How To Fix The Ps3 Red Light Problem – A Step By Step Guide

Do you have the PS3's Red Light of Death staring you right in the face? Well you would have joined a chorus of thousands of people that have been hit by this console devastating problem and have taken to the net to voice their frustrations. People have been scared that there will be no fix for their PS3 and they will loose the hundreds of dollars that they spend on their PS3.

Well have no fear because you will not need to throw our or replace your system. You can fix the PS3 red light issue, so just ignore anyone who tells you different. Within these simple five steps I have listed you will find the solution.

1) Inspect the PS3

A main reason why many people experience the red light problem is because the fan vents or obstructed by something and the air can not flow throughout the PS3. No free air means overheating is guaranteed. So make sure the fans aren't obstructed. Do you see dust on the system? Clean off the PS3 thoroughly, again making sure the fan vents are free of dust as well. If this fixes the PS3 Red Light of Death then just be mindful of your PS3 placement so that nothing is blocking the fan.

2) Hard Drive Test

Remove the hard drive from the PS3. You will be able to find it on the side of the consoled. Wait just a few seconds and then slide it back into the PS3. Some people have had luck in this actually resolving their problem. If you are still seeing the Red Light of Death then there a more than good chance that you have more serious internal issues with your PS3. Overheating may have caused additional problems to the motherboard, especially if it the venting system was obstructed for a long period of time.

3) Take Out The Plug

The last and least involved fix for the PS3 Red Light of Death is to simply unplug the PS3 and leave it alone for 30 minutes and try plugging it back in. This may work if overheating is the cause for the Red Light of Death, but if this doesn't work along with the other steps then you really have a problem with your PS3 and its time to bring out the big guns. Don't give up you still have two more steps to get through.

4) Warranty Time

Did you take the advice of the cashier and buy the extended warranty? If you warranty is still valid the next step involves you sending your PS3 off to Sony so they can fix it for you. We will mention that you can expect to wait 6 to 8 weeks before you see your PS3 again and it will probably be just a refurbished replacement unit instead of the actual one you send in. Also Sony doesn't retain information so you can kiss anything that you have saved to the console goodbye.

Now for those of us who didn't listen to the cashier and don't have a good warranty or you don't want to loose all the scores and games you have saved to the hard drive then skip the Sony option. They'll charge between $150 and $300 or even more to apply their fix and within a small timeframe you may get the red light of death again. So Steps 1 through 4 aren't working, well we saved the best for last.

5) Get Your Fix Online

There is a wealth of information of the internet and expert sites dedicated to resolving just this issue. These sites can provide programs that can get your system back up and running in under an hour. These tutorials will show you the same steps that a PS3 repair person would take and you can expect to spend less than $50 to get it.

Learning how to fix the PS3 red light of death from unproven websites and forum will give you terrible results as they mostly won't go into depth of what is needed to fix the system and it may make things worse.

So do a bit of research to identify which sites are legit and the ones that are just full of it. This review in fixing the PS3 red light of death can start you on the path of saving hundreds of dollars and nearly 2 months of aggravation by helping you find the right way to fix the PS3 on your own.