jonesey

My first import was 1080 Snowboarding for the N64. I lived in the UK at the time and the release date was months later than the Japanese version. My roommates and I discovered that the Japanese one had full English text, and when we saw it on the shelf we took it and a cartridge converter (one of those things where a second cartridge hangs out the back to allow the import to play) and bought them instantly.

We got it home and plugged it in... It didn't work. We plugged every cartridge had into the back of the converter but nothing happened.

We then went back to the store and traded our UK N64 for a Japanese one. Took that home and plugged it in... It worked, but it was in black and white!

My friend then got on his bike and rode to the outskirts of the city where there was a company that made RGB converters that would let the import console work on a PAL TV. He came back later (it was several miles away) and everything worked. Such a good game, along with Mario Kart battles and Goldeneye it was a multi-player standard in the house. The trick attack mode was particularly amazing, and the rivalry got pretty heated. I still have the game boxed as new today, though that N64 is long gone.

Once we found out that US and Japanese games worked without a converter in the system we bought a lot of imports, which were actually much cheaper than the PAL versions in many cases.

I'm awaiting the console coffin from Sony, hopefully I just got unlucky with this refurb unit. I just couldn't face taking it to the local guy and it not working. Sure he guarantees his work, so it wouldn't cost me anything, but I'd then be stuck with a nice shiny doorstop that I might not be able to send back to Sony, or get anything in trade for a new system

Has anyone who has opened their PS3 to clean it ever sent it in to Sony for replacement/repair? I found a local guy who says he can repair it, (actually removing the gpu, cleaning off the bad solder and replacing it with good solder) but I'd like to have the option of sending it in if that fails eventually. It's already out of warranty so I think that means they would take it, I mean how can I void the warranty if there isn't one

I assume that it's typically a symptom of a bigger problem, so the fan is having to work extra hard to keep the thing cooled?

My first PS3 got pretty loud about 3 months before it died with a YLOD. I paid special attention to the replacement, vacuuming the vents etc., but it has now died. This one didn't get noticeably louder before it went, it just died

I think the warranty should have been one year. Check the paperwork that Sony sent back with the unit.

Nope, 90 day warranty only on replacement units. I just got off the phone with them.

I asked if they could send out a slim to replace this one and they said that they couldn't do that. They did drop the replacement/repair price to $99 but going on the quality of the replacement I got last time I'm not too excited about going through this again in six months.