PS3: Freezes and crashes, randomly.

[m4th_]

Hello everyone.

I hooked up my PS3 after a long time of inactivity. After the first few problems, now fixed, with the video output, i tried playing a game to test if everything was working correctly. And it did, for like 5 minutes. I tried twice to load up the game and after 5/10 minutes into it the console just freezes and sometimes even huts down by itself.

Googling around it sounds like it's overheating, so i tried the fan test thingie, and they are working fine. I don't get the YLOD, the console just freezes until i shut it off by pressing the power button for like 10 seconds. I tried restoring the system to its defaults (losing my glorious 200+ hours Dark Souls characters) but nothing changed, sometimes it crashes after 10 minutes, sometimes i can barely make it to the main menu. Funny how i could install the whole FFXIV in one go, and when i try to load it it just crashes.

Could it be just a matter of cleaning the insides? I can try opening it up and see if it's just dusts blocking the vents or something. Because the console works fine, the disk reader is working and all, it just freezes, and crashes.

Thanks in advance.

[xopher]

my suggestion would be cleaning it.

[solipsism]

Which revision is it? If it's an old fat it could be on its way out but you should just be able to blow it out with some compressed air before proceeding further. I would think that it'd have to be pretty dirty inside to crash in such a short period of time though.

[m4th_]

It's a slim model, not the last one, the one between fat and last.
I tried the fan test thingie and they work properly. One thing I've noticed: the air that comes out gets hot pretty fast, so it MIGHT be just a case of cleaning.
I'll get a set of small screwdrivers today and I'll try cleanng the shit out of it, hopefully.

Edit: Funny how tonight, after trying to open it up to clean the insides (couldn't take the power supply off so i gave up) it worked for 3 hours straight, allowing me to enjoy the starting zone of Final Fantasy XIV and then, all of a sudden, with no particular reason, it crashed.