[TehEternalOptimist]

Hello all. i just found your forum and i would like to thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

I purchased a 320 GB Playstation 3(PS3) JUST over 3 months ago from Target. They have an unusually long 90 day return policy but I am just beyond it.

I run my PS3 with wide open space behind it and there is ample air circulation around it. I always shut down properly and hardly ever run it for longer than two hours or so.

Soon after purchasing the console i bought a "ps3 break" v1.0 long version, non-updateable jailbreak device that allows me to run game backups from my PS3's internal or external hard drives. It worked extremely and i never had an issue.

About a month ago, i bought an 'x3 max" jailbreak device that allows jailbreaking with any available payload, on top of other advantages. the first hex i tried didn't work properly. i use open manager 2.1 now but had an older version at the time - 1.6 maybe? anyway, after selecting the game and restarting xmb, whatever the actual bd disk in the drive was would show up, not the game selected in OM.

I have a 2TB external HDD connected to the PS3 and store movies as well as my external GAMEZ folder on it. I also use PS3 media server.

I now have the x3max flashed with a working 3.50 spoof/PSN access payload, but after running the first non-working hex i started to have issues with video playback.

The first time it happened i was running ps3 media server and an episode of american dad was streaming to the PS3. the ideo as not being transcoded by the pc. early in the episode...less than minute in, the picture of the video froze in one frame, but the audio continued playing. i aited a long while but it never unfroze. it would allow me to hit trianggle or something to get to the control menu, but once i hit stop, pause, or anything else, it just freezes ompletely and no buttons do anytthing....and the audio stops.

tHis happens in any video i watch now that is not transcoded by the pc...and i think it happened once when the pc was transcoding it.

recently, it started happening in games as well, whether or i'm playing an original game disk from the disk itself.

i tried booting to the recovery mode and running 3, 4, and 5...recover file system, the firmware recovery, and total system recovery. it seemed to get better but eventually froze within a day or two. A couple days ago, I ran a full system restore. it took about 18 1/2 hours, and the problem just happened again.

I was really hoping that this was just a software issue but it apparently is not.

When i purchased the console at target, i spent another $50 or so on a warranty package. Does anyone have any idea what the issue is? My only idea at this point is the GPU.

anyway, if there's npo simple fix i have to bring it in forr repair. with a full format again, the only clue that the exploit has been run on it should be the firmware still being 3.41, right?

Can i ask them not to upgrade past that firmware version? Does anyone have any experience?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please respond if you have ANY relevant info.