Power and eject buttons: hidden uses

Here are some additional “hidden” uses of the PS3’s Power and Eject buttons.

Force a shutdown

Press and hold the Power button on the front of the PS3 for about 10 seconds to force the system to shutdown (safely).

Use this method if your PS3 freezes/crashes. Do not flick the power switch on the back of the unit to shutdown because it could potentially corrupt your files.

Force disk eject

Press and hold down the Eject button on the front of the PS3 for about 10 seconds to force the system’s drive to eject.

Useful for example if you try to launch a PS2 game and it freezes. You should be able to force eject the disc and then force shutdown the system.

Reset video settings

With your PS3 turned off, press and hold the Power button on the front of the PS3 for about 10 seconds (the system will beep as normal as it starts up but after 7-10 seconds it will beep again). The video settings should now be reverted. Doing this will also reset any theme settings.

I use this method to revert from HDMI 1080p to Composite 576p, without having to swap cables and change settings.

Comments

Paul • July 4th, 2008 at 6:25 am
There is one more. Turn off your PS3 entirely. Then, flip the backswitch and Eject button at the same time. The cooling fans will start to blow at max capacity to blow out all the interior dust. This only works with 40GB models

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- Ronai • March 21st, 2009 at 5:01 am
  This also works on the drake bundle(160gb)
  
  Reply
- none • June 8th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
  Seems to work on the 80Gb version too
  
  Reply
- no one • July 31st, 2009 at 4:01 am
  That could potentially burn out your PS3’s graphic card and it works on 60 GB models to I’ve tried it ONCE!
  
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edepot • September 24th, 2008 at 8:22 am
More secrets about PS3 are at http://www.edepot.com/playstation3.html

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grad2008 • November 2nd, 2008 at 12:22 am
has anyone tried to do what paul says?

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skillz • December 11th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
what paul says is true but dont do it…it damages ur ps3 vid card …i ran into a prob after i did it…,i couldnt use the a/v cables anymore for some reason…only hdmi

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Jordan829 • December 15th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
DO NOT do what paul says !!!!
I have even asked sony, it can potentially damage your Ps3’s graphics card

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barry • March 18th, 2009 at 6:52 am
your only surging a current to the fan. you can potentially fuse your ps3

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DERRICK • July 21st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
That method who Paul posted doent work. Thats the fastes way to broke ur ps3. It will damage ur video card, and burn ur ps3 to the YLOD stage. What a useless post Paul.

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Divaldo • August 1st, 2009 at 8:02 am
My PS3 died today (red light and 3 beeps within a second of powering it on). It died with a disk stuck inside it. I phoned Sony and they got me to do what Paul suggested. It did indeed make the fan blow at maximum, but it also (thankfully!) forced the system to eject my disk.

Now i just have to send my dead PS3 away and hope they decide to fix/replace it despite it being a month out of warranty…

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- eidolon1138 • December 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 am
  Hey, I have the same problem, can you tell me exactly what you did to get the disk out? Does it have something to do with attempting the eject while the fan is in hurricane mode?
  
  Thanks!
  
  Reply
Gaby • August 7th, 2009 at 11:09 am
My PS3 died a month ago, its a 60GB and it has the yellow light, i have a game disc inside and i cant get it out can somone help me???

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Divaldo • August 18th, 2009 at 4:14 am
That’s exactly what happened to me Gaby. See my post above…

It has since been replaced by the lovely people at Sony, even though it was out of warranty.

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thomas baldwin • January 18th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
my ps3 got the yellow light of death , but my modern warfare 2 was stuck in it does anyone know how i could get it out without smashing the ps3 ???

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PS3 Explained