so basically i need to repair my PS3 or else i cant get anything off of it right?

It's keyed to your dead PS3, so yes; if you want all your data, you're going to have to resurrect it temporarily until you can do your console to console transfer or manually copy whatever you can while it still functions.

I'd recommend doing a manual grab of your most important saves first before doing the console to console transfer.

I've done about a dozen or so PS3 repairs and each had different levels of success as far as how long they lasted. The last one didn't survive long enough to complete the console to console transfer (300GB data transfer takes hours to complete)

The best thing you can do is to fix your old PS3, I'm sure you will find a shop around your area that can fix it for about 50 bucks, once that's done do the "transfer utility" from PS3 to PS3, there is plenty of tutorials on YouTube, once it's done, and can take quite a bit of time, you are good to go, do not remove the HDD to try to copy data into your PC as it will be unreadeable. I actually went throguh this steps because my original PS3 broke and I could not be happier, this happened to me on October last year and did extensive research, and the best solution are the steps I described, plus you don't really want to open up your PS3 yourself.

It's not filled with scary ghosts or anything, but sure; if you don't have a basic set of screwdrivers, T6 security torx bit, heat gun, thermal paste (stuff a typical PC repair/builder would have), it's probably cheaper/easier to just have someone do the reflow job for you. Particularly if you have minimal experience doing electronics teardown and rebuilds.

Same thing happened to me last month. I had an 80GB PS3. All my data was lost. The only thing I really miss is my Gran Turismo 5 data...I had just opened up the first ending video. So I had a ton of stuff...all gone now...but there was still a ton of more stuff to do. I am not sure I am going to put the hours in it again...although I might. It is a great game.

Anyway...the PS3 slim is awesome. Quieter. Only thing missing is a USB port in the back...not sure how Sony missed that one. 

Damn, bad luck...

I say, follow the advice from people in the thread. I've heard some methods before...