Sony slams PS3 'Yellow light of death' report

14. My PS3 has just suffered the dreaded "yellow light of death" after two years of loyal service. Whilst this vexes me intensely, I know I will be able to get it replaced, repaired or refunded at no inconvenience to myself. To find out how, please read on! In England we are protected by the "Sale of goods act" which all retailers in this country are bound by. When I hear about the manufacturer charging for PS3 repairs It sounds like customers are being referred to them by the retailer when they first complain. If this is the case, then these retailers are breaking the law, because the retailer is liable for up to six years for replacing, repairing or refunding goods that do not conform to the Sale of goods act, NOT the manufacturer, so DO NOT accept the retailer telling you that you have to contact the manufacturer! Certain rules apply to the customer as well though. For example, you will need to provide a "Proof of purchase" THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A RECEIPT!! Retailers are under no obligation to provide you with a receipt, so it is unfair for them to demand a receipt as proof of purchase. A bank statement, cheque stub or similar should suffice,although, if you have the original receipt this is best. REMEMBER, if you want a CASH refund for FAULTY goods, you must be able to prove that cash has changed hands. If your goods (PS3 for example) are within the manufacturer's warranty it is still the retailer's responsibility to deal with, at NO expense or inconvenience to the customer. Within the first six months of your purchase, in the event of a fault occurring, it is up to the retailer to prove wether or not your goods are faulty, usually by sending them away for scrutiny by a company specialist(this is called BURDEN OF PROOF). In the case of electrical goods, the in-store retailer is not qualified to determine the origin of the fault, so do not accept it if they accuse YOU of damaging or misusing your purchase! Usually though, if the fault occurs within six months of purchase it is assumed that the fault is inherent and you should have no problem(as long as you have proof of purchase). If the warranty has expired, or six months have passed on un-warranteed goods it is up to the customer to prove that the fault has NOT occured due to mis-use or accidental/deliberate damage and therefore is the cause of an inherent manufacturing fault(this is called REVERSE BURDEN OF PROOF). This does NOT mean that ALL goods are covered for six years though, it is simply the period of time in which you can take the retailer to court if they refuse to deal with your complaint in a satifactory manner. It really depends on how much you've paid for the goods, for example, a ten pound joypad that breaks down after a year and a half usually wouldn't be covered, but a PS3 for example, as the most expensive games console on the market, should be! So please use some common-sense before you take goods back and demand your rights, because as someone who has been in retail for fifteen years can tell you, it's annoying when customers come in demanding refunds when they've not done their homework! So please complain calmly and don't become rude or abusive because no matter what YOUR rights are, the retailer has the legal right to refuse to serve you, so don't give them an excuse! If they refuse to deal with your complaint, contact your local Trading standards office and they will normally give you a reference number and advise you to write to the retailer expressing your complaint, quoting the Sale of goods act and the reference number and a date by which you want the matter dealt with. If you are certain that you are in right but the retailer still refuses to deal with your complaint, you may have to threaten legal action (in writing) as most retailers don't want to go to court, especially not over a faulty games console, this should resolve your problem. So remember, KNOW YOUR RIGHTS, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, COMPLAIN CALMLY and DON'T let retailers fob you off or pass the problem on to the manufacturer!

13. raniator I personally think you are incorrect on your point. Having watched the Watchdog item again they do refer to the issue in the original PS3 60gb models. As someone that paid GBP 549.99 for my machine 18 months ago the GBP 400.00 that they refer is actually reasonable.

Having got the issue of the yellow warning light this week I have spent many hours trolling the internet and am horrified to find so many cases of similar issues relating to the original 60gb models.

I have called Sony about the 'yellow light of death' on my machine and was told that no such issue exists and that it was pure media hype which had been carried over from an issue with a competitor. The customer services chap quickly identified my machine as failing due to suspected overheating on the motherboard. A very quick diagnosis given the fact that in the letter to the BBC from Ray Maguire it was mentioned that the yellow light is a non specific fault indicator. Should I question the ability of Sony NO I should not as they clearly are more trained than I and were able to diagnose the problem.

My machine was positioned and well ventilated and prior to the error was actually switched off. The use of my machine is possibly below normal usage for its age. I have not overheated the motherboard.. that was done by the system and I can only put that down to a failure in component or design.

I refuse to pay to exchange my unit for a refurbed one at a cost of £128 when it only comes with a 3 month warranty. This does not fill me personally with any confidence. As per raniator clearly you can now get a new model version with 12 months warranty for only £91.99 more (based on play.com 120gb version @ £219.99 15/11/09)

I am astonished by the number of reported failings of launch models on a day by day basis. We should commend the likes of Watchdog as they do a fantastic job for us the public. Without there assistance lots of products that have failed because of manufacture issues would have been at our cost and we would never know the truth. XB360 issues were originally played down by MS but later meant that warranty periods were extended.

On just one site on youtube that I found because I wanted to check if my overheating issue was correct had over 200,000 visits. I really cannot see why anyone would go looking for sites like this if not affected. The Sony response related to UK failings only.. what about the Worldwide picture?

Luckily we here in the UK have the Sales of Goods Act 1979 which states that a product should last 6 years irrespective of the length of manufacturers warranty. In my case 18 months for a GBP 549.99 games console is not of a satisfactory quality or durability.

Thank you again to Watchdog and forums like this.

12. PLEASE READ AND REPLY WITH OPTICAL PROBLEMS AS SONY DONT SEEM TO BELIEVE THERE CUSTOMERS

i have just recieved my ps3 back as the optical out either stops working or keeps going off this is my third console sony have said there is nothing wrong with it its still broke they say its probaly a compatability issue as my surround sound is a panasonic but it worked from the 1 sept to the 19 oct then went game swapped the console the same day then it went on the 22nd oct game swapped it again straight away it did the same its not a compatibility as i use a dd dts coding and it has the same problem on my mates sony surround sound so they are making sony gaming units that dont work with sony surround sound units its clearly the ps3 which is broke to be honest with you i think they did try it and it did work but they where hearing sound from the tv via the hdmi cable they did not turn the tv down atleast microshaft fix your console and have a free phone number yes i have spent 17 pounds for about an hour and a half to there helpline

11. There's a very detailed fix that the guys over at ps3-hacks came up with so that you can fix this yourself--it's a bit tedious but beats the hell out of paying the 200-some-odd bucks or something that Sony's allegedly charging if you're out of warranty: http://wheretobuyps3.com/index.php/2009/10/ps3-yellow-light-of-death-fix/

10. A few other points.

Not all faulting ps3's and 360's can be repaired. Sometimes the heat build up can cause damage to surounding chips and components. Once that happens, there is no turning back the clock.

It's funny to read sony's reply to all this as contradictory to there response, they have informed several users that there IS a known issue with certain builds of ps3. In particular 20gb and 60gb models that were produced before a certain date. They run an extended warrantee on these ones... if you bought it when they were released. If you bought one of them that had been on the shelf for a good few months then you they wont fix it for you.

At least microsoft offer an extended 3 year warrantee on specific faults. Time for sony to do the same.

9. Hi all. Just thought I'd add my two bob's worth on this as I DO know about all this.

I run a local repair service on the ps3 and xbox 360 in ayrshire, scotland. I started as a customer of both microsoft and sony who had to adress the rrod issue with my 360 and the yellow light of death on my ps3. Once word got round localy that I can fix these, it all grew from there.

First off, there ARE majour faults with both consoles and I find it an insult that sony try to deny there is and blame users for there consoles failing.

The fault lies in defects and poor design in the cooling system. Simple as. They all overheat and this causes the solder joints on specific chips to constantly soften up and eventualy, cold solder. Primeraly the gfx chip and unfortunatly, variouse chips close to the gfx chip.

I don't beleive in the "heat up" technique as it will never work as a perminant fix. Once the solder joints have been softened up to the point that the conection breaks and they cold solder, heating it up will never perminantly fix it because the solder holding the chips has been ruined.

There is only one way to perminantly fix these faulty consoles. Use a heat gun to remove existing solder the use a solder gun to solder the chips back on with fresh solder.

It can be done easily if your good enough with these tools.

This method guarentees no returns. I've repaired probably thousands of 360's and ps3 over the past year and they never come back to me. :)

As for sony claiming there are only a small number faulty, why then have I had to repair over 200 ps3 consoles in the past month alone?

Time for people to get there head out the sand methinks...

8. playstation needs to fix this error on all its machines and future ps3 consoles otherwise it will just happen again

7. So the PS3 costs £400 does it? Nice work research team. Even if you aren't that clued up on gamer tech you'd be hard-pushed to have missed the 'slim' launch and the fact it's £250. Or one trip to an online store to check the price. Maybe BBCs research team haven't quite managed to upgrade to interwebz yet.

6. I watched the report. Whilst I didn't take notes it appeared the guys in the van (one of whom said, if I remember correctly, he'd seen 200 broken PS3s) were able to fix a small number of consoles quickly - it could have been 12. But when the report cut back to the studio Anne Robinson said (very quickly and in passing over) that 5 (could have been 7) were still working, which doesn't say much for the purported repair skills! In any event, I would sooner trust the PS3's reliability than that of the Xbox any day. And UK consumers are backed up by such legislation as the Sale of Goods Act.

5. According to the program, there were around 12,500 faulty PS3s "that they would admit to" but considering the amount of consoles that have been sold, that's minuscule.

4. Sony kicked *** when it came to fixing our PS3. Phoned them up, gave them a few details and they sent a replacement out immediately by courier who uplifted our broken one at the same time. Totally painless and bloody impressive so **** Watchdog.

3. Watchdog loves stunts without doing their research first, usually misunderstanding a product or giving voice to people of little intelligence.

2. I don't have a PS3 so cannot comment on any own experience, nor have I read anything on my regular video games website as to the PS3's reliability or lack thereof. But take the initial letters from 'PlayStation Repair Action Team', as in P-R-A-T, and I can't help wondering!

1. and they didn't even mention the 360 once, that's some mean feat :)