This PS3 had seen very light use for it's age and it was a late fat model. I don't think it was it's time at all, I think if it had not been down to buggy software it would still be working happily. I have worked with in the IT industry for over 15 years and I'm well aware of hardware and it's longevity and this system should have lasted far longer than it has.

Rudeness ain't my bag, however, sorry if it came across that way. A smiley should sort it

I have a mate who looks after nothing and is basically the opposite of me, - at last count had 7 360s used and burnt out and still has a 4yr old PS3 with fluff flying out ever time it turns on. PS3 will last, especially if looked after.

Out of interest do Bethesda staff often reply on these forums, it would be nice to hear their take on the issue?

My first PS3 died long ago, due to overheating ... and the only games I had at that time were Oblivion and Fallout 3.
(A "wonderful" console) + (Skyrim's magic) = Bad luck. Coincidence? Surely.
I also think it could have happened with any other game.
Did you place the console in a poorly ventilated room or near the wall? It is relatively easy to turn into toasters. There was a slim model with this particular problem. If still under warranty, use it, do not get dizzy with stories because in the end only make you lose time and money. That and luck.

Red blinking light normally means overheating I thought. Then you starting it and trying to use it constantly without giving it a break probably caused the YLOD. Same thing happened with my 80GB late fat PS3 about a year ago and I babied it. I cleaned it every week and kept it in a well ventilated space, so it probably was just time for your PS3 to go like my old one. I do agree with the fact that constant crashing caused by a game can cause hardware issues. YLOD is an easy fix, but its only temporary. Look it up online there's tons of information you can find.

I think Skyrim is more overtly taxing than most games with it's specs due to the obvious poor optimization on the ports both to PS3 and PC. This is one of the worst ports I can remember so it's probably going to work older or poorly maintained PS3's right into the ground. Though too late for you my advice would be to give the game a rest once you start experiencing severe lag or frequent crashes.

I'm sorry about your PS3 but in all honesty it was probably not too far off from needing to be replaced. Not excusing Bethesda's shoddy work porting this game, just sayin'.

Great excuse to buy the game for PC? The only way to play these types of games, IMO.

op, you decribe what happened to my 40gb ps3 phat during the bf3 beta, it ylod afew hours later...

if i were u id save as many game saves to usb stick as possible before it goes completely

if its already YLOD on you, if its out of warranty and you want to get some save files off it, use the "hairdryer technique" search youtube for a vid.
it actually works if you need to get some saves off it..

The only game that has really caused my ps3 to overheat was Read Dead Redemption probably because it used a lot of the cpu I don't know why it isn't doing the same with skyrim.

RIP ps3 of DanFryer... and are you sure it was skyrim? what other games do you play? and also, maybe u just got the YLOD. How long have you had ur ps3? and what model?

-walrus

This is basically what I did when I got the YLOD, but I didn't use the hairdryer method I actually opened it up and used a heat gun with flux. Then I just waited until I got my new PS3 and then just transferred the data over to the new one using the transfer utility.

it was 40GB Fat as previously mentioned, I've had it a while but it's been lightly used. It's been used for Space Marine, Read Dead etc without issues.

I never had any issues with my old fat 80GB and then it started to freeze a couple times playing COD and DC Universe then YLOD. The PS3 starts to freeze and have other issues just before getting YLOD it was just a coincidence that it was while you were playing Skyrim.

Mine died while playing skyrim too, got the flashing red light and then the blue and yellow. Still I've a nice new 160G and I managed to get one power up to grab my save files.

I don't understand how it keeps killing all these ps3 systems I think it may be a fan problem.

Poorly ventilated maybe?

I play many games skyrim is messing up my console

rarly used to lock up now its everytime I run skyrim plus It had to check for curropted data for the first time thanks to skyrin

lets me put these 2 things that happend to me

1) Play skyrim 15 minutes
Crash
Ps3 is cold not over heated (first time i played in 4 days)

2) Play bf3 for 4 hours
Leave, forget to turn it off (paused) for 3 hours
Come back see it on, say to bad and play 2 more hours of bf3
Ps3 is has more heat then 10 suns but still doesnt crash

??????????? its bethesta and their game

Ok, but why is this not happening to everybody? There has to be something more to it, IMO.

Usually, under normal circumstances, in order for a PS3 game to actually do damage to the PS3 it has to either be
scratched, force the lens to overwork itself, or overheat the system. Again, these are the normal conditions it takes
for a game to brick a PS3.

Also, each of these problems date back to the PS2 era, specifically, where they were most prominent. However, I will
say that the PS2 had more durable statistics than that of current gen gaming.

So, it's not impossible for a game to do harm to your PS3. It's actually very possible. It's just not expected.

Yes, a game can do harm to your PS3, but what is causing it to break for SOME Skyrim players?

System crashes and failures have nothing to do with ANY game. Just like people,when its time to go its time to go. I ran the crud outta my BC80 gig fat. It died after a cold boot and about 10 minutes.We had a hell of a run though. I traded it across the board for a 320 slim,no cash outta pocket and about 3.5 years of use on the fat. It earned its retirement. I have a feeling IT WAS THE INTERNAL POWER BLOCK,not a fried board.

Id be curious to know the cause of failure on yours. Let us know if you have it repaired.

Similar thing happened to mine. One time Skyrim froze and crashed mid game out of nowhere, and upon restart it got stuck in a loop at the rebuild file system screen and kept restarting itself over and over. Going into safe mode and recovering the database or restoring the system at that point didn't help.

What helped was to wipe the drive on my computer, install the PS3 4.0 firmware to a USB thumbdrive, put the wiped drive back into the PS3 and run a clean install of the system. After that, the system worked fine, and is acting like normal with all other games. Maybe give this a try before shipping it out. If it still fails with other games afterwards, then send it in for repair or have someone look at it. I've been monitoring and using my system a lot since, and it is acting normally, with no indication of a deeper issue.

Could also try replacing the hard drive altogether. It needs a 2.5" Sata drive, either 5400 or 7200 rpm, or an SSD. Might be worth it if out of warranty and the repair cost is high, yet you want to keep the system rather than get a new one.

If it is a deeper issue, like the thermal paste or the power supply, then repair or replace are the only options. I'm simply offering a suggestion which worked for me, in case it might work for you. It may not.

Some notes... any protected PSN save games are probably lost and unrecoverable (which. really. svcks). After reinstalling and signing in with the PSN, go to Account Management > System Activation to reactivate your system for licenses; and under Transaction Management > Downloads, there will be a list of all items puchased from the PSN, which can be downloaded and installed again.

Hope this helps. Good luck with it. I feel with you, and wish you didn't have to deal with this.

Mine is elevated about three inches on heat resistant legs, with vacuumed fans and an unobstructed flow in a 65 degree room. The fan is rarely audible. It had never froze or crashed in the two and a half years before Skyrim, and has yet to since.

Well... except the last time I tried to create a new character in Skyrim, and Alduin never showed up, leaving the executioner hovering his axe over his head for like five minutes, and upon quitting through the ingame menu, froze on the Start screen requiring holding the power button to shutdown.

Alternatively, played Dungeon Hunter Alliance online for ten hours straight the other night; and Unreal Tournament 3, with third party community mods, the night before for hours on end, with nary a speed bump.

It's Skyrim, guys.

*man, gotta stop posting from an idevice. typo madness.