Brand New 320 GB PS3 Slim Crashes to Black Screen During Gameplay

nickv2002 · ‎11-15-2008

I have a brand new 320 GB PlayStation 3 Slim (the one with the Move bundle that just came out a few weeks ago) running the latest firmware (3.50). But I'm having one consistent problem: I can only play games for 20 minutes or so before the video drops out and the screen goes black. At this point I have power the system off with the power button on the front and leave the system off for 15-30 minutes before I can get video again; if I turn it back on right away I get no signal at all (not even a black screen) even though the power lights indicate the system is on.

The PS3 is hooked up to an Onkyo receiver via HDMI and that sends an HDMI video signal to the TV. When the video drops to black, the audio still plays through the receiver. When this black screen is happening, I can switch to my XBox 360, which is plugged in to the receiver the same way, and I get audio and video just fine. I've tried swapping the HDMI cables in various around as well as changing what ports they go to on the receiver but nothing I've tried fixes it. It's done while playing several different games as well.

This is actually my second PS3 system in 2 weeks; I sent the first 320 GB system back for doing the exact same thing, except it would only last 10 minutes or so before I lost video. It seems like this could be a heat issue; because the back of the PS3 is quite warm but I don't hear any increased fan noise and it's not unseasonably warm where the system is located.

Any other suggestions for things I could try to fix the problem? Or have I simply received 2 lemon units in a row?

Thanks!

PHANTOM_4D · ‎10-07-2008

hmmm could it maybe be your onyko reciever hdmi port going bad??? maybe it could be the reciever is going bad and not the new ps3 that is a defect.

Get your Portable ID!

nickv2002 · ‎11-15-2008

PHANTOM_4D wrote:
hmmm could it maybe be your onyko reciever hdmi port going bad??? maybe it could be the reciever is going bad and not the new ps3 that is a defect.

I had that thought but then why does the Xbox always work? I even switched the ports the PS3 and XBox were connected to on the receiver to no effect. Thanks for the suggestion though!

fq-340 · ‎10-07-2010

i've got the same issue and found this post after googlizing it...

my ps3 40gb - no issue my ps3 320gb keeps dropping out like crazy... haven't tried another cable oweing to the first ps3 working fine... getting frustrated now !!!

Thorn-2010 · ‎09-17-2010

Not sure if this will help, but I had a very similar issue on my Onkyo Amp, I kept on losing picture but it would come and go, when it did happen the screen would black out then I would get the familar 720P appear on my TV showing that it had lost signal again from the PS3. To fix this (and I spent ages doing all the things you did) I plugged the PS3 HDMI cable directly into one of my 52 inch Sony Bravia LCD Screen's HDMI ports and to get sound from my AMP instead of having to use my crappy TV speakers I simply ran an Optical cable from my TV back to my Onkyo receiver and then (and this is important) selected Multiple Output in the Sound section of my PS3 Options Menu AND selected Optical as the sound source output. This told my PS3 to use the sound from the Optical cable and use the Amp.

Not sure why this happened, like you everything else seems to working properly plugged directly into the HDMI ports in the back of the Reciever but for some reason the PS3 has issues with it or the other way around! I have a Blueray player (didn't want to wear the laser out in the PS3 watching movies all the time!) and my Cable TV plugged into 2 of 5 HDMI ports in the back of my Onkyo Amp and neither has had any blacking out issues.

Changing PS3's won't fix your problem it is at the Onky Receivers end, hope this helps!

kneehighspy · ‎11-13-2002

sounds like the ps3 has some hdmi signaling issues with your receiver. if you plug your ps3 directly into your tv, does it work fine then? the newer slim models have been known to have some hdmi sync issues when used with certain receivers. you may wish to see if there is a firmware update for your receiver.

Wii Friend Code: 7656 9105 3996 0118

LivingMetal · ‎02-03-2001

Maybe it's a 320GB PS3 issue.

Get your Portable ID!

pudge76 · ‎10-02-2010

I have an onkyo receiver and have had this problem before. If you have a newer receiver it upgrades the signal or at least tries to you have to go under settings on the receiver and go to hardware setup then hdmi under there there should be options for 480p 720i 720p 1080i 1080p or through you have to pick the through so it just lets the signal go through the receiver to the TV instead of trying to take a game that is meant for 720p and upscalling it. I had this problem when I first got my receiver and 65" dlp the system would start up and I could hear audio and the picture would flicker and go to a black screen on white then would go to blue as if no signal was found after calling onkyo they told me this was the problem.

Thorn-2010 · ‎09-17-2010

pudge76 wrote:
I have an onkyo receiver and have had this problem before. If you have a newer receiver it upgrades the signal or at least tries to you have to go under settings on the receiver and go to hardware setup then hdmi under there there should be options for 480p 720i 720p 1080i 1080p or through you have to pick the through so it just lets the signal go through the receiver to the TV instead of trying to take a game that is meant for 720p and upscalling it. I had this problem when I first got my receiver and 65" dlp the system would start up and I could hear audio and the picture would flicker and go to a black screen on white then would go to blue as if no signal was found after calling onkyo they told me this was the problem.

Guess that explains why my picture kept on cutting out, to fix it I just did what I said in my above reply, my Onkyo Amp is a couple of years old and the only option I had was to select HDMI as the output, there was no option for selecting which resolution However the Amp would go ahead and try to upscale anyhow, the problem is I don't think it understood 720P for some reason or like you mentioned it was trying to upscale it every time because everything that ran in 1080i or 1080p would work just fine, games, DVD's, Blu-Rays you name it. However anything that ran in 720p (Most PS3 games!) whalla the blacking out issue would return! Not sure how I stop it on my Model Amp, but at any rate I figured out a workaround!

Thanks for that info it makes sense!

pudge76 · ‎10-02-2010

glad to help out. mine is also a few years old i have the tx-706. the menus on mine are setup-go down to hardware-then hdmi-then you have the options of setting the display.