I had an 80gig software b/w compatible motorstorm bundle. Mine died 4 times, I had bought an extended warranty from Wal-mart, and on the 4th return they deemed it unrepairable (warranty logistics). The lemon clause in the extended warranty stated replacement after 3 times of repair. They sent out a new 320gb sports champion bundled PS3, that I just received Saturday. The slim is a nice unit, but I did like more USB ports, and will need to get a hub if Rock Bank is played with 4 people. I would suggest that if you are able, buy the extended warranty. For the price of about one game, I was able to somewhat protect my investment. I never really played any PS2 game on the system, so losing b/c was not a huge deal, but it is still something I feel should not have been removed. Maybe in the future, if the PS3 price comes down, it would not be a great deal for the extended warranty, but in my case it was. I would most not have bought one, if there were not 3 people in the house playing the system, so it was used often.
I knew mine was getting close when it would just all the sudden turn off while playing. Make sure you backup your data often, because if the until fails, your data is lost.
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