Sunday, November 2, 2008

The PS3 3 Beeping & Blinking Red Light Problem

The PS3 is not immune to having problems, and a common problem is when the PS3 beeps 3 times with a blinking red light.

If you have this problem, you will be advised to call Sony for service... and if you're out of warranty it's gonna cost you over $150 bucks. But what does it mean?

Well, the PS3 3 Beep and blinking red light problem indicates a problem with the hard drive, and it can be cause by one of two things: Either your PS3 hard drive connection has become loose, or the drive went dead altogether.

A quick fix for this PS3 beeping 3 times problem, is to re-seat the hard drive. Physically remove and reinstall the hard drive. If you are still having this problem, then you are going to need to get yourself a new hard drive.

Replacing the hard drive is not complicated at all - and you can even get yourself a 160GB drive for cheaper than you spend to send your PS3 to Sony for repair.

For full, detailed instructions on how to fix your PS3 problems, this 318 page PS3 repair guide is available, and covers everything from DIY fixes to complete modifications - including how to install Linux on your PS3.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about when the problem persists even without a hard drive in the PS3? Like mine?

Chained Man said...

The problem also happens if the HDD is 'loose' meaning that if it's not installed at all, it's going to have the same issue. Taking it out and trying doesn't prove anything. Put the HDD back in, and see if it works then. If not? Well then the HDD is totally shot, and needs to be replaced. There's honestly nothing that can be done to repair it, at all.

DoctorBastardo said...

Hi, Half a decade later I'm trying to get an old PS3 going because... wait for it.... ATI/AMD graphics cards with HDMI 1.3 won't play nice with Philips 32" LCD TV's. I just wanna watch a movie... The USB input on these TVs is useless too. So my sons old PS3 Has the red light bleeps 3 times-switches off issue. I took out the 40g HDD and tried a 320g one. I know the 320 is fine as I just checked it on my PC and did a surface test with Easeus. BUT the bleeping still persists. Should I assume the connector is somehow loose inside, it looks OK by torchlight but without opening the PS3 I wont know. Also I tested the orig 40g drive which also passed the surface test.

albs101 said...

DoctorBastardo, I am in the same boat. I am looking to resurrect the PS3... just coz. I am getting the red light and 3 beeps.
No answers yet

DigereTech said...

I found a PS3 in a bag by my apartment's dumpster along with some games. Had the same issue with 3 rapid beeps, then shutdown, and blinking red power light. Opened up the case and inspected all of the components, cleaned out any dust. I also replaced the hard drive with a 240GB Sandisk Plus SSD, updated the OS with 4.84 from a USB thumb drive, and reformatted the brand new SSD. After update, the system came back up and worked great! The bluray drive works, and I played Little Big Planet for about 15 minutes, and decided to go get some other work done, so I quit the game, ejected the disk, and shut the PS3 down. Thinking, great, the hard drive was the problem, and now it's fixed! Not so fast. A little later I hit the PS button on the controller and instead of booting up normally, the 3 beeps and blinking red light was back. Uggggg!!! I just don't understand it. If the system updates and allows me to play a game, how could this be a hardware problem? I don't think this is an overheating issue because it also does this from a cold boot after sitting for hours. I've heard rumors that Sony did this with a firmware update to brick old systems and force people to buy new systems. Hah, somehow I doubt that, but at this point with so many people having this issue, I wouldn't completely rule it out!