Tag Archives: watchdog

The BBC has published a page on Watchdog’s website responding to a letter issued by SCE UK boss Ray Maguire yesterday on the subject of YLOD.

“Sony dislikes the term ‘the yellow light of death’, since it implies a single fault is afflicting all consoles,” said the corporation.

“It says the flashing yellow light is a ‘non-specific fault indicator that can be triggered in a range of different circumstances.’ Sony adds that the yellow light could indicate a problem caused by ‘any one of a range of issues that may inevitably affect any complex item of consumer electronics’.

“So if there isn’t one single thing that’s causing thousands of machines to stop working, why does it appear that one single repair appears to get them working again?”

Watchdog made a frankly laughable effort at highlighting the issue in a show last night. It claims more than 150 viewers have been in touch about the problem, which appears to largely affect the 60Gb launch machine.

Maguire said yesterday that “fewer than one half of one percent of units have been reported as failing in circumstances where the yellow indicator is illuminated.” To date, around 2.5 million PS3s have been sold in the UK.

Thanks, rrod360lol.

Watchdog’s PS3 repair segment last night didn’t work, in a nutshell.

The program centred on the “thousands upon thousands” of UK PS3s that have shown the YLOD and have to be fixed outside of warrantee for a charge.

The show establishing a repair team outside Sony’s UK HQ earlier this month, complete with branded van, and filmed 11 users getting their consoles repaired for free: it admitted four of those consoles repaired by “experts” were no longer working.

The report claimed PS3 costs “£400″ and with repair will total “£528″.

Also included in the segment was an x-ray of the PlayStation 3 showing “trapped gas”, although no explanation of this was offered.

SCEE strongly refuted the show’s content yesterday.

There’s a lot more on GamesIndustry.

SCE UK boss Ray Maguire has expressed “serious concerns” about a Watchdog program airing tonight in the UK, which takes on PS3 hardware failures.

“From [our] correspondence to date, I have serious concerns as to the accuracy of these allegations and the likely tone of the Watchdog report,” said Maguire in a six-page letter you can read in full on GI.

“The information that you have provided suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the technical issues and a mis-characterisation of SCEUK’s OOW repairs policy.”

Maguire added: “We entirely refute the suggestion that PS3 consoles have an inherent defect or other design issue which is akin to any warranty issue experienced by another console manufacturer.

“SCEUK has sold 2.5 million consoles in the UK since March 2007 and stands by the quality of its products. Clearly the allegations you propose to air in your program might have the potential to adversely effect Sony Computer Entertainment’s reputation for supplying high quality products and customer service and we take very seriously any issues that can impact the public’s or our customers’ confidence in those products.”

This is going to be awesome. Have a read of the letter, then watch Watchdog at 8.00pm BST on BBC 1 tonight.