UPDATE

My sincere thanks to everyone who commented and replied to this thread. I only wish I had looked at it sooner.

I was on my way to backing up my data to an external hard drive, but before doing so, I decided to download a couple demos and sync trophies from all accounts.

During the trophy sync, it crashed again. I'm sure you can all guess what happened on boot-up.

On this day, after four-and-a-half years of faithful service, my PlayStation 3 died.

RIP, buddy.

ORIGINAL

This just happened, and scared the living crap out of me.

Was playing Skyrim, clearing some bandits out of a cave, and suddenly my system beeps three times and crashes to a black screen. The system's light was red and flashing. Needless to say, I just about [censored] a brick.

While crossing my fingers, I pressed the power button once to turn off / stop the flashing, flipped the power switch in back to off then on again, and restarted the system. It had to "check and restore file system" to look for corrupted data, but the process was quick and I didn't lose anything thankfully. Got back to the XMB without a problem.

Anyone experience the same thing? This has never happened to me before with any of my games. I have owned this 60 GB model since launch.

You got very lucky. that's how my 80gb ps3 died with black ops in it

Wow this is a first, a full on hard crash. Most people just have their game freeze and have to hard reset it by holding the power button. Is this the first issue you've run into with Skyrim? Do you have the lag, and continue to soldier on?

Yes, definitely the first time I've had this happen on Skyrim, or any other game for that matter. My lag is intermittent - definitely not game-breaking like many others. My save file only grew to about 8 MB before the patch, and is now at 7.3. Generally the game is very smooth.

Scared the living [censored] out of me.

Eh, hate to say it but you might be in the first stages of a YLOD. If I were you and you have anything you want backed up, I'd do so.

be very careful this is the signs of a overheat. witch i would assume to be coupled with how hard skyrim pushes the system. i wouldnt play it for a bit. also back up your stuff like Razors said. i just recently got mine fixed from a YLOD after that and i back up regularly

holy [censored]!!

Would it really be a sign of an overheat if I had only been playing for about 15 minutes before it occurred? I had played for a few hours earlier that night, but there was a few hour gap inbetween that session and the short one where this occurred.

bump

thats almost exactly what happened to me. i was watching my Girlfriend play Hyperdimension Neptunia the ps3 beeped then went black i was like HOLY S**T HOLY S**T shut it off. We did and then we turned it back on and i said phew its back then i went to the PSN store to get a game and it did it again this time when i went to go turn it back on it beeped then went to yellow then red. I had then lost my ps3. i got it fixed but i dont know about playing skyrim on it now tho.

Yeah, as far as I know, this is a sign of overheating. It's possible that the ventilator is defective or your thermal paste on the chips is running thin. The latter will lead into YLOD eventually. Considering the age of your console, the odds aren't good. Sorry, mate, but backing up your files is the best you can do.

Hate to break it to you, but that's pretty much the first sign your PS3 is about to YLOD.
Turn your PS3 on, then just leave it on the XMB for a while. Did you hear the PS3's internal fan whirling faster after a while? If it does, that's another sign your PS3 is about to YLOD.

Get an external drive and backup your files, and if you collect trophies, sync online so they're held online for you to retrieve later.
It's on the path to YLOD.

I had my first YLOD back during this past summer with my MGS bundle PS3.
I noticed the fan was whirling a lot more than usual, but I just attributed it to the internal room temperature being higher than normal because it was summer.
Well, a few days later I was playing I think Res Evil 5 when the game went black and the system went on to blink red.
I fired it back up and it turned back on, and it seemed fine, but I decided to stop gaming and went to do something else.
Next day I fired the PS3 back up and green light blink, yellow light blink, red light blink blink blink blink... YLOD.

I took it to a local shop to get it reflowed (Sony apparently thinks they can charge me $200 to fix what's obviously a fault with their original PS3's fixed), and it's been working fine until...

This past Saturday, I was testing out some thing with Skyrim (getting bad frame problems, etc, etc) when the system blacked out and it did the green -> yellow -> red blink. YLOD'ed again.

I'm not going to blame Skyrim for the YLOD (it's not like I need any more frustration and anger toward Skyrim / Bethesda), but it's to the point I'm just going to get a new slim PS3 and hope it lasts until the next gen of consoles comes out. Either that or I just start buying games for my 360 elite...

My 60GB (also a launch model) did that a couple of times with Oblivion but it did many many times with FO 3.. less than 3 months later my 60GB died.. haven't gotten around to fixing it either.. be careful, going on my experience, your PS3 is on it's last legs, it's only a matter of time before it goes for good. Might be time for a reflow.

This is definitely a sign of the YLOD. I have had this happen 7 times in the past year so I know the symptoms. Take out any game that is in it and back up all your saves. Test it for about half an hour on a demo or DLC game and it will almost certainly fully malfunction.

When my console YLOD'd I had only had a movie in it for around 15 min.

I had my YLOD last year's summer, but, as silly as it sounds, a hair dryer got it working for another year. At some point it will be dying for good though. Just saying because even after YLOD you can make it run again for long enough to make a full data transfer to a new Ps3.

PSA! Skyrim will kill your PS3.... So run! To the hills and get a refund ASAP!

FYI on YLOD's....

The PS3 has internal sensors that detect when there's a problem, and the YLOD is just a general sign that "something" went wrong.

But a PS3 YLOD's typically because of two reasons.

First, the thermal compound used to conduct heat between the processor chip and the heat sink (which dissipates the heat) flakes and becomes brittle, eventually turning to dust. This means the heat normally conducting away to the heat sink now spreads out in directions it's not supposed to. That's obviously not a good thing, and also why your system "overheats". The reason this happens is because Sony used cheap thermal compound (thanks Sony for cutting costs on such an important piece of the machine).

Second, which is somewhat related to the first, Sony used lead-free solder for joining the chip to the main board. Lead-free solder is less malleable and flexible, forming minute cracks that disrupt connectivity between the chip and board. Eventually a crack gets big enough and you completely lose connectivity.

There are other factors in leading to a YLOD, like a PS3 that's been svcking in a lot of dust and never been cleaned. But typically the two reasons I gave above are what ends a PS3's life. And the sad part is both aren't really the users fault, it's Sony's fault.

There are options for getting it fixed outside paying Sony $150 ~ $200 to get it fixed.

Reflowing, which uses a rework station to heat up and "reflow" the solder connecting your chip to the board will usually extend the life of your PS3 for a few months or more. But the YLOD will most likely hit you again eventually because you're still using the lead-free solder.

This is also why people with a hair dryer or heat gun have had success in "fixing" their YLOD'ed PS3's. The heat generated from the heat gun is enough that whatever minute crack was causing the disconnect is "reflowed", sealing the crack and bringing connectivity back. It's not really a recommended way to fix your PS3 though, because applying so much heat will more than likely damage other components.

The other option for fixing a YLOD is getting what's called a Reball done. It involves removing the lead-free solder and applying leaded solder. Reballing is more expensive than reflowing, but it's a better, longer term solution.

Always keep your PS3 sitting on pegs of some sort, raised off the ground, or even have it sitting vertically on it's side. The bottom gets REALLY hot, and you don't want it sitting flush against the floor.

Now that I have it sitting on 4 pieces of tall metal, with about 3-4 inches off the desk, the fan never kicks into 100%, even after long term play.

My sincere thanks to everyone who commented and replied to this thread. I only wish I had looked at it sooner.

I was on my way to backing up my data to an external hard drive, but before doing so, I decided to download a couple demos and sync trophies from all accounts.

During the trophy sync, it crashed again. I'm sure you can all guess what happened on boot-up.

On this day, after four-and-a-half years of faithful service, my PlayStation 3 died.

RIP, buddy.

To be honest, this has been happening every 30 minutes on our PS3, but ONLY with Skyrim. We see the corrupted data message at least 10 times a day playing this damned game. I want to keep playing, I really do. We waited years for this game, and I can't even play for 30 minutes without it freezing, crashing, repeat. It's frustrating, and I'm scared it will break our system.

See my previous post (Reply #19).

this had happened to me/.... i had a 40 gb ps3 fat and i got it at launch.... i put skyrim on and played alittle bit and i got all the way to riverwood the first town and my ps3 just went black and i turned off the ps3 and back on and it restored the file data... that was 4 days ago but now i have a 320 gb ps3 slim and skyrim is the best game in the world (no problems and save file is 12.2MB ) i had an old character and the save was all the way up to 17.3MB but i deleted him because the game got boring.. ::)) hopfully u invest and get a new ps3 or just a xbox360

When my console YLOD'd I had zero warning. I'd been using it pretty heavily for like a week straight and it was perfectly fine. No loud fans, no flashing lights, nothing. One night I decided to take a break from gaming, stuck a movie in, and BOOM! 15 minutes in the console beeped three times and crashed. Thankfully I was able to repair it and get not only my console but the disc back. Still don't trust it all that much though considering that was the second time it tried to die on me. First time the Blu-Ray player died.

It is on its side. I'm surprised that it never gave issues on any other games though. Only Skyrim.