As you may recall, I’ve added a new member to my Playstation family, which now consists of a PS3, PSP Go, and a Vita. They each fill a certain role. The PSP Go has become my means of playing PSP games on my television, while my Vita has taken the reigns as the superior portable device.
But the MVP at the center of this entertainment trio is without a doubt my Playstation 3. I spend the most time with it and it facilitates interaction among the other devices. I consider it to be like the old bearded man in prison — cut from years of solitary exercise. He’s the one who has been around the longest, showing new guys the ropes and at times acting as a mediator. Without him, well there would be chaos.
Reflecting on all this made me realize that the old man isn’t going to be around forever, and I want to do what I can to keep him fighting fit until the end. Luckily a friend of mine is quite gifted at understanding the physical workings of machines. He’s also got an underlying case of OCD which means when he sets his mind to most things he strives for perfection. I asked him to crack open my grizzled PS3 and clean out four + years of dust. To my surprise, the old man was in pretty good shape:
If you’re interested in the process, there are tons of videos on the subject. The only real obstacle, however, is acquiring a particular security bit necessary for opening up the beast. My friend was able to locate a relatively inexpensive bit set at Sears containing the required bit. You can find it on their site here for $7.99. You may also notice that the thermal adhesive on the CPU looked a bit dried out, so my friend applied a new layer of Arctic Silver to that and the heat sink.
The old man still runs hot and loud, but at least I know he’s in the best shape he’s been in for years. While it wasn’t easy being without my MVP while he was being tuned-up, it’s invaluable having this peace of mind, especially now that the hot days of Summer are here.
