Good afternoon ladies and gents. My name is Mike and I’m a proud owner of a 60GB PS3…here’s my story. Hopefully this story can some people who are in need.

I bought my 60GB PS3 earlier this summer and enjoyed about 6 months of trouble free gameplay.

I always cleaned my system and kept it in an open space. I played it about once a week for about 1 hour at a time. All was well until last Monday night while playing a Ninja Gaiden Sigma and the system froze.

For the first time my PS3 wouldn’t respond to any inputs from the controller nor the front panel. Finally after struggling with the power button on the front I was able to shut down and get the game started up again.

Shortly afterward, I exited the game and was prompted to update to 2.53…after the update was done I shut the system down for the night and went to bed.

The next day I go to play a game and my PS3 didn’t’ even recognize the disc. I’m like WTH?? I try more games, then I try a PS2 game then some more CDs nothing.

WTH…I google PS3 blu ray drive failure and I that’s how I found this site. I was amazed at the number of people coming forward with the same exact problem I had.

Too bad for me the guy I bought my system from didn’t’ have the receipt,  so I knew I was out of luck going through Sony unless I coughed up 150 to fix it. For me, that was the last resort.

I ordered a new KES-400AAA lense from Ebay and it got here by Friday last week. I opened my system and successfully installed the new laser. After firing it up, I discover the system only read DVDs and CDs but no games nor blue ray discs.

After complaining to the seller, they came back and offered a refund. I sent it back and located a seller in Chicagoland area that has these lenses in stock. I drive out there, pick up one for myself for about 50.00 then drive home and promptly install the new laser.

All was well for about 2 hours. All of a sudden, while playing Orange Box, the PS3 froze again and then after rebooting gave me the 80010514 code. I hoped online and found a thread on this site describing what that meant.

Again I’m like WTH?? How did I get burned 2x in a week? I followed everything to the T and didn’t run into any issues installing etc.

Finally I found the link over on llama forums  

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j209/BFeldhak/PS3GoodlaserBadLa
ser.jpg

And it all made sense afterward. The failed laser had the same white neck as the one in the pic. I alerted the local laser seller and was promptly offered a refund

When we meet, swapped the defective laser for the new dual eye KES-410ACA model which I later discovered did not fit my PS3.

On the verge or giving up, I set out to research more data on this whole ordeal and wind up listing my KES-410 and decided to find a reputable seller for the actual laser I need.

Finally, my brand new laser arrives today packaged very well and I installed it in 20 mins.  I’m proud to say my PS3 is back running in impeccable shape and I am a very happy camper.

I’ll post pics of the process later this evening.  I’m still downloading and resizing them as we speak. I just wanted to share my story especially if you didn’t end up sending your unit to Sony. In the end, I saved 100.00, fixed the system myself, and know the amount of care that went into my install process.

Not saying Sony would not have done the same but the part I wanted to point out is that I was able to fix my system in a much shorter timespan vs waiting some weeks for the turn around process from the mfgr.

There’s hope guys. You can do this. Instructions are plentiful online. Overall, DIY=saving $$$ as well as lost time being without your console. Is it for everybody, heck no. On a scale of 1-10, ten being the highest, I’d say it’s a 6-7 depending on your level of patience and the quality of the replacement part you’re using!

That is all!

Any questions, please ask. Now, time for some more COD4!!!!!!!