What to do with PS3 with broken drive

We got a hold of a PS3 with firmware 2.55 but it has a broken bluray drive. It will not accept any discs. Not sure how to fix it or if it would even be worth it. I think a drive on ebay was $100.
If I update it to 3.55cfw will backups be able to be played on the HardDrive, or does it still need a working bluray drive? I realize the majority of games wont work without a disc, but is there a list of what does and doesnt work? Also, is there a special way to update the ps3 to make discless more compatible, or are all updates going to give the same result?

Thanks

I don't think homebrew would work either. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But you can update, but only with a cfw that bypasses bluray drive check. It'll probably be more convenient to get a new BD drive and remarry it.

Where I work we have a PS3 in the break room that has a broken disc drive, kinda just spits the disc out after its inserted.....Me being the clever guy I am, decided to jailbreak it and install 3.55-kmeaw....Now my buddies and I have had some serious co-op Dead Nation games...and some pretty hard core Tekken 5 tournaments as well...What I'm saying is that you could still run EMUs, PSN games (installed via .pkg), and there are some solid games that will run discless as well.

As far as disc-less compatability......I think this is what your looking for:
PS3 Backup Compatibility List - PSHomebrew

Cheers Buddy