Ever see a dying PS3 do this?

InfinityDevil · 05-17-2009, 09:57 PM

Not to pile onto the YLOD thread, but I'm concerned about my launch-era 60GB PS3 and it's not showing a yellow light of death. Certain games are showing certain types of glitches, while other games show other types of glitches. As an example:

Problem 1: the white flash on a texture
When I'm indoors in Mercenaries 2, I will frequently see a floor texture or wall texture flash white briefly after the game starts. This also happens in Grand Theft Auto 4 when I'm in the safe house -- I'll see a quick white flash on a certain color/texture in the room after it loads up.

Problem 2: 3D spikes
This is much more recent, but playing through Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena I've noticed something different. Certain enemy models will have their model deformed with a spike jutting way out in one direction or another. It's only one spike, and it disappears when you get closer to the NPC, and sometimes happens on their dead bodies on the floor. I also noticed it, once, with a weapon model. It disappeared after I reloaded.

I noticed this also happened once during part of the Wolverine Demo when you see Wolverine in profile starting his run across a rope bridge. I didn't replay it to see if it happened again, but I saw part of his arm jutting way off to the left (as he ran right) in a big spike in the texture model.

Videos of the Spike Glitch
I've made two videos of the Riddick glitches with my digital camera to illustrate the problem. You can download them from this link.
Note: use the player at videolan.org if you can't play the xvid format videos.

Middleware?
The diversity of the games involved has me worried. I don't think Riddick uses the Unreal engine like the Wolverine demo does, and both GTA4 and Mercs 2 don't have the same middleware either.

So, have you seen this kind of thing, and should I worry?

Someone suggested after I had gliches in another game that I might need to just reload the firmware. Can I do that after a system restore to a brand new drive, or will that wipe out all of my saved games?

only1matters · 05-17-2009, 11:28 PM

I had something similar with my first PS3. Luckily Sony replaced it because GTA4 would work at all, but everything else worked fine. I would get the 3D spikes in Burnout at Assassin's Creed from time to time. I would get a weird rainbow pixelation on GH3. The game would be unplayable and I would have to restart it. I never really found out what the problem was, but my new PS3 doesn't have this problem at all.

naruhodo569 · 05-17-2009, 11:46 PM

Good luck dude, hope it turns out well. My PS3 is still going strong (only a year old though, and its a 40gig) *knock on wood*, but if you ask me it seems like these problems could be related to the YLOD. Specifically, if these problems are recent, it may be related to a dying GPU/CPU or something. The main problem behind the YLOD seems to be an overheating mobo, so maybe the heat has started to get to your PS3's internal components. Not sure though, it's never happened to me, and I don't really have much technical expertise with the PS3. Hope it turns out alright though.

Donthizz · 05-18-2009, 03:52 AM

[QUOTE=InfinityDevil;266331]Not to pile onto the YLOD thread, but I'm concerned about my launch-era 60GB PS3 and it's not showing a yellow light of death. Certain games are showing certain types of glitches, while other games show other types of glitches. As an example:

Problem 1: the white flash on a texture
When I'm indoors in Mercenaries 2, I will frequently see a floor texture or wall texture flash white briefly after the game starts. This also happens in Grand Theft Auto 4 when I'm in the safe house -- I'll see a quick white flash on a certain color/texture in the room after it loads up.

yup this happned to my ps3 and died like two weeks later, good luck!

InfinityDevil · 05-18-2009, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donthizz

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfinityDevil

Problem 1: the white flash on a texture
When I'm indoors in Mercenaries 2, I will frequently see a floor texture or wall texture flash white briefly after the game starts. This also happens in Grand Theft Auto 4 when I'm in the safe house -- I'll see a quick white flash on a certain color/texture in the room after it loads up.

yup this happned to my ps3 and died like two weeks later, good luck!

The texture flash problem is actually quite old. I noticed it first with GTA IV and I got that when it came out last year. The spikes in the models is very new, though.

Doesn't look good for our hero. How in the name of the gods am I going to get my wife to agree to a $150 payout to Sony to fix this?

Followup question: Assuming your replacement PS3 was not the same unit you sent them, when you restored your backup to it, did it stop you from restoring some things? I'm thinking of those EA saved games that won't allow copying to a flash/USB drive individually but will get backed up with a full backup.

Still open question: Can you reinstall firmware (maybe using that boot menu Sony added after that firmware brick snafu of I think 2.40) without wiping out your other data?

Ross · 05-18-2009, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfinityDevil

Followup question: Assuming your replacement PS3 was not the same unit you sent them, when you restored your backup to it, did it stop you from restoring some things? I'm thinking of those EA saved games that won't allow copying to a flash/USB drive individually but will get backed up with a full backup.

Still open question: Can you reinstall firmware (maybe using that boot menu Sony added after that firmware brick snafu of I think 2.40) without wiping out your other data?

If your restore to a different PS3 it will not restore some things, such as locked save files.

I'm not aware of a way to flash the firmware without wiping your hard drive, but I could be wrong. You could do a back up and flash your firmware then do a restore.

Kohath · 05-18-2009, 11:07 AM

My first PS3 had the problem with the 3D spikes. It was a degenerative problem. I'd play Assassin's Creed and the guys would start walking around with little spikes coming out of their bodies. As I continued to play, more and more 3D graphical glitches would accumulate in the scene until it was all flashes of triangles after an hour or so.

I had to send it back to Sony.

I suggest you find out which of your games have locked save files and try to finish them before you have to send your PS3 back to Sony for replacement.

InfinityDevil · 05-18-2009, 12:21 PM

I guess my Saints Row 2 problems stem from this as well.

I saw another glitch in Mercenaries 2 the other night where I saw a downwards-pointing tunnel with no floor texture embedded in one of the mountainsides. My brother, playing co-op with me, couldn't see it, and I couldn't walk into it, but it was on the screen. Over the weekend I got out of a truck while playing co-op with someone else and it took off up into the air. Thankfully I nailed my Platinum in that game at the end of that session.

I'll definitely check my saves. I know Mercs 2 has locked saves which stinks because I love fooling around in that finished game.

InfinityDevil · 05-18-2009, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfinityDevil

Doesn't look good for our hero. How in the name of the gods am I going to get my wife to agree to a $150 payout to Sony to fix this?

Actually now that I'm home I've verified that my 3-year replacement plan I bought with it at Target is still in effect. That's a relief.

InfinityDevil · 05-26-2009, 07:17 PM

I fired up Unreal Tournament III tonight, one of the games that has flashing textures, and cranked it up to a 12-bot match. About 3 minutes in the PS3 crashed itself completely and shut off with a blinking red light.

The replacement plan is sending me shipping labels for the console within the next 24-48 hrs. So long old friend. In the meantime I'm backing it up (again) and will need to remember to deregister it from the PSN.

They're supposed to try and fix it, but I really don't know how they're going to test it effectively to see if it is working without playing the games. That could be an interesting situation.