I have a Sony PS3 which is about 2 years old and when you switch it on all you get is a blank screen and no icons appear on the main menu. Does anyone know if this is a common problem and can it be fixed or is it cheaper to get a new one ?
Oh dear, I can't imagine how painful it must be to lose the use of your PS3. LOL
I have a PS3 Slim 120Gb which is about 1 year old but I've never had any problems such as the one you're describing. I guess if you use it alot it may simply have had it's day. I think I'd be inclined to get a new one, in my experience repaired units are NEVER the same again.
Depending on where you live you could try these people Clicky, the other optiion is ring Sony up & they will swap a Like For Like re-furbished ps3 & costs £120 unless you have the Continual Play Insurance that was £4.99 a month alternatively take it back from where you puchased it ( assuming you got it new ) & quote the sale of goods act to them i believe others have been successful quoting the NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE line, this is as your contract is with the shop where you bought it i believe.
Have you got a yellow light of death instead of the usual green(on) or red(off)???? maybe just a problem with the hard drive which is easily replacable.
Son just started getting this message which seemed to indicate (on the PS3 www site) that it was a date/time problem with the unit. We've changed the date and time to the correct settings, rebooted but still get the error message.
When you power on the machine keep your finger on the power button unitl you hear a second beep, after about 5 seconds. This resets all you display / audio settings (maybe a few others as well I'm not sure). It will then boot up and ask you if your happy with HDMI etc etc. If you have updated some software either the actual PS3 or any other part of your rig it may well have corrupted the settings somewhere. If you move the d-pad about do you hear the 'clicks' of the menu icons shifting or is it totally dead?
If not I suspect it will be a hardware problem which in most cases is just as cheap and easy to buy another unit. Argos had some deals on recently so check them out.
For Cofnchtr:
Has you son been playing around with regions or trying to spoof the system into thinking it is somewhere else in the world (maybe to play import BDs etc) if so then it might be confusing the system somehow. That is all I can think of I'm afraid