Irony (PS3 red light of death)

[greenmedic88]

When dealing with customer service reps, civility and tact will always work better than acting irate and confrontational.

Figure it's their job to listen to everything from hysterical, upset and just plain inept users ("Did you plug the console into the wall jack? Okay, try plugging the console into the wall before turning it on.") so speaking to them like they're there to help is generally the best policy and will most likely be much appreciated.

My call confirmed what I had already assessed myself: green, yellow, green, blinking red w/ 3 beeps indicates hardware failure due to damage. It's a general signal (like the RRoD) that doesn't specify mobo, PSU, etc. failure/damage.

The rep pretty much said straight out that determining that information was beyond what they were trained to do. No point really since it's not a user serviceable failure and the blinking read light simply means: console is dead.

But he did give me the assurance that whatever model you send to factory is what you will receive within 7-10 days, hence the refurb unit, eliminating repair hang time. Works for me. New, clean casing, no internal dust (had to resist the urge to pull mine apart to properly clean it out after almost 2 years), same hardware, different serial number.

I'm not shipping it off immediately since I already ordered a replacement (40GB MGS4 LE model). It will run quieter and use less power at the loss of PS2 BC (which I am now realizing I've been using quite often), and a couple USB ports (which I use), but at least it looks kind of cool.

When I finally send my 60GB unit off to be repaired, it will simply become a back up unit to use rather than pull the old PS2 out of storage. As much as I liked it, there's no denying it's a power hog, which would matter less if mine wasn't on all the time.

So I'll have a new PS3 up and running in a week tops. I can always play Gears 2 on the 360 or L4D or TR Underworld on the PC in the meantime.

If I get an RRoD while playing Gears 2, I will start laughing.