Possible PS3 flashing red light fix from MXACE

Posted Dec 10, 2006 at 12:01PM by QJ Staff Listed in: PS3 Tags: Google, YouTube

As the YouTube video from Blak06 shows, it kinda really sucks to get a PS3 that won't turn on. Nobody wants to get the flashing red light on their PS3. But MXACE got the flashing red light problem - and found a fix. We're not sure how it works (we're not even sure it's a real fix), and we're not telling you to do the same thing. And please, don't take matters into your own hands to the point that you'll ruin your warranty.

Anyway, here's the story from MXACE:

Hey, today a woke up to a red flashing light on my ps3. I wondered wut it meant, searched it on google and found some pretty bad news. DEAD. after about 1/2 an hour of trying to turn it on i search a fix on google, but came up empty handed.

i decided that i would take the matter into my own hands. i took the hard drive out and turned it on, and to my amazement it work i dont know how, but it worked. i then wanted to play resistance fall of man. i booted up the game and boom it turned off beeped 3 times and the light flashed red onece again.

i took out the hard disk and booted it up again turned it off and put the hard disk back in. ive been playing ever since and it seems to be working fine. just thought that id give u guys a heads up, to help anyone else out there with the same problem.

And just in case we didn't get the news right the first time, we got another email from MXACE a while later:

hey yesterday i woke up to bad news, i turned on my ps3 by the swich in the back and about 2 seconds later it beeped three times and the red light started flashing. after trying to turn it on for about 1/2 an hour i realized that it wasnt going to turn on...

i did some searching on the web and found nothing but 360 had the same problem. heres the interesting thing i found a ''fix'', all i did was take out the hard disk, and turn it on to get my game out. then i put the HD back in and turned it on. it worked. i booted up a game and the same damn red flashing light came back on.

i repeated the steps and checked to see it the game would work now, and it did! im currently useing my ps3 to write this. i wanted to let you guys over at QJ.net because i couldnt find a fix anywere and maybe if you post this ill end up helping someone else.

Finally, can we give two pieces of advice? If you're PS3's busted, take care of it right away - ask to get it fixed or replaced NOW. If you wait, then it becomes a question of "why did you wait so long?" It just makes it easier to prove your point if you bring it in as soon as possible.

Second, if you're getting a launch console, keep the box, packaging, etc. Keep everything! Keep the receipts! Throw nothing away. Take lots of pictures. Because the odds of a launch console being buggy are higher than if you bought a console a year or two after launch.

If you've got more advice, be sure to share it with your fellow gamers.

52 Jumps Another PSP exploit found, works on firmware 6.20 and all PSP models

33 Jumps Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars announced for Autumn 2010

31 Jumps Square Enix profits up almost 50 percent, FFXIII sells 1.8M units in Japan

29 Jumps God Eater has extremely customer-friendly shops

29 Jumps Nomura to make Kingdom Hearts III a reality 'as quickly as possible'

28 Jumps Kojima: Peace Walker will retain classic MGS fun

27 Jumps GT5 release date spotted at Target?

24 Jumps On Shelves This Week: February 7 - 13, 2010

24 Jumps PSP homebrew - PMPlayer Advance v3.0.8

23 Jumps Square Enix: FF7 remake "a huge, huge task"

Best prices available for:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for PlayStation 3

Price Range:
$45.00 - $80.00

at 10 Stores

Compare Prices

Fallout 3 for PlayStation 3

Price Range:
$18.00 - $78.00

at 10 Stores

Compare Prices

Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation 3

Price Range:
$37.00 - $91.00

at 13 Stores

Compare Prices

Comments

# Yeah this has been figured out already — Vietone 2006-12-10 07:53

The Red light is due to the HDD.

Either the connection is loose or the HDD is just bad.

This was an issue that has been discussed over in the playstation forums and it seems that re-seating the HDD has solved the problem for many but some people have just received bad hard drives period.

IF i remember correctly, PS3s use Hitachi Laptop Drives. IMO, Hitachi is not know well for good drives. I replaced mine with a 160GB Western Digital drive I got for free a few months ago. I have my 60GB to a friend who has a 20GB PS3.

Hitachi makes good drive, but the ones that fail seem to fail really bad. Western Digital seems to make the best drives and they offer a very good warranty service as well.

# yay — Guest 2006-12-10 08:18

So it's the HDD. Good thing it's not the whole system. Great news!!!

# wow — Regime2008 2006-12-10 08:32

man i WISH my 360 cud do that.....wait a second! i dont got a *****ty system that makers put alotta B.S stuff in ur head to think its better than anything else...."you'll be playing in 4d" , "Play b3yond", "graphics look SOOO real" ***** STFU! ps3 cant handle lots of the things on 360 with its insufficient memory lol. Imma go watch som movies on my computer.....wait better idea, on my 360, but running from my computer....do that sony *****s

# how to phrase this... — Spector 2006-12-10 08:44

You sir... are a moron.

Atleast PS3 doesn't have firmware updates that brick consoles. Clean your mouth out and then firmly shut it.

# eskimoish — Guest 2010-01-20 04:22

lol thats a good one spec

# well... — Guest 2006-12-10 09:08

dont even get me started on how buggy Windows is. M$ now wants a subscription for their updates because they KNOW their software is always buggy. We dont need to transfer them off of our computers because we can have a MUCH bigger HDD in it without even voiding the warrenty. In case you didnt notice you have to have your computer on and it has to be MCE 2005 or later.. which requires different drivers from XP Home/Pro. All of this means that you're attacking the advertising, notice how no one attacks MS advertising? I think that YOU are a MS fanboy, or in laymans terms MS MADE YOU THEIR B*TCH. MS pratcially did that to anyone who wants to play PC games. The memory isnt insufficent! they both have 512MB in total, and half of PS3's memory is well over twice as fast as the 360's. and the GPU can access all of the memory if needed for texture use just like a PC does and in the average PC most users dont even know it does this so they leave it a the default which is usually 64MB or 128MB. Consoles have always had signifcantly less memory than computers. Xbox had 64MB of ram and PS2 had 32MB i believe maybe less but regardless the xbox CPU ran at 733mhz while PS2 ran at 333MHz. yet at the end of their lives neither looked much better than each other (comparing the exclusives) XBox did have the upper hand in most games but this time around its pretty much equal. 360 devs are NOT using the 360 GPU to its full potential! it has some directx10 features in it which no one has yet to utilize. At the PS3 launch 360 supporters everywhere acually expected PS3 to at least be similar in graphical quality to the 360. thats a JOKE, devs have been playing around with 360 for up to two years now yet PS3 devs have had MUCH less than that yet you ignorant idiots expected them to even be comparible. Resistance was great graphically yes ill admit there ARE some places which could use MUCH better textures but overall its just amazing, GoW is the product of a dev team with MUCH more experience on the system they were developing for. It makes me laugh when i see people even dare to compare GoW to Resistance because the competition was so unfair. it is an american value/idea to compare things unfairly then claim the one with the advantage was better. People are very gullible and you all who think 360 is the winner right now are falling for it! if you want good games, high quality SACD playback, HD movies then PS3 is your choice, if you just want good games and nothing else without buying additional hardware then 360 is your choice. but i just cant stand the battery pack on the 360 controller it cramps my fingers, people think im an idiot for saying that but that combined with the PS3 controller being much lighter make the PS3 controller much less stressful to use. ANYONE can be manipulated and it shows at this time of year when consumerism at Best buy and futureshop are through the ROOF! i went to BB to pick up some CD's and hopefully a couple of SACD which best buy has no selection of and i could NOT believe the ammount of people buying plasma or LCD tvs when the LCoS, and LCD rear projections were providing a much more vibrant image while not sacrificing blacks or detail. Despite this people go for the "THIN" tvs because all people want is smaller. There are a few exceptions but the general rule is smaller is better. CRT computer moniters have a contrast ratio of over a zillion to one and can display ANY Colour its given meanwhile LCD is limited to 1000:1 for computer moniters and 24 bit colour which is 256 shades of each colour which equals out to 16.7 million colours. you may think WOW thats alot of colours.. not really in the start menu button on your desktop there are more shades of green than any LCD display can show also when an object flashes orange on the taskbar no LCD can display that colour, only CRT's can. yet what do people buy? LCD! why? BECAUSE ITS THIN? why not CRT? BECAUSE ITS BIG! why is it big? BECAUSE ITS BETTER! but most people would say LCD has better colours and a better image. only now are we seeing moniters become

# of replacing my Sony stuff — Guest 2006-12-10 09:15

So soon, just right after I got my laptop's Sony battery replaced...

Sony should really look into their hardware manufacturing line. They've got it more mixed up than Jessica Simpson thinks that buffalos got wings.

# I hear ya! — Guest 2006-12-10 09:21

i bought $70 Sony earbuds and two years later they're starting to fall apart, when they go im DEFINATLY getting seinhiser(spell ing...) ear buds because of the much higher quality build. All sony products made in china usually suffer durability issues except for the china made PS3's which are being made by Asustek which is a high quality PC motherboard/video card manufacturer.

# quality — Spector 2006-12-10 10:06

As much as some people wouldn't like to admit it overall Sony delivers great quality in the products they put out (hardware wise). I mean their media players and TVs are top of the line.

It's easy to point about small issues when your not looking at the big picture.

# uh-huh — Guest 2006-12-10 10:26

Yeah matt, and 2 years just isn't long enough for anything to fall apart.

# . — Guest 2006-12-10 11:09

lol

# anyway the ps3 have one year warranty... — senjutsu 2006-12-10 11:22

And I'll pay more to get a longer one with bestbuy or futureshop( yeah I'm canadian ). ( 2 years with futureshop but a good warranty, or 3 year with best buy but everyone is telling me the best buy warranty is crap... dunno )

# Its consumers fault — Vietone 2006-12-10 13:36

People want cheap things. Laptops are getting cheaper and therefore everything in laptops are getting cheaper. Consumers are the ones to blame because they want cheaper products. Whats a $50 battery compared to a $100 battery? More people will choose the $50 battery and complain it doesn't have the quality of a $100 battery.

Sony products are great. They have dominated the TV market for years and will continue to do do.

Sony products are some of the best products you can buy and the PS3 isnt any different. I still have my launch PSP thats been dropped countless times, even with all the dents, it still operates the way it did when i got it.

# ... — Guest 2006-12-10 17:43

sorry main post, but the x360' slogan is bull***** aswell X__x

even the explanation of its name is bull*****, so dont talk about the ps3 putting things in peoples heads, xbox does it the same way...

so please stfu can go lick up on a crosshair

# Launch consoles suck — Guest 2006-12-10 19:05

you know I see alot of people bash M$ and sony. and I think its funny. the 360 and PS3 are pretty equaly. I'm a Nvidia fan so I love the fact Sony went with Nvidia. But for sony to has Asustek build the systems Oh crap. I'm sorry to say this but AsusRocks board where made at the PC Chips plan the low end factory. trust me this PS3 where made in the same place. and the quality of the parts will most likely have the same expect falure rate. the other differance is this PS3's would not be handled by lots of people and exposed to mass static Electric charges while trying to build a system. So dont hold much water in that cup saying that AsusTek is all great. Sure I do like Asus products for my computer but I actualy perfer MSI sense AMD Athlon with 266a chipsets and beyond. No back to the better console. I dont know it really all depends on dev's and dev tools. the company that releases goos tools to the devs to use then you will see some really cool stuff. Look comparing these 2 systems for a while will be alot like compairing AMD and Intel chips. Mostly cause Sonys it still fine tuning the tools for the Cell processor for the Dev's. While I bet MS is sitting on their butts right now not improvin there tools to use more of the 3 core processor and OverClocked ATI chip just so they could get that 1080p. As for this guys problem. it sounds like a Bad HD I would try to work with sony and see if a new HD will solve the problem. If so its not the end of the world cause you can just pickup a new HD at a compusa or a chopshop to tie you over. Wish Nordstroms sold HD's they take anything back. maybe costco will work.

# Well, — 2k1yellows2k 2006-12-10 23:20

I haven't had a single problem with my launch day 20gb.

The only problem I've ever had with a sony product is with my surround system. It has trouble reading the second layer on dual layer dvds. Not that big of a deal, since I bought the system for the surround, not the dvd player it has built in. I just use the PS3 to play dvds now, since it's the only HDMI output device that I have. Sony LCD, Sony surround system, Sony Playstation systems. Yup, I'm a fanboy!

# 360 rendering process — Guest 2006-12-11 00:45

360 uses a hardware scaler therefore it doesn't need an overclocked card to achive the same performance level at different resolutions. however this does mean that it will never be possible to have a digital video output from the 360.

# 1st — Guest 2006-12-11 02:23

LMAO!! STFU. 1st POST NIGAS

# my 20GB — Spector 2006-12-11 06:04

Yep my 20GB model has been working flawlessly. I've left it on for the past 4 days without restarting it. No freezing, no overheating, and easy to sleep near since it makes no noise.

# power failure — Guest 2006-12-31 05:34

I bought a 60GB PS3 and damn red flashing happened right after I set up the PS3. Mine has seagate 60 GB HDD and I tried several times to re-setting the HDD but no luck for me.

I just have BAD, defect PS3, ........

Sony will replace the PS3 but It will take about 2 weeks to return it back and send me a new one.......man...

# problem — Guest 2009-12-05 05:47

it turns out that this was a HDD failure i've tried it a few times with mine and it turns out to be a complete system failure i cant even get my disc out i have a launch 60GB PS3

# hahahaha movies — leetsoup 2009-12-16 17:14

whoever the idiot was who said that ps3 can't play movies off their PC is totally misinformed bahahaha your an idiot. not only CAN it play your movies and music, but you dont need MEDIA EXTENDER LMFAO fuck man xbox fanboys are SUCH noobs!!!

# RE: Possible PS3 flashing red light fix from MXACE — Guest 2010-01-17 19:57

Well i had to send my month old PS3 slim back to sony for red light repair. My 360 never had this problem surprisingly.

Refresh comments list

Add comment

JComments

The QJ.net Network
Site	Feed
QJ.NET	RSS
Nintendo DS	RSS
PlayStation 3	RSS
PSP Updates	RSS
Wii	RSS
Xbox 360	RSS
MMORPG	RSS
Personal Computer Games	RSS
iPhone - iPod Touch	RSS
QJ.NET Forums	RSS

Add QJ.NET

User Favorites - February

Most Commented
Another PSP exploit found,..	(135)
QuickJump QuickLines Tekke..	(80)
Sega goes back to making c..	(67)
Peter Dille: Sony "activel..	(53)
Mass Effect 2 PS3 rumor re..	(29)
Sony quarterly financials:..	(27)
Nippon Ichi operating prof..	(25)
Square Enix: FF7 remake "a..	(24)
Heavy Rain graphics "even..	(23)
Nomura to make Kingdom Hea..	(23)
2K Marin: Console wars is..	(22)
Dead or Alive: Paradise is..	(22)
Gran Turismo 5 set for thi..	(21)
BioWare: There is no Mass..	(21)
New Super Mario Bros. Wii..	(21)
Project Needlemouse unveil..	(20)
Namco Bandai posts huge lo..	(20)
Microsoft pulling the plug..	(19)
Kojima: Peace Walker will..	(19)
Casual games are no threat..	(18)
ESRB pulls down Dead or Al..	(18)
Fallout: New Vegas drops t..	(18)
GT5 release date spotted a..	(17)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII..	(17)
This is what a Natal proto..	(16)

User Favorites - February

Top Jumps
Another PSP exploit found,..	(358)
Sega goes back to making c..	(97)
gpSP v0.9 for the PSP	(90)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2..	(79)
Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-D3..	(69)
Dead or Alive: Paradise is..	(68)
Nomura to make Kingdom Hea..	(57)
PSPlayerMT For PSP - Direc..	(56)
Redsn0w v0.9.2 now availab..	(44)
Resident Evil 5 patch 1.03..	(43)
God Eater has extremely cu..	(41)
Brock Lesnar is the face o..	(38)
dTunes v2.6 - download and..	(38)
Mass Effect 2 PS3 rumor re..	(37)
PlayStation Eye drivers fo..	(37)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII..	(36)
PSP homebrew - NesterJ 1.1..	(34)
Lego Star Wars III: The Cl..	(33)
Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-D3..	(33)
PSP homebrew - PSP Filer v..	(33)
Project Needlemouse unveil..	(31)
Sony quarterly financials:..	(31)
Heavy Rain graphics "even..	(31)
Square Enix profits up alm..	(31)
ModNation Racers driving s..	(29)

Username:

Password:


Remember Me?

Forgot password
New user registration