The Playstation 3 is somewhat of a reliable console, not as notorious as the Xbox 360's Red Ring Of Death. However, this isn't to say it's never had any problems. In fact, it even have its own equivalent of the RROD; the Yellow Light Of Death. Like the RROD, the YLOD represents a general hardware failure within the console and that functionality is impaired. For a PS3 YLOD fix, continue on.

Formatting The Hard Disk

The Playstation 3's hard disk has been known to cause the YLOD. This is down to it malfunctioning when carrying out certain actions, such as installing a game. Whatever the reason, if you believe it is the hard drive, then you can try this fix to get your PS3 going again. You'll need a pendrive, personal computer and some knowledge of both the PC and the PS3. This fix involves removing all data from the hard drive, so be aware that you will lose your saves and downloaded content.

Procure a pendrive for use at the end of the format, as the Playstation 3 will ask for the system software. You can download it from the official Sony knowledge base, where the links and downloads are available. Put it in a safe place until you're done with the first steps.

Remove the Playstation 3 hard disk and connect it to your available personal computer. Find 'My Computer' and select 'Manage' from the right click list. In the new window, an option for 'Disk Management' is available. Click on this and find the Playstation 3 hard disk. Right click on it and select a format. From here, a quick FAT32 or NTFS format will suffice. Once complete, reinsert the PS3 hard drive back into the console.

Reinsert the PS3 disk into the console and boot it up. It will ask for the system software (which you downloaded onto the pendrive). Plug it in and hope that your problems really did lie in the hard drive. While some YLOD errors are down to actual hardware breakage, some are simply malfunctions in the hardware, like this one.