PS3 Blu-Ray drive not reading discs properly
 

About two days ago my PS3 started behaving oddly when playing games, and eventually it would just stop reading the game disc and the game would very quickly crash afterwards. I had to force the system to shut down, and when I turned it back on, it would take a long time to read whatever disc I put in, and would promptly crash after a few minutes of gameplay. After trying multiple times to leave it off and come back to it, I noticed that the behavior was getting worse, and now it's to the point that if it does recognize the disc it will most likely not get past the first loading screen. However, we put in a DVD yesterday and it played all the way without a hitch. I just put one in now, and it seems to be playing back fine. A blu-ray movie however would not play back.

From reading around, it seem that my issue is somewhere in the blu-ray drive, but I'm not sure how to diagnostic it properly, and I was wondering if anyone here has had similar issues and has found a DIY way to repair it. I've gone through all system options except HDD formatting, and that didn't change anything. I've also opened up the drive and cleaned the laser, but that also did not change anything.

I've seen a lot of people talk about replacing the laser, which sounds like a more attractive solution for me financially than buying a new PS3 or paying Sony to repair it. Have any of you actually gone through the process of changing the laser and had satisfactory results? Would it be safer to just change the whole drive, in case it's something else in there that's causing this problem?

By the way, my PS3 is a 160GB fat model (CECHP01) if that helps.

Additional Spam:
I've also done the fan test, and the fan works.

B0rked Skyrim hated and probably killed your drive too unfortunately. :(

I wish I could add anything helpful but offer you my condolences for being screwed up the ass not once but twice (Skyrim & this). That and the track record of current gen consoles is just outrageous these days. Jesus. We still have our old fat ps3... no issues so far but yeah the thing is going for 4 years now. How old is yours?

I bought mine maybe 18-20 months ago. Worked like a charm until this. And yeah, I did put in quite a few hours of Skyrim on it...

Have you tried this too?

PS3: Recovery menu – fix your BluRay issues | naschenweng.info

The fact that it plays DVDs just fine and messes up playing Blu-Rays in specific suggests the blu-ray laser in your drive lense has either weakened or died out. There are ways to adjust the intensity of the laser manually, lots of guides around on the internet for that, but it's a risky proceedure and probably a temporary fix at best. Your best bet would be a replacement laser or lense altogether.

18-20 months is practically nothing, sad this happened to your console. Happened with my 60 gig launch unit after about 2 years. Unfortunately, my solution was an entire lense replacement which set me back about $50ish. Still cheaper than sending it in to Sony.

Yeah, I tried this too, it didn't help. I posted in my journal about how my little brother had a PS3 lying around that had YLOD'ed, and how I just ended up taking that one and using the heat gun method to get it working again. I put in new thermal paste while it was opened and it has been working just great for about a month now. I'll probably end up buying another laser to fix the one with the fried Blu-Ray, since I know that the heat gun thing is just a temporary solution in most cases.

Additional Spam:
By the way, how long has it been since you replaced the laser, and does it still work fine?

It's been around 3 or so years and so far, it's going strong *knock on wood. The game that seemingly wrecked my lense last time around was MGS4, which I haven't really played again.

I do believe there ARE games out there which put a bit more strain on the Blu-Ray drive than usual, Skyrim and FFXIII to mention a couple. Alot of people have reported drive fails coherent with these games.