My PS3 just started receiving this error message...

"An error occurred during the start operation (80010514)"

I have been looking around on the Internet and it seems that a lot of people are experiencing this problem.

Any of you who owned a full-size PS2 will feel for me here. Remember the problem where the lens drops on the drive? Well, it seems to be very similar and Sony are offering the very same courier service where they will come to the door, pick up the PS3 and replace it free of charge, The catch with that with the original PS2 was they would only offer this service up to 3 times and told us that there was only a very small chance of this type of thing happening again... anyway, we used up all 3 of those chances and the problem happened again a final time so we were left with a pile of scrap in the living room doing nothing, with no other options available.

I am going to have to replace the PS3 just 2 days after linking it up to a new 1080p television. Talk about completely gutting or what.

I will call Sony and tell them that I expect a courier service and want their guarantee that this problem will not happen again. I know it's all very well saying that no electronic equipment can be 100% reliable all the time - but if there is a known issue, the customer should know about it.

If the problem happens for a second time then I will just get an Xbox 360 (and suffer from the what seems to be more common than 80010514 error - red ring of death). I'm sure that the alarm bells will start ringing in the Sony customer service centre as soon as there is any mention of Xbox 360 or Wii.

Shame this happened... PS3 is the best console out there by far as it plays Blu-ray out of the box and at a very good price. I hope this isn't a repeat performance of the PS2 lens drop error.

Heh, it's strange that MS seem to offer better customer service with the 360s - they have a huge warranty on them and will always replace RROD consoles, as many times as necessary, though I'm not sure what kind of courier service they offer.

Hopefully Sony will fix this problem at the manufacturing plant.

I have called Sony on their Playstation support number.

The guy I spoke to was really helpful.

I have been asked to format the hard drive and try again, as it may just be the Blu-ray disc reading software that is playing up, and I need to reset the system back to factory settings to confirm if it is a hardware problem (or not).

If I am still getting the same problem, the guy offered for the DPD courier service to come out and collect the faulty PS3 with a working PS3 - I'll swap them over at the door with the courier. Not a bad service in my opinion. They said that I can get this service on Friday this week if I call in tomorrow and the problem still exists.

I will be bringing the PS3 in to work tomorrow to back up my data and format the hard drive.

That sounds like good news. Hopefully it will just be a software fault.

Well, I have backed up the data, formatted the system, and tried again and I still got the same problems. I reported it to Sony again and they have offered me an instant next-day replacement! So that means I will be receiving my new PS3 tomorrow. They were able to collect and deliver at my work address instead of my home address, also, and they took my mobile number as my primary contact method... I really think that this is amazing service.

Good news! Hopefully it won't happen again, so you can continue to enjoy HD goodness!

Yeah I hope it doesn't happen again..

My parents are going to love Casino Royale!

Yeah, it's an awesome film!

I did a bit of googling on this code, the general opinion is this is the "code of death", similar to a very popular red ring

The sort of thing you get after a vindaloo.

I just received a text message this morning at 7:30 to say that my PS3 is going to be replaced today. I'm really liking this service.

Update: I received a replacement machine at about 10:20 today! No more errors. The fans are much quieter also and the Internet connection seems to be more reliable.

Ooh, interesting, they must still be revising them!

I think mine was just faulty from the very beginning.

With the fans and internet connection?

Yes. It was always very loud and kept disconnecting.

Strange, I take it you hadn't heard of any similar problems with other people's consoles?

No, I only found out that maybe my system was different from somebody else's when I brought it in to work to demonstrate the problem to my workmate who also has a PS3... he said, "Bloody hell, your PS3 is so loud it's giving me a headache!"... Well, it was quieter than my last PC...

Ah, well that makes sense. Consoles do tend to be quieter, but they can get hotter and don't have much redundant cooling.

Nintendo dont need customer services thier consoles are reliable the only complaint i seem to remeber being a big issue was people damaging themselves due to thier own stupidity XD not any serious product malfunctions (not that ive heard of) and i wants a PS3 dont know why they just look awesome

Heh, the more complicated something gets the more likely they are to break. Anyway, the DS (lite) did have problems with broken hinges IIRC, it's impossible to make something perfect. Best to have good customer service there just in case, as people are likely not to bear a grudge if something goes wrong but it gets fixed quickly and efficiently, meaning they sell more in the future ("oh, I had good experience with them!").

As for the PS3 looking good, I agree, it's got that sleek look about it, though it does look kinda fat from the wrong angle. The controllers look dated, though. The 360 is the wrong colour, reminds me dar too much of the old beige box. Good for modding, though.

Yes, the PS3 looks great as a piece of hi-fi quipment, and as a major part of living room furniture, but as far as games consoles go and historically, it doesn't look as cool as the PS2 in my opinion. The Xbox 360 just doesn't look very nice, although the Elite fixed that mostly by making it black. The 360 looks great in a messy room.

yeah black suits consoles better than white or grey and green. IMO id love the wii in black whould buy one of those immeditaly. The ps3 does look nice tho tbh slighly tooooo chunky if they made the huge curved less defined then id consider

Well black is just generally a better colour for electronics, it kinda goes with everything. I think that Sony will release a slimline PS3 when they make the components cooler (and maybe smaller, some things may get smaller, possibly the blu-ray), like they did with the PS2.

Apparently due to the die shrink of the Cell processor they are already piecing together a slimline version... No release date/time is known yet.

Awesome id buy a ps3 just for KH3, may buy a ps2 so i can play other ones. For the Ps3 is the ps2 backwards compability good??? cus ive heard alot of bad stuff about it