PS3 Gets Caught Up In Its Own Watchdog Scandal News

Reports of the PlayStation3 having its own 'RRoD' problem have begun to intensify in recent weeks.  The imaginatively dubbed "Yellow Light of Death" effectively brings the PS3 to a standstill upon booting up. However, like the Xbox 360 before it, Watchdog has come to the aid of PS3 owners disgruntled by those consoles that have failed outside of the one-year warranty.

Following the BBC's Watchdog investigation into the Xbox 360 last year, it appears the consumer protection show has sunk its teeth into Sony with the PS3 and its problems appearing on last night's show.  Watchdog maintains that the issue is centred on "trapped gas" in the circuit board, which Sony has denied.

Watchdog maintains that the issue is an inherent problem with the design of the system after receiving 155 complaints.  The show set up a van camped outside of SCEE's London office in August, dubbed the 'Playstation Repair Action Team', and set to repairing fault units.  The 30 minute technique involved cleaning the device and heating the circuit boards, which suggests very similar symptoms to those that plagued the Xbox 360.  Out of 11 machines fixed back in August during the stunt, four units reported a returning fault shortly after being "fixed", which indicates that the solution is only a quick-fix remedy.

In a statement to Watchdog, Sony maintains that the issue isn't an inherent defect and claims that only 12,500 cases of the 2.5 million units sold in the UK have been reported - an alleged defect rate of 0.5%.

If you fancy checking the Watchdog show, you can catch it on the BBC's iPlayer.  Let us know if you've suffered from the problem; we'd like to hear from you in the comments section below...

Image corutesy of BBC.