UPS smashed a DECR-1400 thats now YLOD, that contains a ton of unreleased content

I got my DECR-1400 yesterday along with a controller and some discs. The controller and the system had huge signs of trauma with cracks and distortions. Weirdly the discs was unharmed. Now the system may be f'ed but I refuse to just let this content go to waste.

Here is what is known about what was on it; in 2012 there was word of a PS3/Vita ebook platform called Storyteller, to be announced and shown on E3. Then nothing happened. No screenshots or info. Well this system holds a 1TB disk that according to the seller had a ton of games on it, among those are Storyteller, ToyStory, FishyWishy and more. The latter two are most likely Storyteller ebooks. This cannot go to waste!

Info on Storyteller: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/sony-storyteller-ebook-service-incoming-at-e3-1082850

The system itself apart from the physical trauma goes YLOD when turned on. From what I gather the disk needs to boot up on this particular system for me to gain access and FTP it off the system. I hope there is anyone here with the know-how who can guide me through it.

I am currently writing this from my phone (so upset I can't sleep!) so I cannot upload pictures yet. I will however update the thread with more info as it progresses.

Edits:
- Added image from seller before the item was shipped.
- Added images of unit
- Added images of controller

 

well, that's just awful how things are now broken.

 

Start by taking it apart and seeing whats going on. Take it slow and hope that it is something easy that caused it.

 

I tried opening it genlty yesterday and noticed what I believe you refer to as a ribbon cable(?) going from the BD-ROM and into some other parts of the console. If I lift the lid off then this cable needs to be removed somehow. I heard they are very fragile so I'm not keen on doing that, but I guess I have no choice. Are there no way to access the HDD content without the console?

 

If all else fails: hairdryer method.

 

And dont test out a different harddrive on it, that could lose you access to what you do have. I dont think anyone has figured out how to get the key without having a running unit. @mathieulh might know more.

 

Thanks, good to know. That sounds like something I could have tried to do

 

I hope you get it going.

 

Yeah hope so too. The unit itself (plastic cassis) is falling apart just picking it up though but I just hope the data is salvageable.

 

You'll need to get it up and running if you want the rootkey. there's no other way besides running the dumper on the console

 

You need the eid root key from the console to access the hard drive content on pc, to dump it the console has to be running at some point, so you need to fix it to get the content. I am sorry to say that it's the only way to ever gets what's installed on it.

 

Alright, then I just have to roll up my sleeves and get to work. No idea what to look for other than loose cables or whatnot. The pictures in my original post shows the unit somewhat disassembled. Anything in particular that I should check? The boot sequence is Green -> Yellow -> Red Blinking + 3 beeps. Don't know if that means something.

 

It could be that internal components have fell off the motherboard. Open it up, pictures as you go and look for anything out of place.

 

The UPS guy should get nudered for doing this... Without anesthetics ofcourse.

 

Or the guy that shipped it for not using bubble wrap or newspaper.

 

I have bought several systems from this seller and they have always been excellently wrapped. No amount of bubblewrap would have saved the DECR from the UPS guys wrath that day.

 

Removed almost everything (except final cover for motherboard) and put it carefully back together again. Still YLOD. This is a needle in a haystack situation. What is the obvious next approach? Blast the mobo with a heatgun? Replace part X etc.?

 

Honestly your best bet is finding someone online who specializes in fixing ps3s professionally. I used to have a local guy who specialized in reballing and diagnosing boards- but he stopped a few years ago.

Even then... not to be the bad guy, the hard drive may have been damaged in the smash...

 

Doesnt that normally happen with spinning drives though?

 

You might wanna go ahead and dump the hard drive. Most likely you can't access the data unless someone can extract the key from the system, but you can back it up. I feel like since the hard drive has gone through trauma probably a raw dump should be done so that it can be written back out to another drive should the PS3 get fixed.