Replacing the Blue Ray drive

[vrocko]

Okay a friend of mine has a fat PS3 with the 4 usb ports in the front, an 80 GB hard drive and it is 100% compatible with PS2 games, my understanding is the conversion is done in the hardware. Only problem is its got a bad Blue Ray drive. Won't read anything CD, DVD, BR, etc.

 

I was going to buy it from him and replace the BR drive. I started researching some online to see what I would have to do and I see that a lot of people say the BR Drive is married to the main board so you can't really replace it with just any other PS3 BR drive. One person I read about tried 3 separate replacement drives but to no avail. Not a one of them worked in the system he was trying to fix. They worked in the original system ok but when he moved it to the system he was trying to fix it would not work.

 

Now is this BS or is this true? I replaced the DVD drive in my original Xbox with a working one and it still works just fine. Is it that much different for the PS3 and why would you make replacing the BR drive so difficult? Would that not also make it harder for Sony to replace the drives too?

[Cynicaster]

I bought a fat 80GB PS3 used last year and after only a few weeks it stopped reading discs. I’d put a disc in, and the little thingy in the upper right would just keep spinning round and round, but nothing would happen.

 

I went on e-bay and ordered a new laser module from some dude. I don’t remember the part number but the seller provided a means of cross-checking to make sure I was ordering the correct part for the specific system I have.

 

EDIT: I checked my eBay purchase history and the description of the part I ordered was “Laser Lens PS3 KES-400A KEM-400AAA CECHE01 Replacement”

 

I searched youtube for instructions on how to replace the laser, which was a big help. It’s not nearly as simple as just swapping a drive out of a PC, for example. There are lots of little fasteners and clips to remove and it’ll take you an hour or so if you’ve never done it before, but it’s highly doable with a bit of research and patience. Another thing I did that was very useful was snap photos of just about every step just in case I forgot how to reassemble something. It’s a good thing I did that because there was one point where I would have incorrectly installed a clip if I didn’t check the photo.

 

After the install I fired the thing up and it worked like a charm, and has ever since (April 2010).

[Chris Leach]

My original 60GB system drive went out on me as far as reading the discs and I did the same thing..>Went online to ebay and purchased a replacement laser from some guy there....maybe the same as the above post, but the drive worked and plays just fine....

 

Still kickin the ps2 games since the release of the PS3.....

 

Good luck..check facebook for some helpful guys out there for making videos on the replacement of the laser....

[NinjaWarrior]

i got the same problem...but my PS3 reads only DVD movies, PS2 Games, PS2 CD Games & PS Games

Edited December 11, 2011 by NinjaWarrior

[VW]

I realize I have seen this late but wanted to let everyone know that just cleaning the drive lens with isopropyl alcohol and a swab can work wonders if your ps3 has stopped reading discs or only reads certain kinds of discs. I did this a little over a year ago on a ps3 that had stopped reading discs of any kind and have had no problems since.

[Charlie_]

I had to replace the laser assemble in my launch PS3's bluray drive. The type with the single lens.

To answer the original poster, you can replace the lens and sled assembly, but not the whole drive.