Just when I praised the PS3's quality.....

[Viper821]

My PS3 is giving out on me. It's constantly freezing when I play Blu-Ray discs(but DVD's work fine) and many times will not even load the disk. I contacted Sony and am sending it in for warranty repair.

So I guess it's not just the 360 giving problems. Given my luck, I should have expected it. I haven't made a major purchase yet that I haven't had to return at one point. Oh well, this is a perfect excuse I need to finally try God of War 2!

[VideoGameCritic]

This is interesting.  Hopefully it's an isolated incident, but remember, the Xbox 360 defect didn't fully manifest itself until about 2 years after the system's release.

[steer]

Well it stands to reason as things grow more and more complex - and consume WAY more energy - they are going to become less reliable and not last as long - across the board.

Name the system I bet it aint going to be as reliable as it predeccesor -  and then take into account optical disc readers, more moving parts, etc....

That is one advanteage of the DS I guess, as far as life cycle and reliabilty would be concerned. Ppl who have 'problems' with their DS - ussually it is that superficial 'cracked hinge' defect. Not so bad in the grand scheme of things!

[feilong801]

That could be true, but the old NES was pretty unreliable, so that rules out a simple, the older the console the more stable idea. With more complex parts also comes greater understanding of older technical problems. On the whole, I doubt new consoles are that much different than the older ones when it comes to frequency of repair.

All told, the PS3 has not had major issues with repair. We'll see if that continues, as I think the system has stood out, to this point, as a higher quality console than the 360.

-Rob 

[VideoGameCritic]

Actually, I do think newer consoles are more prone to breaking down.  Most of the classic consoles were solid state with minimal moving parts. 

Systems like the Atari 2600, Genesis, Master System, SNES, and N64 have aged very well.

Systems like the Playstation, Saturn, Dreamcast, and PS2 have fared less well.

For some reason disk readers are notorious for breaking down, probably because they generate a lot of heat.  Besides a lot of moving parts (hard disks, disk readers, fans, etc), the newer systems also have huge power adapters, and for some reason those are more prone to breakage. 

[VideoGameCritic]

The reason so many NES systems don't work is because they have been contaminated by dirty cartridges.  Recall that the pins on NES games are completely exposed.  Making matter worse is the fact that most games were owned by kids, who aren't the neatest people.  If you stick a cruddy cartridge into the system, it gets on the internal pin contacts, and the whole thing stops working. 

That's why I always carefully clean any used cartridge before sticking it into one of my systems.  Sometimes I'll go through a dozen alcohol-soaked Q-tips just to clean one game!

[steer]

Right, its not like those old NES are 'bricked' or burned out. If you are willing to fight them and maintain them, they will work. It may take 5 minutes of frustration to get a game to contact just right but it will work.

Obviously a huge falw that has gotten worse over time, but not  really the same thing.

[kev]

I used to have a nes cleaning cartridge. It looked like a regular nes game, but instead of the contacts it had a really long fuzzy thing like a big flat q-tip.

[Luke]

My Dreamcast stopped recognizing my controllers the other day.

What happened was I was playing Mortal Kombat Gold and tried to configure my six-button style Dreamcast controller to my liking, but when it wouldn't allow me to set it up the way I liked, I unplugged that one and put in my standard Dreamcast controller and then it wouldn't work. I obviously then tried to turn it off and disconnect the power. But nothing. The controller port went out.

I later talked to a local used games dealer who I had to buy my new Dreamcast from and he said that faulty controller ports are/were a common problem with the Dreamcast's and that he always tests for that when buying them from people.

Anybody know about this or had any experience with that?

[VideoGameCritic]

About controller ports going out, yes, I have had experience with that.  I bought one of those snazzy black sports edition Dreamcasts many years back, and one of the ports stopped working.  This was around 2001, so when I contacted Sega they fixed it for free!

Now, you'll either need to get a new one, or maybe send it over to Old School Gamer if he fixes that kind of thing.