Earlier this week we had a thread going for those of us who have sent in their PS3's for service so that we can all keep each other informed as to the status of the repairs. Unfortunately, we were sucked into a shouting match with a certain individual who got our thread locked out. I propose we try again with one difference - do NOT respond to ANYONE who wants to change the subject or tell us how well their system works. Simply don't answer them.

    Tell us how long you've been waiting for repairs, when you get your unit back, what condition it was in as recieved, and what error message you got to prompt you to return it. Let's help each other out! My unit has been in Texas since March 31st. The symptoms were a loss of sound part way through COD4 game and then a blank screen at the end of the match. Restarted and the same thing happened a couple of times. Then I got the error that it would not read any disks - 80010514. Everything else worked but it wouldn't read DVD or BluRay.

   This was shortly after installing the latest update at that time for both the PS3 and COD4. Anyone else? Remember don't respond to the antagonists. Additions: If your unit will not read any disks or refuses to start, you have no alternative, unless you want to throw it out the window, but to call Sony support or use their on-line service request form at https://service.us.playstation.com/online-request.asp. If your unit is less than one year old AND you have a receipt, they will send you a box commonly called a 'coffin' which typically takes 3 to 5 business days to get to you.

   If you do NOT have a receipt, in almost all cases listed in this thread, people have had to pay $150 US for them to send the coffin. They have been pretty firm with that requirement. You can argue with them but it is a real long shot that you will win. The same link I gave above will have a link to telephone support. If it has been over one year since you purchased your PS3, then you have no choice but to pay them $150 if you want it fixed. It doesn't matter what the problem is. If they tell you to send it in for repair, they will ask you for $150 on a credit card.

   If you have a credit card that offers to double any factory warranty, use it!!! When you get your unit back, it will have a three month warranty if it was over a year old. If it was still under the initial one year warranty, then the NEW warranty will be either 3 months or the rest of your original warranty, which ever is longer. When you get your coffin, it will come with a return UPS label in the US or Purolator in Canada. The return shipping is overnight. MAKE SURE YOU WRITE DOWN THE TRACKING NUMBER so you can trace it and make sure it has arrived. In the box will be directions and a diagram showing you how to package your console. Make sure you follow them EXACTLY.

     At first, people had to send everything back in including the controllers and cables. Lately, only the console has to be returned (in most cases). Just do what the instructions say EXACTLY. Also, if you have a disc stuck in the machine and you can't get it out because it won't turn on, there is a place on the paperwork for you to note this. Write down what disk it is and highlight it with a colored magic marker so they can't miss it. Everyone that has posted here with that problem has gotten their disk back. You have to take it to a UPS service center or hand it to any driver. Once they get it, it is now taking them anywhere from the same day to a week to repair it. They send it back to you 3 day select which, for some reason, takes 5 days or more. You will also get a call from UPS telling you that someone over 21 has to sign for the package.

     Some younger people have successfully signed for it but if no one is home, UPS will try to redeliver it one time (I believe). If no one is going to be home, call Sony or UPS and make arrangements to have it delivered to a neighbor who is home or to your or your parents' office. During this process you can check the status of your repair under the 'Support'' tab at the top of the page; however, Sony updates the info very slowly and in most cases now, the unit is on its way back to you before they even tell you they started working on it. What kind of unit will you get in return? If you look through this thread, you will see that there is no guaranteed answer to this one.

     Some people get their original units back while others get 'refurbished' units. ALWAYS, people have gotten back the same kind of unit (40,60,80 gig) that they sent in. With the new stripped down models coming out, I don't know if this will continue. Yes, there might be scratches on the refurbished unit that were not on the original you sent them. Call Sony and complain if they are unacceptable. Mine and many others have come back in pristine condition with protective plastic on the console. It's a crap shoot.

     If you can't get your unit to turn on, then you can't save your game data. You have to pray that they send your same unit back. You can also ask them if you can keep your HDD, which you can take out easily. Some people have been able to do that. If it will turn on, then you can use a thumb drive or external HDD to save your game data. Use the XMB to go to the game area and hit the triangle key to save data. When you run the backup utility you should see how big the file is that it will create. How big is that? The backup will include all items on the hard drive that you've put there (ie movie trailers, game trailers, downloadable content--demos, full games, as well as of course game saves).

     If you don't mind re-downloading some items, then you can uninstall games/demos and delete game trailers until you get down the the size of your memory stick. Or get a USB external hard drive (one that is at least ast big as your PS3's hard drive) and then back up to that. You need to make sure that the USB hard drive is formatted in FAT 32 though before the PS3 will backup to it. You CANNOT save the games you downloaded from the store! When you get your new unit, you have to log back in to the store and reload your games. They have your account saved and you can download everything. (Thanks to Freemantim for some of this paragraph!) At this point, I can't think of anything else so, if you have other questions, look through the posts. It really doesn't take as long as you think.

   You can also use the 'search' function which should help. And you can also just post a question at the end of the post. There is a large group of people who are monitoring the thread and stand ready to help you. Minal187 had these comments for those of you in Canada. I hope it helps you:

1. do you get a refurb or your own? you get your own (that's what i got) and it tells you what parts were repaired and whatnot.

2. does it have a lot of scratches/ cosmetic issues? mine did not come back with scratches, but it didn't come back all new either. they give you what you got, so whatever scratches you had is what your gonna get back (it says on the paper if you had any scratches when they recieved the ps3)

3. how long does it usually take to send your ps3 and whatnot? after i made the phone call i recieved the box in 2 days. (i had to spend 4 days after at bestbuy for a new receipt and 4 days again for a new pre-paid shipping slip as mine didn't come with one, but that's another story) so i sent my ps3 on tuesday sept 2 and they recieved it on thursday. it took them 4 days to repair it and they sent it back and i recieved it today (sept 10) so 8 days.

4. do you get the same model of ps3 you got? yes as they repaired your one originally. if not then it usually is the same model. i checked out the four usb ports and the card slot i had and there still there.

5. if you send an old 80gb do you still keep B/C? yes as you get the same model. i tested spiderman 2 for ps2 on it and the intro runs fine. i have still yet to find out if it runs correctly. i'll probably be testing it with spiderman 2, final fantasy 12, metal gear 1,2, and 3. if a lot of people ask about this then i might post my test results later.

6. is there any other problems with the ps3 you get back?

i am currently testing everything. the only thing i noticed was that the fan ran a little louder when i started up ps2 games. i did not play a lot of ps2 games in the past so i don't know if that is normal or not. also after about 10 minutes or so the fan is a little louder. not by a lot. it might be regular as i notice it now but that may be because i haven't played the ps3 in 10 days and i just notice it now. they might've adjusted the fan a little higher i don't know. i trust you it isn't as loud as the other console. i will be probably playing ps3 for the next week to see if the fan holds up like this. i'll post this answer fast. if you have any other questions for CANADIAN ps3's then ask me. please don't ask for U.S ps3's as they send refurbs (unless your a 60gb/20gb owner) and there have been a lot of cases with the ps3's in the U.S

Edit: In the future, please do not write large essays as one big block of text. It's not difficult to seperate your thoughts into paragraphs.
-Onyxmeth

so painful to read...
I've never once had to send mine in.
However I'll attempt to read your post again to be sure of what you're saying, so wish me luck...

Great wall of text.

    Learn to indent and use paragraph format. Its the proper way to get people to read your writing. Don't give us a big wall of text that makes it harder on the eyes

   Earlier this week we had a thread going for those of us who have sent in their PS3's for service so that we can all keep each other informed as to the status of the repairs. Unfortunately, we were sucked into a shouting match with a certain individual who got our thread locked out. I propose we try again with one difference - do NOT respond to ANYONE who wants to change the subject or tell us how well their system works. Simply don't answer them.

    Tell us how long you've been waiting for repairs, when you get your unit back, what condition it was in as recieved, and what error message you got to prompt you to return it. Let's help each other out! My unit has been in Texas since March 31st. The symptoms were a loss of sound part way through COD4 game and then a blank screen at the end of the match. Restarted and the same thing happened a couple of times. Then I got the error that it would not read any disks - 80010514. Everything else worked but it wouldn't read DVD or BluRay.

   This was shortly after installing the latest update at that time for both the PS3 and COD4. Anyone else? Remember don't respond to the antagonists. Additions: If your unit will not read any disks or refuses to start, you have no alternative, unless you want to throw it out the window, but to call Sony support or use their on-line service request form at https://service.us.playstation.com/online-request.asp. If your unit is less than one year old AND you have a receipt, they will send you a box commonly called a 'coffin' which typically takes 3 to 5 business days to get to you.

   If you do NOT have a receipt, in almost all cases listed in this thread, people have had to pay $150 US for them to send the coffin. They have been pretty firm with that requirement. You can argue with them but it is a real long shot that you will win. The same link I gave above will have a link to telephone support. If it has been over one year since you purchased your PS3, then you have no choice but to pay them $150 if you want it fixed. It doesn't matter what the problem is. If they tell you to send it in for repair, they will ask you for $150 on a credit card.

   If you have a credit card that offers to double any factory warranty, use it!!! When you get your unit back, it will have a three month warranty if it was over a year old. If it was still under the initial one year warranty, then the NEW warranty will be either 3 months or the rest of your original warranty, which ever is longer. When you get your coffin, it will come with a return UPS label in the US or Purolator in Canada. The return shipping is overnight. MAKE SURE YOU WRITE DOWN THE TRACKING NUMBER so you can trace it and make sure it has arrived. In the box will be directions and a diagram showing you how to package your console. Make sure you follow them EXACTLY.

     At first, people had to send everything back in including the controllers and cables. Lately, only the console has to be returned (in most cases). Just do what the instructions say EXACTLY. Also, if you have a disc stuck in the machine and you can't get it out because it won't turn on, there is a place on the paperwork for you to note this. Write down what disk it is and highlight it with a colored magic marker so they can't miss it. Everyone that has posted here with that problem has gotten their disk back. You have to take it to a UPS service center or hand it to any driver. Once they get it, it is now taking them anywhere from the same day to a week to repair it. They send it back to you 3 day select which, for some reason, takes 5 days or more. You will also get a call from UPS telling you that someone over 21 has to sign for the package.

     Some younger people have successfully signed for it but if no one is home, UPS will try to redeliver it one time (I believe). If no one is going to be home, call Sony or UPS and make arrangements to have it delivered to a neighbor who is home or to your or your parents' office. During this process you can check the status of your repair under the 'Support'' tab at the top of the page; however, Sony updates the info very slowly and in most cases now, the unit is on its way back to you before they even tell you they started working on it. What kind of unit will you get in return? If you look through this thread, you will see that there is no guaranteed answer to this one.

     Some people get their original units back while others get 'refurbished' units. ALWAYS, people have gotten back the same kind of unit (40,60,80 gig) that they sent in. With the new stripped down models coming out, I don't know if this will continue. Yes, there might be scratches on the refurbished unit that were not on the original you sent them. Call Sony and complain if they are unacceptable. Mine and many others have come back in pristine condition with protective plastic on the console. It's a crap shoot.

     If you can't get your unit to turn on, then you can't save your game data. You have to pray that they send your same unit back. You can also ask them if you can keep your HDD, which you can take out easily. Some people have been able to do that. If it will turn on, then you can use a thumb drive or external HDD to save your game data. Use the XMB to go to the game area and hit the triangle key to save data. When you run the backup utility you should see how big the file is that it will create. How big is that? The backup will include all items on the hard drive that you've put there (ie movie trailers, game trailers, downloadable content--demos, full games, as well as of course game saves).

     If you don't mind re-downloading some items, then you can uninstall games/demos and delete game trailers until you get down the the size of your memory stick. Or get a USB external hard drive (one that is at least ast big as your PS3's hard drive) and then back up to that. You need to make sure that the USB hard drive is formatted in FAT 32 though before the PS3 will backup to it. You CANNOT save the games you downloaded from the store! When you get your new unit, you have to log back in to the store and reload your games. They have your account saved and you can download everything. (Thanks to Freemantim for some of this paragraph!) At this point, I can't think of anything else so, if you have other questions, look through the posts. It really doesn't take as long as you think.

   You can also use the 'search' function which should help. And you can also just post a question at the end of the post. There is a large group of people who are monitoring the thread and stand ready to help you. Minal187 had these comments for those of you in Canada. I hope it helps you:

1. do you get a refurb or your own? you get your own (that's what i got) and it tells you what parts were repaired and whatnot.

2. does it have a lot of scratches/ cosmetic issues? mine did not come back with scratches, but it didn't come back all new either. they give you what you got, so whatever scratches you had is what your gonna get back (it says on the paper if you had any scratches when they recieved the ps3)

3. how long does it usually take to send your ps3 and whatnot? after i made the phone call i recieved the box in 2 days. (i had to spend 4 days after at bestbuy for a new receipt and 4 days again for a new pre-paid shipping slip as mine didn't come with one, but that's another story) so i sent my ps3 on tuesday sept 2 and they recieved it on thursday. it took them 4 days to repair it and they sent it back and i recieved it today (sept 10) so 8 days.

4. do you get the same model of ps3 you got? yes as they repaired your one originally. if not then it usually is the same model. i checked out the four usb ports and the card slot i had and there still there.

5. if you send an old 80gb do you still keep B/C? yes as you get the same model. i tested spiderman 2 for ps2 on it and the intro runs fine. i have still yet to find out if it runs correctly. i'll probably be testing it with spiderman 2, final fantasy 12, metal gear 1,2, and 3. if a lot of people ask about this then i might post my test results later.

6. is there any other problems with the ps3 you get back?

i am currently testing everything. the only thing i noticed was that the fan ran a little louder when i started up ps2 games. i did not play a lot of ps2 games in the past so i don't know if that is normal or not. also after about 10 minutes or so the fan is a little louder. not by a lot. it might be regular as i notice it now but that may be because i haven't played the ps3 in 10 days and i just notice it now. they might've adjusted the fan a little higher i don't know. i trust you it isn't as loud as the other console. i will be probably playing ps3 for the next week to see if the fan holds up like this. i'll post this answer fast. if you have any other questions for CANADIAN ps3's then ask me. please don't ask for U.S ps3's as they send refurbs (unless your a 60gb/20gb owner) and there have been a lot of cases with the ps3's in the U.S

I added the spaces first oly.becuase of the vgcharts website design,a thread that big will not leave spce for comments thats why it automatically resized it.

Wall of text too big to read sorry ;)

That's right..so painful to read...

Thanks fayewong, that was a lot easier to read..

everyone's answers got put together in without line breaks

I had to send in my ps3 back in January because my disc drive's motor died. The discs wouldn't spin.

Despite being over a month out of warranty (it was a lunch unit), they repaired it for free. The shipped me a box at no charge, and I received a refurb 60gb back in two weeks. Itwas in great condition, and it looked like they had resurfaced the top, but the left side was a bit scuffed up.

At least I assume it was a refurb, as I know I didn't scuff up the left side, and the top had a piece of cellophane stuck to it, much like a new unit.