So, I just came back from my friend house and he still has his PS3 fat. It's still working, but it buzzes something like an angry chubby bee on a treadmill.  He is not a wealthy person and hoping it will hold out till next gen.

I know it would make him feel better if other are still having their PS3's going strong. How many of you guys still have your FATs?  Did they ever start buzzing?

Any tips for him? We were going to get him a new game, but I'm worried.

I have the 80 GB model fat PS3. Works perfectly fine for me. No weird noises while it's running. It does sometimes freeze while I'm playing a game but that's on very rare occasions.

Do you ever vaccume or blow the dust out with a can of air?

Hmm, I don't know the size of the Hard Drive.  But it plays both PS1 and PS2 games, so he would really like to keep it going.  He hasn't said anything about freezes.  It's just usually really loud when it's on, even if not playing a game. 

My friend that lost his PS3 Fat a couple years ago, it lost the DVD laser first.  I think he still got another half year out of it or so.

Funny you should ask that. I just vacuumed the vents on it today for the first time ever. Also yeah the noise is pretty loud on mine but it's just the fan and also I'm forced to keep it in a confined space because I have nowhere else to put it so theres not a lot of breathing room for it. 

I have a fat PS3 (40 GB model, bought it in a bundle with GTA 4) and it's still running. The only problem is, it gets LOUD as hell, on the same level as my first Xbox 360 while playing a game from disc. That really got on my nerves so I git myself a super slim.

However, I hookes up the fat PS3 in my bedroom and use it every now and then. Besides the noise, no problems whatsoever. It's running this way now for more than a year. It doesn't even get hot, theres COLD AIR coming out of the fan! I don't know, I think something inside broke that used to measure the temperature or something. But the thing is never overheating and doesn't freeze more often than the super slim.

Yeah on my 80 GB model the fans get really loud and I'm always worried that it's overheating. Then I place my hand on the back to feel how hot it is and to my surprise it's always cool. The fans do a good job but damn they are loud lol

My Fat was running for so long that it became Slim...

i do

I have a 40gb fatboy and yeh it's loud when the fans turn on, if that's what you mean by the buzzing. If you do mean fan noise, opening up the case and blowing dust out with compressed air will help a bit, but not much, it just delays the time it takes for the fans to come on. If your friend is comfortable with taking the PS3 apart, reapplying thermal paste to the cpu is your best bet to stop the fans from having to work overtime.

If you don't mean fan noise..maybe the HDD is fucked and he should replace that.

Thanks! This is what I was hoping to hear.  Still working good.

His is more of a buzzing that just air noise from a fan.