Sony Tech Support

I just got off the phone with Sony. The rep that helped me was pretty nice, but he just offered the "Reset to default settings, if that doesn't work do a full System Restore" answer I was expecting. He said it definitely sounds like I've got a heat issue, and that I'll have to send the unit in for repair if the Restore attempts don't work. I went through the "Restore Default Settings" process but Unreal Tournament 3 locked up after about 5 minutes of play. I don't think I'll do the full restore, since I don't feel like wiping my PS3's hard disk and it probably won't fix the issues I'm having.

Sony doesn't offer any service where you can order replacement fans for the PS3. He quoted me US $149 to send my PS3 in for repair since it's out of warranty. I don't think it's worth it to send my old PS3 in for repair for $149 + shipping costs just to have a fan or two swapped out when a new PS3 costs $400 (I don't think I need the backwards compatibility afforded by the 80GB unit, and I have a 60GB drive from my current system I can put in the new one). It looks like I'll be digging into the unit myself.

One cool tip he gave me was that the Sixaxis controllers have a reset button on the back of them (the ones where you need a paper clip or something to push it). I've had a weird controller drop-out problem since I got the PS3 where every hour or two one of the controllers will lose its connection to the PS3 for about 5 seconds. It's really annoying, but what annoys me even more is that the problem doesn't seem to occur with my new Dualshock 3 controller, which suggests that Sony fixed a known problem since the initial release but isn't replacing faulty units. Oh well; that's the price you pay when you're an early adopter of new technology, right? In any case, the tech support rep suggested pressing this button if the bluetooth connection drops out.

Here's a photo showing the location of the Reset button, circled in red: