PlayStation 3 won't start-up, even in safe mode

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

I've upgraded several PS3 and PS4 HDDs over the years for myself, friends, and work. However, this is the first time I've ran into actual trouble with the process.

I installed a new 1TB HDD into my PS3 and got it running with no problems. I started to redownload my games on to the system. All is hunky-dory so far. Then comes MGS4. It got stuck at 82% and the whole OS apparently crashed. So I force the PS3 to restart.

Upon restart, the background theme (with that lovely orchestra warm-up audio cue) loads fine as usual, but the warning about seizures doesn't show, and the XMB never loads. So I restart the system again. This time, nothing loads. Something has clearly gone wrong, so I decided it might be worth doing another fresh install in safe mode.

This is where things turn funky: Safe mode won't load. The TV registers a 480p signal, but nothing else. I tested the Analog Component Cables I had on hand (and yes, checked both TV Inputs), to no avail.

Murphy's law, a new OS update also came out last night during this process. So now, my new 1TB HDD that's inside is on v4.84, and my old 320 GB HDD is on v4.83.

I contacted Sony's support, I'm pretty much going to have to send it in for repairs. I figured I'd try my luck here first, see if anyone here has had a similar experience or any creative solutions to my problem. :/

Creation_Scapes · Feb 15, 2019

I think there is a button you can prick on the back of the DualShock (brings up menu with lots of options). I tried this once, look online for exact directions.

Aurongel · Feb 15, 2019

It's covered under warranty still? That's a shocker. I had exactly this happen to me after I restored the system to factory settings in a Hail Mary attempt to improve some system performance. It never came back up despite the TV picking up some kind of 480p signal.

Grouch Douglass · Feb 15, 2019

You might have to load system info on a flash drive and reformat the hard drive unfortunately.

edit: Nevermind, I guess you can't do that if you can't get to the safe mode menu.

rpm · Feb 15, 2019

Would the 320gb HDD not work if you put it back in? I didn't think that mattered, you'd just have to update that HDD. At the very least it should get you into safe mode?

Taker34 · Feb 15, 2019

Isn't there also another mode accessible by holding the eject and power button at the same time? You have to hold it until the third beep too I think. Alternatively try holding the eject & power button. While you do that, unplug the power chord, plug it back in... should work now?

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

Creation_Scapes said:
I think there is a button you can prick on the back of the DualShock (brings up menu with lots of options). I tried this once, look online for exact directions.

Thanks for the hint, I'll look it up.

Aurongel said:
It's covered under warranty still? That's a shocker. I had exactly this happen to me after I restored the system to factory settings in a Hail Mary attempt to improve some system performance. It never came back up despite the TV picking up some kind of 480p signal.

Good to know I'm not alone... I suppose? :S
It's unfortunately not covered anymore. $79.99 (cad) diagnostic fee to send off. Not the worst, but frustrating none the less.

rpm said:
Would the 320gb HDD not work if you put it back in? I didn't think that mattered, you'd just have to update that HDD. At the very least it should get you into safe mode?

It's my last shot at getting it to work I think. That being said, I recall a discussion about how stingy PS3 can be with loading HDDs on a mis-matched OS version. Regardless, Sony wants me to send the PS3 with the original HDD, so I'll give it a shot.

Taker34 said:
Isn't there also another mode accessible by holding the eject and power button at the same time? You have to hold it until the third beep too I think. Alternatively try holding the eject & power button. While you do that, unplug the power chord, plug it back in... should work now?

I'll try that out now.

EDIT: No luck I'm afraid. :( Ah well. Thank you to everyone who gave me a suggestion (I'm open to any other recommendations folk here have).

Link83 · Feb 15, 2019

Out of curiosity have you tried booting into safe mode without any hard drive inserted?

Deleted member 32374 · Feb 15, 2019

Can you blank out your HDD and allow your PS3 to format it in safe mode?

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

Link83 said:
Out of curiosity have you tried booting into safe mode without any hard drive inserted?

No, I haven't. I'll give that a go.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

Plot twist! I got distracted by a phone call for about 15m-30m, came back to find Safe Mode had somehow successfully booted up?? Attempting to restore the PS3 now. Here's hoping...

Link83 · Feb 15, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Plot twist! I got distracted by a phone call for about 15m-30m, came back to find Safe Mode had somehow successfully booted up?? Attempting to restore the PS3 now. Here's hoping...

Just a guess but it sounds like your PS3 is having trouble loading/accessing the 1TB drive, and might be repeatedly trying to access the disk before finally booting into safe mode. Perhaps the drive is failing, or the PS3 doesn't like this particular brand/model drive?

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

Another error popped up. I'm starting to think the HDD is the culprit here.

jkm23 said:
Can you blank out your HDD and allow your PS3 to format it in safe mode?

Gave it a shot out of curiosity: "Cannot start. The appropriate system storage was not found."

Link83 said:
Just a guess but it sounds like your PS3 is having trouble loading/accessing the 1TB drive, and might be repeatedly retrying to access the disk before finally booting into safe mode. Perhaps the drive is failing, or the PS3 doesn't like this particular brand/model drive?

Yep, I think Amazon might have sent me a dud drive. I'll try one last system restore before asking Amazon for a replacement drive.

hikarutilmitt · Feb 15, 2019

I know someone will come in and disagree with their own anecdotal evidence (I'm aware mine is too) but I had issues with a 1TB drive in my PS3 when I did it a long time ago. I've seen other people complain about it, too, as though 500GB is the biggest drive you should use in a PS3 without their being issues.

Most of us had boiled it down to the sector size being 4k, as most 1TB laptop drives use that as the default (due to size) and the PS3 eventually starts to corrupt the data. The 500GB I put in did not have this sector size and has been running perfectly for at least 3 times longer than the 1TB, and still going.

Syysch · Feb 15, 2019

hikarutilmitt said:
I know someone will come in and disagree with their own anecdotal evidence (I'm aware mine is too) but I had issues with a 1TB drive in my PS3 when I did it a long time ago. I've seen other people complain about it, too, as though 500GB is the biggest drive you should use in a PS3 without their being issues.

Most of us had boiled it down to the sector size being 4k, as most 1TB laptop drives use that as the default (due to size) and the PS3 eventually starts to corrupt the data. The 500GB I put in did not have this sector size and has been running perfectly for at least 3 times longer than the 1TB, and still going.

Yeah I've got 1tb drives in 2 ps3s and haven't run into issues, but maybe if that's the issue i just got lucky with manufacturers i went with. 1tb was literally the max the ps3 would recognize, though, as i started with a 2tb and got some error about the drive being incompatible.

Link83 · Feb 15, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Gave it a shot out of curiosity: "Cannot start. The appropriate system storage was not found."

Ah thats what I expected it would say, but I just wanted to narrow down if your issue was with the PS3 console or the hard drive since you mentioned safe mode wasn't even loading.

Annoying that Sony just happened to release a new system update so recently. I have never tried using an old drive 'registered' with an older firmware version than the current system firmware, does it display some sort of mismatch error?

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Yep, I think Amazon might have sent me a dud drive. I'll try one last system restore before asking Amazon for a replacement drive.

Yep almost definitely a dud drive. Out of curiosity what brand/model of drive was it? Hope you manage to get it sorted.

Deleted member 32374 · Feb 15, 2019

Maybe you can blank out your old HDD, then format that one and test your new hdd. Beats sending it back to sony for $80 bucks.

Have you been able to download the latest OS for the USB stick part of the process? I tried the link, didn't work, just in case something happens to my PS3 (I worry lol)

I only put in a 320 in my PS3, a bit concerning to hear that 1tb has had all of these issues.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

hikarutilmitt said:
I know someone will come in and disagree with their own anecdotal evidence (I'm aware mine is too) but I had issues with a 1TB drive in my PS3 when I did it a long time ago. I've seen other people complain about it, too, as though 500GB is the biggest drive you should use in a PS3 without their being issues.

Most of us had boiled it down to the sector size being 4k, as most 1TB laptop drives use that as the default (due to size) and the PS3 eventually starts to corrupt the data. The 500GB I put in did not have this sector size and has been running perfectly for at least 3 times longer than the 1TB, and still going.

That doesn't bode well. Seems stupid, but with how many issues I've had with PS3s over the years, it wouldn't surprise me if this was a thing. Either way, I'm back at square one, Safe Mode failing to load. I'm thinking I should return the HDD first, then send the PS3 off if I'm still running into issues.

It's days like today that make me miss the cartridge days of old. Insert "old man yelling at a cloud" joke here.

Link83 said:
Ah thats what I expected it would say, but I just wanted to narrow down if your issue was with the PS3 console or the hard drive since you mentioned safe mode wasn't even loading.

Annoying that Sony just happened to release a new system update so recently. I have never tried using an old drive 'registered' with an older firmware than the current/latest firmware, does it display some sort of mismatch error?

Yep almost definitely a dud drive. Out of curiosity what brand/model of drive was it? Hope you manage to get it sorted.

Seagate Barracuda. I actually meant to order the Firecuda (w/the small SSD cache) to match my PS4. Whoops. If it is a dud drive, it'll be my first ever d.o.a. HDD (not bad seeing how many I've ordered in my life lol).

Link83 · Feb 15, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Seagate Barracuda. I actually meant to order the Firecuda (w/the small SSD cache) to match my PS4. Whoops. If it is a dud drive, it'll be my first ever d.o.a. HDD (not bad seeing how many I've ordered in my life lol).

Purely anecdotal but i've not had the best luck with Seagate drives, and their drive reliability stats are not great:-
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive-q4-2014/
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/2018-hard-drive-failure-rates/
I have had much better luck with Hitachi/HGST drives, but as with all hard drives YMMV.

hikarutilmitt · Feb 15, 2019

Curiosity: when you're talking about Safe Mode not loading, you're doing the hold power for the third beep, then hold power for the double beep and it asks you to plug in a controller, right? If you're not even getting to that screen...

Alternatively, try putting the old drive back in anyway. The firmware mismatch wont matter in the long run as you'll just end up reformatting it.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

Link83 said:
Ah thats what I expected it would say, but I just wanted to narrow down if your issue was with the PS3 console or the hard drive since you mentioned safe mode wasn't even loading.

Annoying that Sony just happened to release a new system update so recently. I have never tried using an old drive 'registered' with an older firmware than the current/latest firmware, does it display some sort of mismatch error?

Yep almost definitely a dud drive. Out of curiosity what brand/model of drive was it? Hope you manage to get it sorted.

Seagate Barracuda. I actually meant to order the Firecuda (w/the small SSD cache) to match my PS4. Whoops.

Link83 said:
Purely anecdotal but i've not had the best luck with Seagate drives, and their drive reliabily stats are not good:-
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive-q4-2014/
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/2018-hard-drive-failure-rates/
I have had much better luck with Hitachi/HGST drives, but as with all hard drives YMMV.

Thanks for the suggestion. It's the unfortunate truth that they will all fail occasionally.

I plugged in the 320 GB HDD, the PS3 immediately threw a fuss about the mismatched OS version, but it was something. Decided to try the 1TB again for giggles and I managed to get the Safe Mode menu up, attempting to reformat the drive again. This time it's making a lot of progress, so here's hoping it was just the one time...(97%, almost there!)

hikarutilmitt said:
Curiosity: when you're talking about Safe Mode not loading, you're doing the hold power for the third beep, then hold power for the double beep and it asks you to plug in a controller, right? If you're not even getting to that screen...

Alternatively, try putting the old drive back in anyway. The firmware mismatch wont matter in the long run as you'll just end up reformatting it.

That is correct yeah. :x

I've now actually managed to get the Safe-mode / error screen by turning the PS3 on normally. I'm attempting to reformat the 1TB HDD again. If it fails, I suppose I'll see if the 320GB HDD will work with a fresh install.

Even if I do manage to get this 1TB HDD running, it does make me worry a little for the health of my overall system.

Link83 · Feb 15, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Seagate Barracuda. I actually meant to order the Firecuda (w/the small SSD cache) to match my PS4. Whoops.

Note that Eurogamer tested a Seagate hybrid drive on a PS3 some years ago and concluded:-

Eurogamer said:
It's actually surprising just how well the base-level 5400rpm drives perform, or rather, how poorly the SSDs and 7200rpm drives compare bearing in mind the gulf in performance when you stick the same kit into a laptop or desktop PC. It strongly suggests that the PS3 itself is throttling data transfer throughput, with only the faster seek times having any kind of impact on the results.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ps3-hard-drive-upgrade-guide?page=3
So i'm not sure its worthwhile buying a hard drive with an SSD cache for use with a PS3.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 15, 2019

Link83 said:
Note that Eurogamer tested a Seagate hybrid drive on a PS3 some years ago and concluded:-

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ps3-hard-drive-upgrade-guide?page=3
So i'm not sure its worthwhile buying a hard drive with an SSD cache for use with a PS3.

Pretty much why didn't bother correcting my mistake. That and I think they're quite a bit more expensive at the moment.

hikarutilmitt · Feb 15, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Seagate Barracuda. I actually meant to order the Firecuda (w/the small SSD cache) to match my PS4. Whoops.

Thanks for the suggestion. It's the unfortunate truth that they will all fail occasionally.

I plugged in the 320 GB HDD, the PS3 immediately threw a fuss about the mismatched OS version, but it was something. Decided to try the 1TB again for giggles and I managed to get the Safe Mode menu up, attempting to reformat the drive again. This time it's making a lot of progress, so here's hoping it was just the one time...(97%, almost there!)

That is correct yeah. :x

I've now actually managed to get the Safe-mode / error screen by turning the PS3 on normally. I'm attempting to reformat the 1TB HDD again. If it fails, I suppose I'll see if the 320GB HDD will work with a fresh install.

Even if I do manage to get this 1TB HDD running, it does make me worry a little for the health of my overall system.

That the old drive prompted you for reformatting right away tells you everything, actually. Safe mode files are actually stored on the system storage, so if there's a drive present it will always look there for them. I would highly recommend either swapping back to the 320GB or find a 500GB drive that doesn't use 4k sectors (or sometimes referred to as "advanced format") and swap that in. The OS was never designed to support that and causes all kinds of hell.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 16, 2019

hikarutilmitt said:
That the old drive prompted you for reformatting right away tells you everything, actually. Safe mode files are actually stored on the system storage, so if there's a drive present it will always look there for them. I would highly recommend either swapping back to the 320GB or find a 500GB drive that doesn't use 4k sectors (or sometimes referred to as "advanced format") and swap that in. The OS was never designed to support that and causes all kinds of hell.

So I realize SSDs are incredibly overkill for the PS3 due to the bus speed bottleneck. However, ordering a non-4k sector HDD seems to be somewhat challenging these days, unless I'm mistaking the specs of the 500GB HDDs currently available on the market. So this goes back to using a SSD, as that doesn't have sectors correct? My only concern with an SSD is the garbage collection, but I believe most SSDs have an onboard solution now. I'm wondering what my best options are in the long run. I've got about a week to return the 1TB HDD I currently have.

hikarutilmitt · Feb 16, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
So I realize SSDs are incredibly overkill for the PS3 due to the bus speed bottleneck. However, ordering a non-4k sector HDD seems to be somewhat challenging these days, unless I'm mistaking the specs of the 500GB HDDs currently available on the market. So this goes back to using a SSD, as that doesn't have sectors correct? My only concern with an SSD is the garbage collection, but I believe most SSDs have an onboard solution now. I'm wondering what my best options are in the long run. I've got about a week to return the 1TB HDD I currently have.

Most SSDs will default to 4k but should support being changed to 512 via the firmware. I know Intel drives can do this but you should be able to do it with WD SSDs as well, last I heard. Modern SSD also do onboard GC now, though, yes.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 16, 2019

hikarutilmitt said:
Most SSDs will default to 4k but should support being changed to 512 via the firmware. I know Intel drives can do this but you should be able to do it with WD SSDs as well, last I heard. Modern SSD also do onboard GC now, though, yes.

Ah, so sectors do apply to them too. I should have done my research. Thank you to all your responses (same goes for everyone else). I'll do a little more digging in my research.

hikarutilmitt · Feb 16, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Ah, so sectors do apply to them too. I should have done my research. Thank you to all your responses (same goes for everyone else). I'll do a little more digging in my research.

It applies to all drives because it's the actual blocks that data are written to. The reason 4k became a thing is because data sizes have been increasing and its more efficient to write to larger blocks. The problem, of course, is that the OS has to support it. So in a way, the ps3 is writing 512B blocks to 4kB sized sectors and fragmenting the hell out of things. The drive then tries to report the actual used size of a given sector and data is written to that sector again by something else and things get corrupted over time. I've seen this happen to old servers getting new drives put in.

Link83 · Feb 17, 2019

hikarutilmitt said:
I would highly recommend either swapping back to the 320GB or find a 500GB drive that doesn't use 4k sectors (or sometimes referred to as "advanced format") and swap that in. The OS was never designed to support that and causes all kinds of hell.

I'm not sure where this information comes from(?) but I dont think its correct. In fact the last PS3 SuperSlim models came with 500GB "Advanced Format" drives installed from the factory. For example notice the "AF" logo on the stock 500GB drive in the last picture from this article:-
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-to-change-the-new-super-slim-ps3-hard-drive/1100-6396942/
In addition its extremely difficult to find any non-advanced format drives nowadays, as they haven't been manufactured since around 2010.
I recall reading that some drives had too aggressive head parking/idling which could cause issues with stuttering etc, but thats a completely separate issue.

hikarutilmitt · Feb 17, 2019

Link83 said:
I'm not sure where this information comes from(?) but I dont think its correct. In fact the last PS3 SuperSlim models came with 500GB "Advanced Format" drives installed from the factory. For example notice the "AF" logo on the stock 500GB drive in the last picture from this article:-
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-to-change-the-new-super-slim-ps3-hard-drive/1100-6396942/
In addition its extremely difficult to find any non-advanced format drives nowadays, as they haven't been manufactured since around 2010.
I recall reading that some drives had too aggressive head parking/idling which could cause issues with stuttering etc, but thats a completely separate issue.

I am interested in this happening, because all evidence gather from most of us that have had issues with AF drives in the past points to the contrary. Unless being able to use an AF drive is somehow unique to the Super Slims (which shouldn't be the case, unless there are hooks in the OS specifically for the Super Slim models) AF drives are generally discouraged.

One thing I see with HDD upgrade articles for the PS3 is when they specifically say AF drives are fine when there is a lot of evidence that they are not. The issues with them won't spring up right away, it takes time or just installing a lot of content to them.

Quickish EDIT: I actually did a quick check on the drive Gamespot had (the Z5k500) and the technical specs show AF, with 512B emulation. this might actually be a good workaround for the issue and worth checking into.

Even more EDIT: looking like the 7k1000 here on Newegg also is a 4k sector with 512B emulation. Maybe OP can try this out, if possible: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?reviews=all&Item=N82E16822145881

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 18, 2019

Figured I'd share my latest results incase anyone was interested. I reinstalled my old HDD (which turns out is only 120GB :/). I had to update the drive to 4.84, but shockingly my data was retained just fine! At least I don't have to redownload all those games.

I assume 4K Sector drives should be avoided for external solutions too? Otherwise, I might just go with a compact USB Drive as memory expansion, similar to how I have my Wii U setup. I realize the long-term reliability of a flash drive can be questionable at best, so a backup of everything would be a good idea.

Komo · Feb 18, 2019

PyroPaperPlanes said:
Figured I'd share my latest results incase anyone was interested. I reinstalled my old HDD (which turns out is only 120GB :/). I had to update the drive to 4.84, but shockingly my data was retained just fine! At least I don't have to redownload all those games.

I assume 4K Sector drives should be avoided for external solutions too? Otherwise, I might just go with a compact USB Drive as memory expansion, similar to how I have my Wii U setup. I realize the long-term reliability of a flash drive can be questionable at best, so a backup of everything would be a good idea.

Those small usb's are pretty bad in terms of stability. WD Blue or WD Blacks should be fine?

GarthLordOfTheSith · Feb 18, 2019

hikarutilmitt said:
I know someone will come in and disagree with their own anecdotal evidence (I'm aware mine is too) but I had issues with a 1TB drive in my PS3 when I did it a long time ago. I've seen other people complain about it, too, as though 500GB is the biggest drive you should use in a PS3 without their being issues.

Most of us had boiled it down to the sector size being 4k, as most 1TB laptop drives use that as the default (due to size) and the PS3 eventually starts to corrupt the data. The 500GB I put in did not have this sector size and has been running perfectly for at least 3 times longer than the 1TB, and still going.

I'll say this: the 1TB I installed in my launch 60 back in 2011 is still going strong *knock on wood*.

But that's interesting and never knew 1TB drives have people trouble.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 18, 2019

So I just remembered: PlayStation 3 doesn't support playing games on an external device, it only allows you to backup your games.

I've cancelled my USB order as that's a bust. I'll simply have to find a 512 byte sector 2.5" hdd then (for Canada). Wish me luck!

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 18, 2019

IFixIt.com recommended this drive for PlayStation 3 HDDs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001R4BBLU/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_pre_ship_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It was only available via Amazon.com vs. Amazon.ca, and it was rather hefty for the spec downgrade - $80 cad vs. $70 I spent on the 1TB HDD. Still, it'll be nice to know that the PS3 will operate as intended. I also debated about buying a used 500 GB PS3, but they started at $190.

For folk who are contemplating upgrading/replacing their own PlayStation 3 HDD, I recommend doing it sooner rather than later from this personal experience.

Deleted member 7948 · Feb 18, 2019

I've used a 1TB HDD in my PS3 for years without problem, a Seagate Samsung ST1000LM024.

Then I swapped it for a small SSD because it makes a big difference when playing Gran Turismo.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ssd-halves-gt5-loading-times

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 18, 2019

Mohasus said:
I've used a 1TB HDD in my PS3 for years without problem, a Seagate Samsung ST1000LM024.

Then I swapped it for a small SSD because it makes a big difference when playing Gran Turismo.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ssd-halves-gt5-loading-times

...Bah this does not help me make decisions lol. I wonder if I could get away with a 500GB SSD. I've already ordered the HDD, but I can still cancel/return it. How long have you had your SSD in there? How about anyone else here?

Deleted member 7948 · Feb 18, 2019

Not that long, a year maybe.
But GT is the only case that I know that a SSD makes a noticeable improvement.

PyroPaperPlanes · Feb 19, 2019

Mohasus said:
Not that long, a year maybe.
But GT is the only case that I know that a SSD makes a noticeable improvement.

Hmm. I wish there were more long-term PS3 reports in regards to reliability. Unfortunately, most articles and posts on the web seem to focus on the PS4.

I wonder, does Digital Foundry still have the same SSD used in their 2012 article for their PS3? I wonder how it's holding up. Potentially, the DF team have transfered a lot of data on it for the various games they've tested. Then again, their SSD testing might have been limited to that one article.

PlayStation 3 won't start-up, even in safe mode

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