i most likely won't be getting a new one for xmas, and can not afford the repairs until the end of january, and yes kav it's been one hell of a week lol

can you get the piece you need on ebay?

Sorry to hear mate. When my machine died, I did a little search&research and found quite a bit of used stuff for ps3's around - and believe me mate; It's no trouble at all to change the bluraydrive. You'll do it in an hour.

if it was anything other than the blu ray drive i would take a DIY approach, i already headed off the YLOD by changing cleaning my system and re-applying thermal paste, however every ps3 blu ray drive comes with a logic board unique to said ps3 this makes the job a little more confusing and fiddly, I am quite willing to pay for the work when it comes with a warranty. Anyways hopefully i should now with revised finances be back online before new year.

Hi guys, mine yellowlighted about a year ago. My kids and I took it apart and performed full-on Reflow surgery...it was better than General Hospital...had the whole kitchen table cleared with portable spotlights on tripods overhead...the FedEx guy came to the door and looked at us like we were nuts...I told him we were operating on the cat...he dropped the package and took off. It lasted about 3 weeks and yellow lighted again. Realizing my career as a cat surgeon was over, I sucked it up and took it to a place called GopherMods...who lucky for me happened to be in Minnesota. No probs since. Let me know if I can help.

Soga
 

Havent been on here in over a year but figured id share my ylod experiences. I've had 2 ylod ps3's in total. 1st one i rang sony who sent me a refurb one for £150 ! 6 months later this refurb died making it my 2nd ylod, rang sony who wanted another £150. After being a little wiser this time i refused to pay the £150 and instead quoted the SOGA (sales of goods act), immediately they changed their tone and agreed to send me another refurb free of charge. A lot of people dont realise this but regardless of what the warranty says under the SOGA the ps3 has to last atleast 6 years, if it breaks within these 6 years due to a manufacturing fault the retailer you bought it from have to replace it or refund you. By law they have to and if they dont you can pursue down the small courts route.

p.s. this applies to the uk but id imagine the rest of the world or the eu atleast would have something similar in place to protect consumers.