As consoles have increased in power and capabilities over the years, so has the amount of heat they generate, the amount of air they circulate and the amount of dust they attract. This has lead to numerous overheating issues, drops in performance and an entire slew of ‘console cooler’ products to pop up. The PS3 is no exception and maintaining it involves getting rid of the dust that collects on the inside to avoid overheating.

The problem is, how do you clean the inside of your PS3 without ripping it open?

Doing so could potentially void your warranty if you tamper with particular parts, even if it’s just to clean them. That’s the last thing you need if your PS3 is actually having heat issues and ends up dying because of it.

Most gamers don’t realize it but Sony was nice enough to include a self-cleaning feature within every PS3 beyond the 40gb model (which is just about all of them.) Here’s a needlessly detailed tutorial on how to do it!
Read it with Alan Rickman’s voice for the best results.

1. Make sure your PS3 is plugged in and functioning normally

You need to power up the unit to make this work so do this where ever you normally use your PS3; unless that location for some reason happens to be where there are no power outlets and you use your PS3 as a paperweight; in which case you need not read this tutorial.

2. Make sure the power switch on the PS3 is off

The unit needs to be fully powered down, not just in standby. If it refuses to turn off, threaten it with bodily harm.

3. Turn on the power switch while holding down the Eject button

The system should fire up and you should hear all the system fans come on at once.

4. Wait for the system to return to “Standby” mode

If you did this correctly the unit will blow out all the fans for about 10 seconds before going into standby mode. It helps if you have a vacuum cleaner hose running nearby to suck up any dust that is expelled to avoid it being circulated back in the machine. Do not use a vacuum cleaner on your PS3 directly.

Once you’ve done this your PS3 should (in theory) be fairly dust free on the inside. You can do this as many times as you want if you are a neat freak.

So does this work? Well it isn’t guaranteed to but it’s worth a shot and it will at least get rid of any loose dust.

Then again, PS3s are cheaper than ever and tearing stuff apart is fun. So just do that and use some good old fashioned canned air. Forget I said anything.

Jesse Leigh (199 Posts)

If you want a GOTY award, it's as simple as parkour + augments + Turok style dinosaur hunting.

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