...As some one stated the ps3 will only back up to Fat32 drives or flash drives (if you have one big enough)..Formating a drive to Fat32 in XP or later isnt easy so I used EASEUS partition master....Its free just search the net. You can find it at Afterdawn.com....Im not sure if thats allowed sorry. Im nothing to do with the site so im not spamming! If you use the command prompt it will tell you the drive is too big if its over 32GB (i think) forget the size but all drives are bigger than it now!

 

[JCoop]

I, too, am having "slow" problems after I installed GT5. well, it was OK until I got to level 25 or thereabouts. It stalls for about 2-5 minutes somewhere between the startup GT5 screen and the main GT Life menu screen. I thought maybe it was a server issue, as the green light stays on and the amber light goes out for a while. I thought maybe I'd give sony a chance to update their servers but it's been a week or so now. I'm thinking of replacing my 60GB HDD but scared of losing my data. HDDs are only $50 or so but I've lost my GT5 data from a powersurge once; don't want to grind again...
I've been backing up te GT5 data to a flash drive.
Is there a step by step guide to a HDD swap/ backup and restore procedure?

Thanks and cheers!