Is this another RROD-esque nightmare, or a simple annoyance?
The launch of the Xbox 360 was an exciting one - but became much less so when a phenomenal amount of consoles succumbed to the dreaded Red Rings of Death, lovingly called RROD. Sony countered this with claims that their console was incredibly reliable, but recent news might give console gamers something to think about.
Caused by a similar fault to the 360, the PS3 develops a blinking yellow light on the front of the console and refuses to boot, mostly affecting 60GB launch consoles purchased about two years ago. The problem stems from weak soldering, and when the console is disassembled then heated in a reheater to melt the existing solder, many of the consoles are functional again.
This could easily be manufacturing niggles from the first wave of consoles before the process was smoothed out, but the major difference here is that unlike Microsoft's free repair for RROD (itself brought around by the huge amount of failed consoles), you'll have to pay Sony to repair the console unless it's less than a year old.
The good news is that it has only affected 0.5% of consoles so far, meaning that odds are you're not going to be too worried about your console failing. Keep it somewhere with plenty of ventilation, and cross your fingers it doesn't die.
Head to the BBC article on the failing PS3s, and post if you've ever had a PS3 or 360 die on you - odds are it'll be the latter.
Issue: 111 | April, 2010