# Issue with Blu-Ray playback on PS3



## B's Mach

The issue I have with my PS3 is that I will get the loading circle popping up in the top right corner of the screen during Blu-Ray playback. The loading circle or icon will pop up for a second, then go away. This has been happening for the last few months with my system. It doesn’t effect the playback of the movie it’s just annoying to see it pop up randomly when I’m trying to watch a Blu-Ray. I have a backwards compatible 80GB PS3 that has had about average amount of use playing a movie maybe 2 times a week and some gaming sessions in between then. I have tried tearing it apart and cleaning out the dust with a can of air. Also I have used a lens cleaning DVD that I borrowed from a friend. I have also used Blu-Rays that are completely free of dust and fingerprints or scratches. After all that, it will still pop up with the loading icon every once and a while. It only pops up in the top right of the black bar when I’m watching a movie that is in widescreen. A movie that is in full 16:9 like Avatar will obviously not have the loading icon because the TV is completely filled with the movie. I have been performing system backups about once a week just in case it decides to stop working altogether. The only thing I can think that may causing this is either the laser is about to die, or I might need change out the thermal paste. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


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## Ares

If your laser was on the verge of failure movies and games would be freezing, disc read errors or not loading up at all. The load icon appearing during movie playback is a new one to me, does this happen on specific movie or does it only happen when black bars are present regardless of movie?

I would suggest to change your thermal paste not for this specific issue but to avoid other issues down the road.


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## B's Mach

Ares said:


> If your laser was on the verge of failure movies and games would be freezing, disc read errors or not loading up at all. The load icon appearing during movie playback is a new one to me, does this happen on specific movie or does it only happen when black bars are present regardless of movie?
> 
> I would suggest to change your thermal paste not for this specific issue but to avoid other issues down the road.


The load icon only appears on widescreen movies where there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. The circle only appears for a split second and at random times through the movie. It might happen a few times on one movie, I'd say 2-5 times. I tried multiple movies and it happens regardless. At first I thought it might be the condition of the Netflix movies that I rent, but it happens even on the mint condition movies that I have bought. I tried searching the internet to the end and haven't found anyone with this issue. I don't have any problems with loading or playback, just an annoying load circle every now and then.


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## Ares

Just curious what version is your firmware? Also I have been going through my collection to see if I can duplicate what you are experiencing and have yet to be successful but I'm only a quarter of the way through my collection so I'll keep going.


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## B's Mach

I have auto update on, so whatever the latest version is. You have to really be looking for it. Now that I've seen the load symbol pop up, it bugs the out of me. If you blink you might miss it, though. Also, I notice that if you rewind the movie, you cannot duplicate it. It's like it's slow to buffer or process the information. The last movie I tried was Transformers ROTF. It happened about 10 min into the movie. The fan doesn't seem to be louder than normal, but I have it in a cabinet with cooling fans, so I never hear it anyway.


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## Ares

If you go into system settings and scroll down to system information it will tell what's your firmware version which should be 3.60 which allows you to backup your game saves on Sony's servers. I have gone through my collection and it never happened, also I have searched gaming forums to see if this is something that happens quite often and found no mention of your particulate issue the only thing I can advise at this point is to contact Sony and see what they say.


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## B's Mach

Yes, I have 3.6, but I haven't used playstations servers to save anything. I have an external hard drive that I backup my system and game saves on. Weird. Maybe I'll try the thermal paste and see what happens. My PS3 is far out of warranty and I already broke the warranty sticker so I doubt there is much Sony will do for me.


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## B's Mach

Just threw in Ironman 2 and it happened at about 3 minutes into it. I opened the cabinet and the cooling fans are moving a decent amount of air. I can hear the PS3 fan running at a speed that is definitely higher than idle, but not at full speed and hot air is coming out of the vents.


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## Ares

Normal fan speed is usually one step above idle under full load, if your PS3 going above than you have a cooling issue which could lead to YLOD. Thermal Paste change is the first thing I recommend after your warranty expires, Sony does a bad job of applying paste to the chips when I changed mine the amount of paste on one chip was enough to do a second one.


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## B's Mach

Thanks, this is a mystery and I'm not sure what's going on with my system. Like I said, my PS3 is way out of warranty so I'm not afraid to tear into it. Tore it down once already to clean all the dust out of it.

I've been searching a ton and found nothing similar to the problem I have. It seems that people only get the loading icon continuously and their movies or games will not load. 

Well, nothing is technically wrong with mine, it just had a load symbol flash for a split second a hand full of times throughout a widescreen movie. 

Going to order some thermal paste as recommended in the sticky. Looks like a strait forward deal in removing the old paste and applying new paste. What is the deal with the haze or haze primer though? You recommended this but it doesn't look like you used it in your write up.


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## Ares

The write-up is a guide that I found else where and added it here, my suggestion of adding a haze to the heatsink was from trial and error and a couple of tubes later. I think it may be time to redo the write-up and add that step and it's about that time for a full maintenance service to my PS3 so I will have to break out the camera......now where did I put it.

You can use AS5 or any other good quality thermal paste, AS5 is more of a preference thing for me.


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## B's Mach

I think I might have a lead on what might be going on. 
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/27441564?login=true&
This person had the same problem and turns out it was the portable HD. I'll unplug mine and report back if this fixes it.


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## Ares

Hmmm....Sounds like a possibility I have an extra external HDD lying around I give it a try to see if I can get it to do it.


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## Ares

Well I finally got the loading icon during playback it happened while the external HDD was hooked up, I never had it happen before now so it's logical to assume that the HDD is the cause.

[*Update*]

After further investigation I found out that if you have any files that are compatible with PS3 game saves,music,photos or videos saved on the external HDD for some strange reason the PS3 reads the HDD during playback I don't have answer as to why.


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## B's Mach

Well, disconnected the HDD and what do you know, went through a whole movie with no (zero) loading icon pop ups. It's crazy how that could cause that sort of problem. 

It makes sense because I use to take the portable HDD out because it had other stuff on it that I used for my laptop and desktop at work. Then, a month or so back I bought another HDD and left this one plugged in 24-7. Then, I started to have the icon issues. Well, at least the laser and the inside of my PS3 got a good cleaning from it. 

I'll still get the thermal paste and possibly and upgraded fan for the next time I have to take it apart. 

Cheers!


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## Ares

I'm glad it has worked out and now at least we have answer to this question and I can now say I learned something new today.

Peace and Happy Gaming 

Ares.


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## B's Mach

Off topic.

I installed a 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM HDD that I got at BestBuy for free (had a few gift cards laying around). I have read that a 7200 RPM HDD will cause more heat and all kinds of other things. One thing I noticed from those posts is that they were mostly from people who didn't have one installed so, go figure. Anyway, installed mine last week, and so far I have had zero problems with heat. That being said, I have no before and after measurements, just listening to the sound of the cooling fan. The fan has not run faster than normal while playing a game or watching a Blu-Ray. Also, I noticed slightly quicker loading speeds on GT5 when racetracks are loading. Killzone 3 load times are not as noticeably quicker than GT5, but I don't play that game as much as GT5 so I'm not that familiar with its load times. Both games are loaded to my HDD so that may play a part in the quicker speeds, but I'm no expert on it. Bottom line, if you are pinching your pennies, then get a 5400RPM drive. If you are wondering of any problems with a 7200 RPM drive, just get a name brand drive and have at it, no worries. Sorry for my less-than scientific review, just letting you all know my results of the HDD swap. Cheers!


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