For the past few months, my mother's 60GB PS3 has been freezing upon exiting blu-ray based games, mostly when she plays Uncharted, but also when my brother comes over to play COD4. It is not a big problem, since the gameplay is over anyways, it only creates the inconvenience of someone having to physically hold down the power button. A very minor inconvenience to say the least.

That being said, is this "problem" really only a minor inconvenience for us, or is it a sign of some major problem looming down the road?

It has been on my mind lately and had me wondering if maybe I should try playing GTA4 on it for a little while, without applying the patch first to see itit would break the system.The problem with that is that it is connected to an SDTV, which is a step down from my own personal setup.

Now her PS3, used to be mine and therefore connected to an HDTV. See http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=16994 for reference. Is it possible that the PS3 tried to revert itself to its hdmi connected past and crashes? I have reconfigured the display many times though.

Do you think that formatting and/or using the restore default settings feature would help? Should I just let it be?

I bought that PS3 in Decembre 2006, so my warranty with Sony is expired. However the credit card I purchased it with automatically doubles the manufacturer's warranty so am I covered until Decembre 2008. If my perticular console has some latent problem, I want it to manifest itself before that date, obviously.

why dont you just call up sony's support line and ask them. they are likely to know more about the issue than any of us.

You are a lawyer ask money from Sony =p.

Well, I was hoping for a quick fix through a quick reply. Ie: Someone on VGC being online at that time who experienced the same problem, tried a system restore and a format, which fixed all his problems.

And as stated, the Sony warranty is up, so they are in no way liable. The Bank of Montreal would be. :)

I see those Sony, 'break down just after the warranty expires' chips for those all importamt re-purchases are starting to kick in! :P

The best thing for you to do is to just call Sony. I see this a couple times. Making a thread asking people for help who can't help..isn't...help-ful? (too many helps lol).

My 60gig model randomly froze as well, usually during loading screens. I had to take it to gamestation, get a full refund and buy a 40gig model which has so far been okay. The freezing is connected to a problem with the 60gig models harddrive apparently, so watch out because all of your game saves will be wiped

UPDATE:
Last night when I got home from work I decided to try GTA4 on the 60GB. This is what I wrote about it in the 2.35 firmware thread:

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=26768&start=0

"GTA was freezing 100% of the time on it when I tried it a few hours ago. I just deleted the entire GTA4 game data from it. I'll let you guys know, by editing this post if the new firmware update has improved it. Here's hoping it does, not that my mother will play GTA4.
EDIT: Well, it did not fix my 60GB stability issues. After installing the firmware (2.35), restoring factory default settings, deleting and reinstalling GTA4 game data including update 1.01, the game still crashes 100% of the time before it has a chance to get through the opening scene before you meet Roman. I guess I'll have to call Sony tomorrow. "

As SpartanFX pointed out, the playstation blog specified that it had nothing to do with GTA4 and that any person experiencing problems should call customer support.

Well, this morning I decided to call Sony customer support. First I wait on hold for 15 minutes. When CSR (customer service rep.) "Brian" answers, I detail the problem and as soon as I say "GTA4" he replies "let me transfer you to our GTA4 division". So I wait another few minutes on hold and a GTA4 division CSR guy answers. I tell him the problem. He then reads a script informing me that a (paraphasing here) " small percentage of consumers have been experiencing problems with GTA4. Rock* and SCEA are well aware of the problem and appologise for the inconvenience." So he askes me if any other games cause any problems. I tell him about the occasional locking upon exiting Uncharted and COD4 (which this thread was originally about).

I told him that the unit was out of warranty with Sony and that I would therefore rather deal with my extended warranter (credit card company) if any services charges were to be incurred (at the time he was planning on charging me for servicing). When he learned that GTA4 is the only game that experiences freezing IN GAME (opening scene and if skipped (X button) freezing when driving with Roman), he asks me for my serial number, month of manufacturing and my personal details. After I give him the 60GB's vital statistics, he said that (actual quote and used multiple times in the conversation) "as a sign of goodwill" they will service the out of warranty unit at no charge.

So for some reason, when someone is experiencing GTA4 problems on a 60GB model (at least manufactured in november 2006) they are extending the warranty on the hardware. I found this very very interesting. Perhaps GTA4 does cause some latent defect in some early PS3's to manifest itself. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

He assured me that if the unit needed to be referbed, or exchanges, or whatever happened, that I would receive a fully BC 60gb no matter what. (I just hope my fans are not the louder versions).

yeah as you said, it's probably a hardware problem making it unable to play the game, and thus they are probably in breach of some regulation (selling hardware that doesn't play games made for it) and do this free repair to not get sued....

Nice deal for you. You don't even have a wait time between consoles. Maybe the fact that I mentionned that it worked flawlessly on my other PS3 made him not offer me a new one.

What model was yours and its manufacturing month?