Mine has been recently. It is not 100% of the time. Sometimes it works fine, others it will turn the screen blank (not screen saver mode) and not accept any imputs other than activating the on/off switch for 10 seconds. When that happens, I may or may not lose the progress I had made on my work unit and I may or may not be prompted to readjust my display settings. I don't remember if it had started before I changed my HDD, so I'd like to know if it has happened to you. I had mind as well promote the VGC team: 109453

Not mine... have you tried a thorough dusting?

Not specifically no. But I see no dust accumulation. How would dust affect it?

hasnt happened to me in a while, but have u noticed ur PS3 heat a lot more than with other things with folding@home? mine used to freeze, and it seemed like it only happened to me when i left da PS3 on for a really long time with folding@home. have u left da PS3 on for a really long time? cause dat may be it.

changin the hdd probably has nothin to do with it but i coul be wrong.

I doubt it is the summer heat. Since today it happened in the morning at about 11:30 when I had just turned my system on. The system of course gets hotter during F@H, it is the only thing that has ever sent the fan into a higher gear. My other 60GB system is not giving me this trouble with F@H and they are in the same environment, if anything my 160GB (40GB stock) model is better ventilated then the 60GB.

er.. what exactly does folding at home do?

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-main#ntoc2

It's basically a way to experiment with protiens in a virtual environment to see what would happen to them when manipulated.  It's a study of human diseases, looking for solutions to things like alzheimers... here, from the FAQ:

"Diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis, BSE (Mad Cow disease), an inherited form of emphysema, and even many cancers are believed to result from protein misfolding. When proteins misfold, they can clump together ("aggregate"). These clumps can often gather in the brain, where they are believed to cause the symptoms of Mad Cow or Alzheimer's disease."

so.. if i activate it, what will i have to do and will it cost me anything?

It will cost you electricity. Work units have to be completed within a week, so if you don't want to devote about 1 hour a day or one night per week for folding, you might as well not do it since your work will be reassigned to another PS3 after your week is up.