Second hand PS3 advise please

hi all,

I have no experience with ps3 whatsoever, however in the past I have modded psx, ps2, xbox classic and gamecube units.

Thinking of getting a ps3 to hobby around with, I found this site, so hopefully I did not miss a "n00bs read this first" sign (otherwise please re-direct this question)

my question: Is getting a PS3 with broken blue-ray drive a good idea?

Noticably there are a lot of relatively cheap second hand PS3 units with broken blue-ray players being sold around here.

Myself not being the slightest bit interested in blue-ray (my TV is HD-ready and served well by a WD TV live), I am wondering if it is possible to mod a ps3 that has a broken blue-ray player if my only goal is to get it to boot from HDD.

I'm planning of doing some trial and error, and obviously reading up on things through this forum, but I thought i'd best ask here if it makes any sense, for all I know the media drive is essential to something prior to modding :)

Many thanks for responses and/or pointing me in the right direction.

bad idea dont do it.if its just the lens its fine. half the time it still wont work.

Find out what the problems are first...

If it doesn't read discs (the clock in the right hand corner will usually just constantly spin in this case), then you're ok. A laser is cheap to buy and easy to replace. If it's any other problem, then it might be a broken logic board.

Stay away from PS3's with broken logic boards! They're a nightmare to fix!

I suggest that, if you do get one with a broken drive, at least try to fix it. Otherwise people will assume you're downloading games when talking about PS3 titles and be very reluctant to help you should you have problems. I also find games work better if you leave a disc in the BD-Drive (I keep all my PS3 games on the HDD and leave one of my originals in the drive so I don't have to change discs when I want to change games).

hey thanks for the replies.

well, that was my thought too.. broken lens, easy rip and replace..
however reading up on all other possible issues, i'm actually looking forward to getting a broken unit with ylod issues or similar.. sound like a good challenge :)

now only to find a bargain, because I just don't agree with the pricing.. most broken units are being sold here locally for around 100 euro's... that just seems silly to pay that much for a broken machine ;)

YLOD can be fun to fix.

I've had 2 machines with it. One was a UK launch model which has been running fine for... approx 2 and a half months now! That's with hammering the crap out of it with games and movies too!

The other wasn't fixed after reflow, so I'm thinking either the chips are damaged beyond repair, or it needs a reball.

PS3's are certainly fun to tinker with. :)