Sony Responds to BBC Criticism

[Logan Westbrook]

Sony Responds to BBC Criticism

Sony has struck back at the BBC, following a piece about the PS3 on the BBC's consumer interest show Watchdog.

Sony has defended itself against the BBC's claim that the original model PS3 suffers from a manufacturing defect that which causes the consoles to not boot up and to display a yellow light, dubbed the 'yellow light of death'. The BBC attributes this problem to faulty solder connecting the components to the circuit board. Should this fault occur outside of the 12-month warranty period, then Sony charges £128 (roughly $208) for a refurbished unit.

According to Sony UK Boss Ray Maguire however, the yellow light in question is an all-purpose error indicator, with no central cause. He also claimed that the 155 people who had contacted the BBC did not represent a significant portion of its 2.5 million install base. Sony says that less than half a percent of the consoles it has sold in the UK will experience the yellow light problem, which means a total of up to 12,500, if the half-percent figure is correct.

Sony also criticized the BBC for a section of the Watchdog program, in which technicians in a van outside the Sony London HQ offered free repairs for out-of-warranty consoles; calling it a stunt which "treats with inappropriate levity an issue which may do serious damage to...the Sony and PS3 brands". The BBFC refuted the claim saying: "We presented a fair and accurate account of their stories, using expert advice and we broadcast Sony's response"

While it would be easy to call this Sony's 'Red Ring of Death' and to criticize the company for charging for its repair, it's important to remember that the extended warranty that Microsoft offered was due to the pervasiveness of the RRoD problem, and that while 12,500 seems like a big number, a success rate of 99.5% is actually very good.

Source: BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8263063.stm]


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[AceDiamond]

Well they are right about one thing, 155 or even 12,500 people is not a very large portion of a 2.5 million user install base. As to the rest I don't know a lot of the details (since I'm an American) and thus can't really form a judgement.

 

[El Poncho]

The yellow light of death, seriously? Could they not think up of something that not similar to RROD.

 

[Arbitrary Cidin]

Am I the only person who's NEVER had a working "refurbished" item?

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

The yellow light of death, seriously? Could they not think up of something that not similar to RROD.

Some circles used to call it the "Yellow Light Of Doom" instead. I liked it. Sounded comical.

 

[hansari]

So the BBC is doing free console repairs now?

Where were they during the RROD fiasco!?

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Paid by Microsoft. Lies inside (c).

 

[Archaon6044]

the original model PS3 suffers from a manufacturing defect that which causes the consoles to not boot up and to display a yellow light, dubbed the 'yellow light of death'

meh. the 360 had a crippling hardware default first, and it had a better name too

 

[Pimppeter2]

This is just fuel for fanboys, lucky they can be shut up with facts

 

[Jumplion]

My friend once got the Yellow Light of Death from a thunderstorm, though I can't remember if he had to pay for a refurbished model or not.

Either way, any failure rate is bad, but it's hardly a big problem. I'm not denying that the PS3 crashes every now and again, but .5% (if Sony is to be believed) in a certain area is hardly an epidemic.

 

[AceDiamond]

Paid by Microsoft. Lies inside (c).

Wow, a conspiracy theory and the wrong company tagline in one post. Yes, Microsoft pays off everybody. The BBC, Adam Sessler, and all the gaming publications.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Why can't we all just get along?

Sonny, you come here and apologise to Auntie Beeb and Uncle Nigeria.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Sonny, you come here and apologise to Auntie Beeb and Uncle Nigeria.

i think that Auntie Beeb might be taking some lessons from Uncle Rupert and his Faux friends

that's seriously bad journalism to drum up an non-news item like this. it's not like this is a big problem and affecting millions of customers like the RROD has

 

[Subzerowings]

I once had this "yellow light of death" and after a while...it just went away.
I sent it in but since the sony repair crew is kind of sh*t (according to my past experiences), they told me there was nothing wrong and sent it back. It wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't have to pay to send it over and be stuck without a ps3 for 2 months.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

How odd, I was listening to the song based on this just yesterday in college. Very amusing, based on a Johnny Cash song, I believe.

 

[Kiutu]

According to Sony UK Boss Ray Maguire however, the yellow light in question is an all-purpose error indicator, with no central cause.

This makes me think of the Venture Bros episode.

 

[Subzerowings]

Paid by Microsoft. Lies inside (c).

Wow, a conspiracy theory and the wrong company tagline in one post. Yes, Microsoft pays off everybody. The BBC, Adam Sessler, and all the gaming publications.

Actually, the BBC is quite closely tied to MS, look up your facts before you respond. BBC's Digital Director Peter Mercier, just left to join MS, and the journalist who performed this 'stunt' (as coined by Sony), is none other than Ian Lee, who you may or may not remember for....this little piece:

http://tech.uk.msn.com/gaming/article.aspx?cp-documentid=7838134

The article is tainted by innacuracies, half-truths, and outright lies. The BBC being pivotal in it's creation, is tainted by their own in-house staff. It's been a pleasure taking you to school.

I expected this from CNN, NBC or NSMBC because I heard they're microsoft companies.

 

[dnadns]

It actually goes a bit further than that. Another newspost I read on one of the german tech news site explains that the BBC did "repair" the PS3 by putting them into an oven that would melt some poor connections on the board. They claimed that this helped in a lot of cases and would lead to the assumption that the boards in the early models were of bad quality.

Now, however, the BBC had to admit that some of those "repaired" consoles broke again afterwards (due to a different problem) and that some were broken because the owner opened the system before and "modified" the internals a bit.

Pretty bad job on behalf of the BBC I think.

 

[SaintWaldo]

In a population over 1 million, you need a sample size of about 1000 to produce anything with a significant margin of error. I don't even see the BBC mentioning margins of error or acceptable failure rates. I don't see how you can represent "statistically invalid" as "fair and accurate". Do journalists get permission to use a different version of their own language?

Anyway, on to single-point anecdotal stuff that might actually help someone...

My 60GB PS3 went YLOD out of warranty. I was keeping it in an enclosed space with nowhere near enough airflow. I fixed it with a heat gun, flux, and heat sink compound. Seriously. This can be done almost indefinitely if you remember to use flux while you do it. In this case, $15 > $150.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U70SgRDVcBo

To recap:
Yes, I got the YLOD out of warranty.
Yes, I followed that vid myself.
YES it works now.
Yes, I'll do it again in a year or so, using flux to keep the solder "wet".
Yes, this fix procedure will eventually stop working, but by then I will probably have less reason to hold on to PS2 back compat.

The nature of the fix seems to indicate that all YLODs are related to heat sensing. This could be that the fan is broken or that the power supply is bad, but as the vid author suggests, the majority of YLOD will probably be this heat-caused solder migration that can be fixed with a reflow.

I concur with the vid author that almost ALL original PS3s will eventually YLOD from heat. Just like everything else in the world eventually breaks, and the majority well out of warranty, mind you,. It's basic thermodynamics and there's no solution other than to use a heat gun to introduce the needed negative entropy back into the system.

Knowing that I have a console that is tough enough to be abused, overheated, and then fixed with an overblown hairdryer, actually makes me love my PS3 even more.