I have been playing the fairly new Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim game for Playstation 3 since about a week after its release. Although the game is great, it still has several bugs that have been yet to be worked out. It's not unlikely that my PS3 will freeze or even shut off completely while playing this game.
I went to Google and did some research on if this was damaging my PS and what I could do to prolong it's life in general. To my disappointment I found very few definitive answers on the subject. Sony is even very little help. But I did find a few common things to do. First I am assuming a couple of things. One is that you have not removed the enclosure (the case) of your Playstation. And the second, is that I own a Playstation 3 slim model and that since I do not have the older version, I don't know where the ports are, but it should be similar. Common sense goes a long way!
1. To prolong your Playstation's life the very first and most critical thing you can do is place it in an open and well ventilated area. This means it cannot be placed in a small cubby hole in your entertainment center. I know this really quite frankly sucks, because it is a pretty good looking unit and was aesthetically made to fit in with other devices in your entertainment center. At least 1 foot in all directions should be open for the PS to breath.
Along with that, if you have any other devices that run hot that the PS may be sucking in air from, move either your PS or the other device.
This next thing is totally from my own thought patterns and I have nothing to back this up, but I believe that raising the PS a bit using whatever means would only help airflow from the 2 ports on the bottom side of the curved body. With a quick look, you will notice there is no vents on the squared off "base" of the PS unit. A book, or in my case 4 rubber pad lift my Playstation just a bit, adding a about an 3/4 of an inch more clearance for the vents to suck in air. The PS units can get pretty hot, so use some common sense on what you put under it.
2. Next is cleaning. I have read that some vacuum the ports. Some use canned duster to spray into the ports as you would computer. The only problem I see with spraying into the device, is most of that debris and dust is just going to fly all over the inside of the unit and unless you have taken the enclosure off (which would void your warranty by the way), then most of that junk is going to stay inside the unit. I think a little of both is the best route.
Any vacuum with a hose attachment should do just fine. I spray into the ports using a can of Fellowes brand Duster and the proceed to quickly get the vacuum onto the ports to try to suck out all the floating garbage.
3. What I know from reading is that the "Intercoolers" for both PS3 and XBOX actually cause more damage than they prevent. Although I am not exactly sure why. You would think cooler air being blown into the device would help air flow, but again from what I've read, this isn't the case. So no intercoolers. I do however have a small fan (think computer case small) blowing in from the back of my entertainment center. This promotes good air flow in the space around my PS3. I let the unit itself handle its intake and exhaust.
CD/DVD lens cleaners is another route that I have read bad things about. The little discs with the brushes on the bottom to "gently" sweep away the dirt from the lens, can actually just scratch the lens. Good idea, but it doesn't work.
I know this is mostly just more of the same, but I really wanted another place that people could go to get this information. I hope it helps someone out there get another year or so of enjoyment from their Playstation. Until next time!
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