Hair Dryer FTW

If blowing a hot hair dryer into the back of an expensive piece of broken consumer electronics sounds like a bad idea, that’s because it is. But hey, it works. 

I followed the instructions of this well spoken gentleman - an unlikely find on the internet. He set out to test the validity of the hair dryer repair method. Still, I couldn't believe that it would work for me. I had other plans waiting in the wings.

I made sure to remove the hard drive before I started. I went for 20 minutes of hot air, followed by 20 minutes of cold. Then I let it stand for an hour before turning it on. And... success.

The whole thing cost €15. Three months PlayStation Plus let me back-up my saves to the cloud. It also netted me a free copy of Shank 2 to add to the ever expanding list. The Mass Effect 3 disc survived the process unscathed so I'm back in business this weekend.

Wohoo!

Options

There are a couple of possibilities for rescuing my data. All but one require that I spend yet more money. The internet tells me that the most likely reason for the failure of a system as old as mine is due to over-heating - the solder points on the CPU are no longer connecting to the motherboard. Another reason for the Yellow Light of Death, as it’s known, is a faulty power supply. So here are my options:


1. The hair dryer home repair method - Blow into the rear vent on the PS3 with a hot hair dryer for 15 minutes in the hopes that the solder will re-flow, connection will be reestablished and the unit will operate long enough to back up one’s saves.

        Pros:  Cheap.

        Cons:  It’s ridiculous!

                  I’ll have to pay for PS+ to do a quick backup.

2. The tear-down/heat gun home repair method - Void the warranty, open the sucker up and go at the motherboard with a heat gun available from hardware stores. This repair is said to last for weeks, it should easily allow me time to do a full hard drive content transfer via ethernet cable.
        Pros:  I get to buy a heat gun.
        Cons:  Costs a lot: heat gun, screw drivers, thermal paste, etc.

                  Not guaranteed to work.

3. If both of the above fail, it’s still possible that I have a faulty power supply. I could buy a used, broken PS3 on adverts.ie and switch one power supply unit out for the other.            
        Pros:   I get to dig around inside.
        Cons:  No guarantee new power supply works
                  Sony could have repaired the power supply for €160

I’ll report on each of these in turn over the coming weeks. The hair dryer test is happening today. In reality I’m unlikely to get past stage 2. How much does thermal gel cost?

Decision Time

I’ve reached a crossroads. My PlayStation 3 died unceremoniously over the weekend. I can afford to replace it (just about) but at the cost of giving up new games for the rest of the year. This presents an opportunity – to play through the ridiculous volume of unfinished and even untouched games in my collection. I intend for this blog to chart my progress through over 20 years of videogame design. 

-------------------

Gaming is an expensive pursuit. It costs both time and money. I have little of either to spend, but I do have a passion for videogames - for their mechanics and for the brief and beautiful glimpses of interactive storytelling that they provide. I love the art, the design and the music of games past and present. I read a lot, and listen to hours of coverage each week, on the wider industry as well as the creative individuals that make it up.

Now my PS3 has died. The soulless blinking of a single red light tells me I can no longer access the five years of data saved on the hard drive, or eject the disc inside. My last back-up is two years old – that's my own fault. I can always buy a new system, but a new system costs money and I don’t have money to spare. Something has to give.

The console will cost me at least €250. That equates to about five new games – the bulk of my budget for the rest of the year. So to keep myself entertained I'm turning to my embarrassing collection of unfinished games. Everything from NES platformers, to late nineties PC classics, to sprawling 2011 RPGs litter my home and my hard drives. And this is the perfect opportunity to clear the decks.

So why replace the PS3? I have to play Bioshock Infinite later this year and I won't be doing that on this six year old laptop. I also have unfinished business with my dead console. Mass Effect 3 and Dark Souls - games into which I've sunk unacceptable amounts of time and personal strife - are my main reasons for wanting to rescue my lost saves. In fact, Mass Effect is a problem for a whole other reason too but I'll come back to that.

There is hope. I can get creative with hair dryers and credit cards covered in reversible packing tape. I can try to save the old PlayStation, at least for long enough to back up my data to the cloud. I'll chart my progress with the hardware, as well as with games of yore here at Hackett Out over the coming months. 

Now I just need to decide where to start. And to think about some sort of design for this crisp white page.