There is a console somewhere in your house that stopped working. It is still there, and not because you stopped caring about it.
Why it is still in the cupboard
Sorting it out means an afternoon of forum threads written in 2013, working out whether it is the laser or the board or just the thermal paste, and then trusting a phone number you found on a classifieds site.
So it stays in the cupboard. Everyone I know who collects has at least one.
The idea here is straightforward: you hand it to one place, and it comes back working. Somebody has to be that place, and it may as well be somebody who would be genuinely upset to see it thrown away.
How it actually works
I do not do the electronics, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
The soldering is done by workshops who have been doing it for years and are better at it than I will ever be. What I do is the part that makes it bearable: you deal with one place, one price, one person who answers, and I deal with them.
That means if it goes wrong, it is my problem and not yours to chase.
What usually needs doing
- PS3 that will not start. The famous one. Sometimes fixable, sometimes genuinely not, and anyone who promises before opening it is guessing.
- Discs that will not read. Usually the laser or the gears. Very common, and usually a good outcome.
- Overheating and fan noise. Thermal paste and a clean. Cheap, quick, and it prevents the expensive faults above.
- Controller drift. High volume, low cost, easy win.
- Yellowed plastic. Cosmetic, popular, and easy to over-promise on, so we will tell you what is realistic before you send it.
- Recapping older hardware. Specialist work, and increasingly necessary as this generation ages.
What we will tell you before you post anything
- What it will probably cost, and where that is a diagnosis rather than a quote, we will say diagnosis.
- Whether it might not be fixable. Some consoles cannot be saved. Saying that up front costs a job and prevents an argument. Saying it afterwards costs the relationship.
- How long. A real number, not “soon”.
- What happens if it comes back worse. Rare, and it does happen, and it is on us.
Where this is up to
Not open yet, and I would rather say so than take your console and find out.
Before anyone else’s hardware comes through the door, my own broken things go out first, to the workshops I am considering. I want to see the work rather than read the quote. When one of them has earned it, this page will say who and what it costs.
If you have something dead and you want to be told when it opens, say so here and I will let you know. If it is urgent, I would rather point you somewhere good than have you wait for me.
The part that is open
Cleaning, case replacement and making a collection presentable is work I do myself, here, and that does not need anybody else’s bench.
If you have a shelf of games in poor cases, or a set you want made properly complete, that is a conversation I would enjoy having.