Exactly when i hit level 31 inside the herb shop in Riften my ps3 crashed. I flipped the back switch, and restarted to have the ps3 tell me it didn't shut down properly-duh. tried to start skyrim only to have the ps3 crash immediately again. Now my ps3 won't even turn on, it just flashes a red light at me.

this happened to me the other day. i had the game on pause. then the ps3 turned off and didnt come back on again. the blinking red light might be YLOD. thats what i think mine got. i couldnt get the disc out or anything. have you been able to get your disc out? you should let it cool down and maybe yours will come back on again. mine never did. to get the disc out i had to turn it off at the back, hold my finger down on the eject button, then whilst my finger was still on the eject button (for about 15 seconds) i turned the console back on at the back and then whilst still holding my finger on the eject button the ps3 powered back up and ejected the disc but it didnt turn on properly. it only turned on to eject and then it just died again and the red light blinked at me.

Do the "fan test" posted by the user with a duck as an avatar on this forum: http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-3-Technical/PS3-Blinking-red-light-and-won-t-turn-on-please-help/td-p/12610136

That should spit out any disc you have and prep the PS3 for a clean reboot, if it boots with a green light, only to change to a yellow one for a while and then a red during this clean boot, you've got a YLOD that needs to be repaired.

if there's a yellow light it goes away fast, that's for sure. i tried the fan test to no avail, it turns on for a split second but won't spit it out. I think we may be screwed. My ps3 is an original, i've been surprised it lasted this long. I could also be havin an issue with my fan crapping out altogether, cuz it didn't crank up like it normally does when i did the test. anyone else with this problem should voice their concerns, it was hard to find any info on this particular problem

Ylod isnt skyrims fault, its your old ps3 that just pushed itself with skyrim.
Happened to me a year ago with another heavy game.
Though... There is always the chance a game messes up so bad they start writing data on the wrong places.

Funny... My old ps3 got the ylod with fallout 3.....

Better that it happens now instead of later, especially with all of these black friday and christmas deals coming out.

I wouldn't even bother sending it in. Just buy a new system for the same price as your expired warranty and get a couple of free games with your purchase.

http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5

"If the light constantly flashes blue, it may be an issue with the disk being stuck in the system. If this happens there is no way to remove the disc yourself if you are using an orginal 60GB PlayStation.

However for other models of PlayStation 3 you can - http://http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-3-Technical/A-disc-is-trapped-in-my-PlayStation-3/td-p/12507611

My Phat PS3 keeled over after a crash from Fallout: New Vegas. The older models just didn't have the will to handle Bethesda games it would seem.

i'm assuming it has nothing to do with skyrim, seeing as it is old as hell. I actually played through all of fallout 3 with no issues and when it crashed it was hardly on for 15 minutes and i never even left the herb shop in riften where i loaded. I probably will have to go get a new one but how the hell am i going to get my level 31 sneaky khajit on to the new system, this is the new dilemma.

Take out the hard drive and put it in your new system.

that's the obvious solution, but if i'm spending hard money on a new ps3 i don't want to take out a 160 gig to put in my 80, i just want to get my save off my 80. 80gigs has never been enough for me between dcu going free and all the free games sony gave us after they failed us. Now that i'm thinking, could i just put the 80 in the new ps3, export the saves to external and then put the 160 back in?

....buy PlayStation + membership -> make backup files and save it to the web -> put you brand new 160 back -> load your backup files from the web and .

ummm, i'm already having to shell out $300 to sony for my second ps3, not trying to break the bank just to play skyrim. i'm really just wondering now if exporting them to my external hd will work.

Whether the new system will accept save-files from the old? No reason it shouldn't. I've done that with other games before.

... then the PS3 asks to format the HDD.
The PS3 encrypts the HDD and it only works in the console it is used unless formatted and encrypted again for the new system.
It's not possible to just put it in the new system.

or simply a USB memory stick? No need for PSN+ to backup saves. PSN+ is only needed if the saves were copy protected.
But without access to the save files it either way not possible.

I don't see a way how this might be possible.
Since the PS3 is broken and doesn't start you can't access the save files in the first place and therefore no way to backup them