The kids are happy again… after a few days without playing FIFA, GOW III, or GTAIV, now the PS3 it’s working, finally. But that was a long story that i will make it short to maybe help others with the same problem. Seems to be a pretty normal scenario for the first PS3 models, the old ones… the console just stops to read the Blue Ray discs, but everything else keeps working just fine.
I did a little search on internet to see if that was a normal case, and a lot of informations, and two possible problems:
– Software (the loader with problems after upgrading or something else):
I did see many cases like this where a simple reset on the console did fix the problem. Actually i did discover many commands and hide features on the console when trying to fix the console in this situation. But no luck, was not this case for me…
– Hardware ( The optical reader dies):
Here we need to change it, and the novell starts for me…

I did call the sony representative here at São Paulo, and actually there are many to do the service. But… US $175,00 for the component and plus US $125,00 for the service itself. Something like US $300,00 and i was thinking in buy another, and to use this old one as a computer for my little kid (now, two years old).
I did try to find out the version of the component without open the console, using some kind of external serial number, but could not find out for sure (there are many models, and one do not work on the other). Then, i did open the PS3 and like the videos on the internet, is pretty simple. I did some tests with the opened console, and did seems like the ‘motor’ that should make the disc spin was not working. But could be a problem with the laser too, so to change it for sure i was needing to replace the whole component: KEM-410 ACA.
First option was to buy the KEM part from the sony representative and do the service by myself. So, i did call the sony service trying to buy just the component. And they told me they could not sell it, just if i would buy the service too (Oracle making friends ;-).
BTW, i was a great fun of Nintendo, that makes a real strong console, and was used to be the champion on games (Ocarina of Time, classic). And did loose ground for sony exactly because of the openness specs and support for developers that sony did create.
In my experience the myth becomes true: the sony console is not so robust as the nintendo ones. I had no problems with nintendo64, game cube or Nintendo wii.
So, let’s do like Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness, and fix the scanner! ;-)
Well, if Optimus Prime did use ebay to save the world, i could use it to fix a broken PS3 console too.
Then, last week i did buy the KEM-410 ACA component from ebay (US $79,00), did receive yesterday, and the console is working like a charm! Plus, i did receive an extra time apart from buying games, because i did reset the console trying to fix it… so, all the games progress were too… my kids will need to play all the games again. I did play a little (MGS4, and GT prologue), nothing for real…
As always, in the end i still have one screw at my desk… Manufacturers… always using more than necessary…
peace