PS3 Cooling

**Spyder228** · 06-29-2009, 11:33 AM

So I was playing some Resistance 2 (worst co-op ever) over the weekend and had my PS3 just shut down on me twice. It dumped out on me again while watching a dvd.

Now I don't have the AC on in my house because the AC unit is sorta broke. Now instead of fixing that (it doesn't get THAT hot) I'm looking for a PS3 cooler.

I've found a few online but can't really find a decent review or any sort of consensus of which one is good or even if they work at all. I'm not going to spend $20-30 if it's not going to work.

Does anyone hear have a third party cooling unit on their PS3 and if so does it work as intended?

=Sarc= · 06-29-2009, 08:46 PM

How hot is it in your place? I've played my PS3 in 30C (86F) and it was fine playing GTA4. The fans were really loud though so I didn't play for more than an hour.

**CingularDuality** · 06-30-2009, 06:00 AM

I've heard that standing it on end, instead of laying it flat, makes a HUGE difference in the cooling, and it makes sense due to the chimney effect.

**Spyder228** · 06-30-2009, 10:27 AM

I'd say it was something like 90 F in my room that day. I reassembled my junky entertainment center so I could stand it up and haven't had a problem since. I'm interested in this though. I'm all for increasing the life of the chips and what not.

=Sarc= · 07-01-2009, 10:41 AM

I did have my PS3 standing on end that hot day. So perhaps that made the difference.

Have you noticed if the fans were working really hard? I've never been able to hear the fans while playing until that one time. It sounded like extended play would be stressful.

**Spyder228** · 07-01-2009, 11:37 AM

Oh yeah the fans where churning that day. It's been cool here recently so I have had a problem. I think the whole stand on end is the way to go. I think if it keeps overheating I'll just put a box fan or something behind it since I can't find anyplace that definitely says "Yes these cools actually do something for your PS3 and don't hinder it's cooling."

msdz · 07-01-2009, 11:17 PM

I think some PS3's are just prone to have issues. Mine has shut down on me before but I am not so sure it was from temperatures being so high. It did it to me today in fact playing CoD World at War and it is real cool right now.
I also have mine laying horizontally so kids won't knock it over and such. A buddy of mine had an aftermarket cooler and his PS3 took a dump on him and he called Sony up and they did fix or replace it for him but they also asked if he had any add-ons such as a cooler, when he said he had the cooler they gave him a run around then saying they did not have to oblige the warranty then and it could restrict air flow instead of actually helping it. Their fans are designed to allow airflow to evenly be distributed throughout the system and an add-on cooler could force to much air in and pass through without cooling what needs to be cooled. At least this is from my buddy.
Only big problem I have is my sound stuttering on me when playing, it will also go completely out sometimes then slowly start stuttering again and then come back completely but it will go out again real soon thereafter. I will need to completely shutdown my PS3 and then restart it to get sound to sometimes work properly. This happens about every 3 days when I am playing on it a lot. I am not sure if I should contact Sony and see if getting something done to it or just leave things as is.

**Spyder228** · 07-06-2009, 09:57 AM

I'd contact Sony about that. Guess I'll just forget about the coolers. Box fan in the back FTW!

Only problem I've had since standing it on end was Resistance 2 lagging on me a bit. It was in SP, it just kinda stopped for a few seconds then right back into it.

amu107.9 · 07-06-2009, 03:05 PM

Temps are starting to rise above 100*F in my area. Last couple of days I have been playing movies on the PS3 and haven't had any problems.
The only time I had a problem was when I decided move stuff so I could stand the PS3 up and that was the first time it shut down on me ever and I was running the external cooler and my AC.

But since then I have removed the cooler since it was so annoying and the extra peace and quiet was so worth it. I may decide to finally install a 120mm fan in the back of the entertainment center to evacuate the hot air that builds up.