Fri 5 Dec 2008
PS3 Green Light On and System Won’t Start
Posted by Bashar under Consoles, PlayStation 3, Sony, Technology, Video Games
I had this weird problem yesterday knowing I have not done any video setting changes, nor recall a pending software installation. When I start the PS3, green light comes up and then nothing happens. Insert the Game into the slot, blue light blinks and again nothing happens. No video, no sound, and no, it’s not output setting problem as many others have guessed in forums. Try to assign your wireless controller and you’ll know. It doesn’t. If it was on, output and controller assigning I assume should be two separate things.
Symptoms:
- On start, PS3 Green light comes up but nothing happens. No sound or video
- Insert game or any disc into the slot, blue blinks and again nothing happens
- Try to assign wireless controller, nothing happens.
- Try restart the console, unplug it for a while, or keep it on for long time again does not solve the problem.
I was hoping for some reason it’s replaceable hardware failure rather than software one in a closed box like this. I didn’t know about the system restore feature.
Solution:
- With the PS3 in Standby mode (Red light on), press and hold the Start button until you hear a single beep, followed by double beeps.
- Connect the controller using USB cable and press the PS button on the controller.
- Now, the system restore screen (or whatever they call it) will come up like this
- You have several options here for restoring the system, some will unfortunately wipe up all your data, others will make you lose the file naming. For me, I tried the option top-bottom and eventually had to do the Restore PS3 System. Luckily, all I had were demos, trailers, and game saves. only game I was really playing now was Prince of Persia. I felt terrible still though, but much better than if I was playing Ninja Gaiden or MGS right? Or let’s say a game Fallout!
Sharing it for others with same misfortune. Guess we’ll need the PS3 included in the backup plan then.
Popularity: 20% [?]
December 5th, 2008 at 10:27 am
um… simply because the ps3 has AV and HDMI, when it is on HDMI you cannot play it on AV, you can simply change from one to another through holding on the power button when you start it for a bit long until it changes from AV to HDMI or other way.
try that before u restore settings as last resort ;p
December 5th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Isn’t there a way you can backup game saves on external flash or hd? I mean I would rather die than having to play from the beginning of a game such as Gran Turismo i.e. :/
December 5th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I don’t have a PS3, yet.. don’t think anytime soon but this is a very odd problem!
December 5th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
neoark: Thanks for this, however I did try this and since the wireless controller was not connecting at all, it suggests this is not video setting issue but software one.
MacaholiQ8: I know. Luckily I did not have such type of games. There is a way to backup, but not when ur PS3 is already not working. At least, not straight forward. U would take out the hard drive, connect it to another PC, find out how to read it… its basically longer than replaying the game :)
Marzouq: Indeed. Though I should say, from what I have seen and heard, PS3 remains the most stable console among the three. Wii fails to load the game frequently, and Xbox has many heating problems reported. Fun and game variety are different things ofcourse.
December 6th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Devices are becoming more like regular general purpose PCs, no? :/
December 6th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
3baid: exactly. Yet they claim PC gaming is obsolete! :)
December 13th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I have the same exact problem and when I tried executing your solution I could not get on to the restore screen. When I press the start button and after the first beep the system’s green and blue light turns on. I keep hold of the start button but the system turns off about 10seconds afterwards. I do not know what else to do, I also when through forums desperately trying to find a solution but all I can find is the same exact problem without a solution.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Ken: That’s sad. Normally, after first beep, there are two consecutive beeps then. Take your hands off the start button at that time. Time between first beep, and the double beeps is like 2 seconds only. If not, your problem might be different I’m afraid.
December 31st, 2008 at 2:44 am
I’m currently having the exact same problem right now…
Though the initial problem might be different than what happened to yours…
PS3 80GB MGS4 Bundle purchased Summer 2008
My brother was playing with the console with Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 and he said that he saw messed up screen, similar to a Nintendo glitch back in the days when you touch the cartridge while playing.
He said he was online but not playing online at the time. He was creating players on the game when the glitch happened.
Anyways, that said, I tried every single solution I found on the internet through google, and also tried your trick, but none worked so far.
It just gives me a blank screen, the solid green light, one flash of hard drive indicator, a swoosh on the fan test, and the controller just keeps on flashing for like 10-15 seconds when the PS button is pressed. Very similar to what you symptoms were. I just cannot get in to that menu that you mentioned.
I’m not sure if the video card, the OS (firmware), the hard drive, or the RAM is fried. Tried with both component and HDMI cables simultaneously and not-simultaneously.
Any other idea what the problem could be?
Any help from you would be appreciated, because other sites does not give me an intelligent answer for this issue.
December 31st, 2008 at 7:23 am
Kamishiro: Sad :(. Just to make sure. You tried pressing the PS3 ON button while it was in standby mode? What happened? Did you hear the single then double beeps? If so, you should then remove your finder, and a screen will ask you to connect the PS3 controller by USB not wirelessly.
December 31st, 2008 at 8:24 am
I tried exactly your solution. Step by step. I heard the single and double beeps.
What do you mean by finder? I actually have a completely blank screen. Nothing is showing on my TV both regular and HDTV.
As I followed up more research, I found out that the firmware software version 2.40-2.42 had problems, which came out on July-August 2008. Its the versions where a lot of people have the same problem as what I am having right now. Its also around the time when MGS4 PS3 bundle came out, which is probably the firmware version that the console had installed when my brother bought it. So I am assuming that the problem would be the firmware, but why would it crash now? Not weeks or days after my brother got the console? And why did it crash after my brother got the software update to 2.53 a couple of weeks ago, which is the latest one right now?
These could be answers that may not be solved at all… Oh well…
December 31st, 2008 at 8:25 am
Oops… I meant “questions” that may not be solved… :P
December 31st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Kamishiro: finder => Finger (sorry)
I meant you need to take off your fingers after the double beeps.
Why is the problem showing now? Beats me. Does it occur randomly? Is it update over unstable version. Really dunno. Just let me know if you did take off your hands after the double beeps. What do you get.
December 31st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Dear God man, you’re actually suggesting he remove his fingers now? :)
Hopefully this’ll help my bud though; his PC knocked over his PS3 (I always knew keeping those two side by side was a bad idea) and refuses to display video or produce audio when he boots it. So, cheers for this mate!
January 1st, 2009 at 5:51 am
haha!
Well, I did do your solution step-by-step as you noted on your post above, so I should have at least taken my finger off the touch sensitive power button on the front of the console. Still no luck.
I actually called Sony yesterday twice. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon, with one going to my local authorized dealer to get the product service plan receipt. The Sony tech support said that they do not know why its doing it, and they’ll be sending a box. It seems that its not going to take that long, 2-3 weeks, or 3-5 business days for shipping the box to me plus 7-10 business days for a turn around from the time Sony gets our console plus another 3-5 business days before Sony ships the brick back to me.
My issue might be a different one. The tech support said it could be a power supply problem, but I’m assuming a hard drive failure since I tried using the hard drive as an external drive for my mac and it read as unformatted; whatever that means. Being a computer literate, its weird how my computer is detecting “unformatted” rather than “Hey, I’m a PS3 format hard drive.” Or I’m also assuming a RAM failure since I heard that the PS3 OS works directly from the RAM. Since I can’t even get to my log in screen or to that System Restore menu you pictured above.
I’ll post again about the status of my PS3 when it gets back to me, and I’ll make sure to ask Sony what the problem my PS3 had before it got to them. Just for the sake of others who are having the same problem. :)
January 1st, 2009 at 11:18 am
EarthGirlsAreEasy: Well this is much more hopeless :(. I have the Wii nearby the PS3, but really what harm can this do?
Kamishiro: Thanks for this helpful info. Should help me and others. if you can bring a complete article, I’d be happy to post it with your credit as a separate post. Comments are usually missed, and it’s sch a pity to miss this. This is sad it will take weeks to replace/repair, but good they are offering it anyways.
As for the hard drive thing, I thinkit’s pretty obvious Mac will not understand PS3 format and will treat it as unformatted. Don’t make the mistake and ask it to format it PLZ :)
Thanks once again, happy new year, and good luck
January 1st, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Can’t format it anyways because if I send it to Sony, they might not fix it. They’ll probably think an intentional erasure of data, etc, etc… and its my responsibility for what I did to it.
I was expecting my mac to at least read it somehow. Just not the words, “unformatted.” I wanted to back-up the files such as photos, and possibly games, but that’s not going to happen.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:42 am
Kamishiro: No. Even if you hookup NTFS (Windows format) drive to Mac it won’t be able to unless with additional software. Is there a software that can allow Mac to read it? Possibly. I tried searching though with no luck.
Can’t you ask them for this favor? Backing up your data I mean.
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:42 pm
hi there i am turning on my ps3 and the blue light will not even come on, and i get no pic, sound or anything….what does this mean
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 pm
but the green light is on, but no picture nor sound
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I’m so glad I found this. I had all the same symptoms as you and your solution worked great for me.
I did take me 3 tries before I got the double beeps and the system restore screen. The first two times it beeped and then beeped again 2 more times but the second two were separated by about 5 seconds and didn’t do anything. On my third try it worked. I had the lights pointed away from me so I don’t know if I did anything differently that time.
Anyway, since I didn’t have anything I cared about on my HD I just chose system restore and everything has been working great since.
Thanks!!
January 4th, 2009 at 12:39 am
act: blue light should blink when you insert a disk. Did you try inserting?
chabber: Welcome and glad it helped :)