Well fellas' my PS3 died for the 2nd time in around...2 and a half years. I have the 40 GB CECHG01 model...and I got the 'code of death' 80010514 which basically consists of issues such as

- PS3 games not being recognized, nor any blu-ray movies

- if it does get recognized, after 10 - 20 mins of play or almost immediately, game/movie will freeze...

- ejection takes a long time, around 30 - 50 seconds and automatically reboots the PS3 at the end of the ejection

A few other issues etc...now I completely reformatted my HDD (as in I deleted everything by doing 'restore Playstation 3 System') and um yeah I don't this is a HDD issue but rather an issue with the blu-ray lense/laser or w.e. Now I've been doing a LOT of research about this error and apparently heres what I found.

Sony's recent firmware updates tweek the blu-ray drivers speed to make it go faster but making the spindle and the motor rotate quicker or something like that, and this causes an increase in power consumption, and the older (phat PS3's) suffer from this increased power consumption ultimately fusing the blu ray diode or laser out or something to that effect. The newer (slim) PS3s can tolerate the increased power consumption via some complicated mechanism of which I'm not familiar with. Basically, if this is true, this is just totally weird. Sony creating a firmware without fully looking at the costs and effects on ALL types of PS3 versions. Oh and people with the same issue as me have PS3's that are either the 40 or the 80 GB phat ps3's, very few 160 GB, and almost absolutely no slim ps3's. So I'm wondering, why in the world would you want to deal with this? I was reading another article where this one dude is taking a lawyer with him and filing a lawsuit against Sony for putting out faulty firmware without taking fast action for the consequences for consumers and blah blah. Personally I'm moving back to school in a week for 4 months (residence) and I'm not going to be taking the PS3, I never do, and I'm not going to deal with this now but I will eventually fix it somehow one day. Oh and the 168 dollar servicin fee? NO THANKS. I already paid 399.99 for it...I'm not trying to rant here but I spend over 20 grand a year on school alone...yes engineering is expensive.

My reason for creating this thread is to think what Sony's future will be in the near future. With this issue growing severely as days continue to go by, and if Sony doesn't take action, will they lose potential LOYAL customers who only buy Sony products and what not, or will they just look bad from everyones perspective? I'm not too sure how Sony is going to act on this...like MS did with the increased warranty and the free fix and all that...at least they took responsibility, but ever since these firmware updates things seem to go wrong...not only for me, but for several people out there around the world...and it just irritates me that such an amazing company is harming the excellent momentum they have going on for this year. I just hope this doesn't affect the PS3 hype at E3, cause I will still try and fix the PS3 one day and continue to play games on it (was enjoying uncharted 2 *tear*).

Anyways, what do you guys think about it? Thanks

That's what you guys get for not supporting the superior 60 gig......lol.

Lots of speculation on your part, feel sorry for your trouble. When I first bought my PS3 (80g), the blu-ray drive quit after about a week, took it back to target and got another. I think a large part of the problems with PS3's have been with the blu-ray drive, and if your drive is marginal, it could have been the firmware update, that's a big 'if' though. I mean come on, fusing the laser diode because the drive is spinning faster? Sheez. Or it could have been a coincidence. In any case, electronics do fail nowadays, I've had pc's suddenly fry their video cards, sound cards, and a couple of cd-rom drives quiting, and my last pc, I couldn't even figure out exactly what was wrong with it and said frick it, and bought a new one. My point is they will fail eventually, they are complicated devices, and just deal with it! Just look at the 360's failure rate, and be thankful. (and it doesn't even have a blu-ray drive)

Well it isn't no yellow light of death or RROD in which case its pretty much immediate send-to-sony. However, the issue is affecting a LOT of people, I'm guessing in the thousands already, and its hard to believe its a coincidence since all these issues arose immediately after the updates. Believe it or not I just played 3 games of MW2 and it didn't freeze once, but I was skeptical so I just turned it off, I'm trying to conserve play time and play it rarely.

@ Raygun, yeah dude I totally understand what you're saying. They're human made and designed...bound to have errors, and when complex computational devices have errors, even more complications arise trying to fix the issues themselves. I guess I will have to deal with it later, but my system isn't like quite dead yet hehe. Oh and yeah even a small increase in power consumption can cause a drastic change in heat internally, and processors and chips are quite fragile...so I guess their durability dies down when the power consumption goes up from the increased disc reading/spinning? I'm not too sure but thats my attempted logic, even a scratch on a CD can cause differences...thats what I mean...technology has room for lots of errors.

I've had my 60 gig PS3 for a long time. I've never had a problem with the systems performance on the gaming side. I play alot of games for alot of hours and it performs same way it did when I first got it. I'm surprised it has lasted for as long as it has but if you follow the guidelines given in the manual (Cleaning procedures, what to do after prolong use ect) your consoles will live longer. I follow strict cleaning rules( Every 2 weeks sweep all vents with a low power vacuum and clean every inch with a wash cloth and q tips. After a long play session ( 5-8 hours) it stays off for half that time.

But not everyone gets a good console and your probably one of the few who got the short end of the stick. Just remember when or if you get your console fixed to follow strict maintenance guidelines for it and your PS3 should live for a long time.

If that were true, it would be highly illegal. You can't try to brick older versions of your hardware in a firmware update.

However, I sincerely doubt it. Think about it, you say THOUSANDS have it out of the tens of millions who own pre-Slim PS3s.

I'm really sorry for you and your PS3... but my sick mind made me lol when I read this

"Don't worry, that happens to every PS3" XD

got my 60gb on release day still running perfectly, got 1 freeze in all the years, i doubt the failure is related to the new firmware.

hmm... i'm concerned about this, my Blu-ray drive has failed, as has my brothers. and both at the same time - after the firmware update. We both have Phat PS3s and we're both looking for fixes now.

Both have the same problem - they play CDs and DVDs, but not Blu-ray movies and games disks.

Seems like its a pretty well known problem on the PS3 tech forums since the recent firmware updates.

What annoys me is if Sony have released a firmware update that is causing this problem with older Phat PS3s, why am i having to fork out so much money to get it repaired/replaced when it was working perfectly fine before the update?

My launch 60g works fine and i have installed every update.