Topic: Letting out my frustration for having to send my PS3 in for service.

I have had a 60gb model PS3 since the beginning of '07. A few months ago I had problems with some games freezing and some graphical glitches as well. When I started playing Resident Evil 5, the problems were really magnified at this point. Not only were I seeing graphics glitches that consist of lines pointing out from characters and interactive objects but the game also failed to load the next scene at times. This proceeded by more freezing in disc based games and even downloaded games such as Burnout Paradise. Sony's solution of restoring the system just wasn't working. It was time to start a service call.
Having Sony service your PS3 will cost 149.99 plus tax. If you've ever done this type of thing then you may know the drill. They send you a box to use for shipping your PS3 and you can take said box with your PS3 packed in and drop it off at a UPS store. The turn around time is really fast as part of your fee is paid towards UPS two day air. I just received my PS3 today as expected and understandably had to sign for it.
My frustration is that I received a different system. Now as I type this message, my ps3 is finishing restoring what little can be restored from my external hard drive. I'm afraid of how much I will have lost as I had a lot of photos, music, videos and save data on my hard drive that my not be restored. This comes as a warning from you system as it tells you the data came from a different system and some data cannot be backed up. At least I can re-download games if need be but videos bought from the PS store cannot be re-download unfortunately. Thank you for reading.

wow, that's harsh, even for Sony =/

Yikes. A friend of mine just got a new system back from Sony and didn't seem to have any complaints, but I don't think he downloads a lot. What exactly are you saying can't be backed up though? I have a ton of downloaded games, but at least they can be redownloaded (though that would take forever), my saves and game data of course, a couple episodes of Buffy that I got just for laughs, and music that can be ripped again. So I guess all that would matter to me would be saves / game data.

Well I neglected to deactivate my account prior to shipping my original ps3. I shared my downloads with other ps3 systems so unless I can get one of these people to go onto my account and deactivate it from their system, I no longer have access to my downloads including the movies, TV shows and games I bought from the PS store. I guess I was thinking and hoping I'd get my same system back but apparently it doesn't work that way with Sony. I had already formatted my hard drive before the box came so I thought I wouldn't need to deactivate the account. I really had just totally forgot why I would need to deactivate the account so I'm very frustrated at myself. If I had my same system serviced and returned then I would have had everything restored from the external hard drive I used to back up my hard drive.

I hear ya Bones. Fortunately my ps3 (60GB launch version) has only frozen up a few times. My friends on the other hand have had rediculous continued problems. One of my best friends has sent his back twice now for multiple malfunction, and since it is typically a whopping $150 for the repair, he could have basically bought a new damn system already. My other buddy's ps3 would only let him use the open software menu, and nothing else would work. Had to send his in too. So just between the two of those guys, they spent $450 in repairs. Rediculous. Xbox 360's are even more terrible with their overheating problems. Careful with those puppies.

Fear

I've personally used my ps3s a lot even if I'm not actually using it myself. I like to contribute using folding@ho&#... so I'll have that running while I'm gone or now while I'm typing this. I've lost some of my gaming obsession that I had and maybe it's because I've had to delete and start over a lot of my ps3 games because of some freezing issues, save data lockouts and different system thinking you're not the owner of your own data. This new refurbished system has been completely dependable but I don't know how long that will last as it is an original 60 gb model and I'm running it a lot.

My PS3 doesn't get used enough to wear out. But it does look pretty sitting there. Luckily it will be like brand new by the time God of War 3 hits store shelves. Of course I'm on my third Xbox 360 console at the moment. This one appears to be hanging in there, and I hope the streak continues. I hate sending the damn thing in and waiting for it to come back only to have to re-download all my games again.