PS3 Thought Experiment - There are three CECHA01 units; Which unit do you choose?

dvnlhnt

dvnlhnt

Member
There are three CECHA01 units in front of you. You're trying to determine which unit you should daily drive in 2024. Each system is seemingly in a similar used but functional state. Warranty stickers are still intact, some common surface scratches, and the same general amount of dust accumulation for these unopened units of their age.

The only additional information to base your decision on is the Syscon Log Dumps Below...

Unit 1
Code: 
Firmware Version: 4.90 (build 50747)
Platform ID: Cok14
Product Code: 00 84
Product Sub Code: 00 01
Hardware Config: 00000000FFFFFFFF
Syscon Firmware Version: 0B8E.0000000000000006 (EEPROM: 0000000000000006)

Bringup Count: 775, Shutdown Count: 747
Runtime: 202 Days, 23 Hours, 47 Minutes, 32 Seconds

Error Log
01: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
02: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
03: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
04: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
05: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
06: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
07: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
08: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
09: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
10: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
11: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
12: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
13: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
14: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
15: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
16: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
17: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
18: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
19: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
20: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
21: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
22: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
23: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
24: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
25: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
26: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
27: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
28: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
29: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
30: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
31: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999
32: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 31 17:59:59 1999

Unit 2
Code: 
Firmware Version: 4.90 (build 50747)
Platform ID: Cok14
Product Code: 00 84
Product Sub Code: 00 01
Hardware Config: 00000000FFFFFFFF
Syscon Firmware Version: 0B8E.0000000000000006 (EEPROM: 0000000000000006)

Bringup Count: 2183, Shutdown Count: 2091
Runtime: 232 Days, 6 Hours, 44 Minutes, 53 Seconds

Error Log
01: A0801001  Wed May  3 17:32:44 2023
02: A0801001  Sat Apr  8 06:59:16 2017
03: A0801001  Wed Apr  5 01:23:00 2017
04: A0801001  Sat Dec 31 02:15:45 2016
05: A0801001  Mon Dec 26 02:50:50 2016
06: A0801001  Sun Dec 18 17:42:03 2016
07: A0801001  Sat Jul 11 19:56:26 2015
08: A0801001  Tue Jun 30 21:41:45 2015
09: A0801001  Tue Jun 16 17:30:14 2015
10: A0801001  Fri Apr 24 22:24:21 2015
11: A0802203  Fri Dec  5 22:00:52 2014
12: A0801001  Fri Dec  5 22:00:52 2014
13: A0801001  Fri Nov 28 04:01:15 2014
14: A0801001  Sat Sep 27 01:10:18 2014
15: A0801001  Fri Sep 19 17:03:21 2014
16: A0801001  Thu Sep  4 23:30:23 2014
17: A0801001  Tue Jul 22 22:52:44 2014
18: A0801001  Mon Jun 23 10:30:04 2014
19: A0801001  Wed Jun 11 00:09:29 2014
20: A0801001  Tue Jun 10 01:23:36 2014
21: A0801001  Mon Jun  9 01:28:29 2014
22: A0801001  Fri May 23 02:05:01 2014
23: A0801001  Wed May 14 00:00:15 2014
24: A0801001  Wed Apr 16 23:58:33 2014
25: A0801001  Fri Mar  7 16:33:53 2014
26: A0801001  Fri Feb 28 01:11:55 2014
27: A0801001  Tue Feb 18 19:58:39 2014
28: A0801001  Tue Feb 11 22:19:18 2014
29: A0801001  Fri Jan 10 00:43:04 2014
30: A0801001  Sun Dec 29 03:27:59 2013
31: A0801001  Thu Dec 26 01:54:05 2013
32: FFFFFFFF  Fri Dec 20 17:30:32 2013

Unit 3
Code: 
Firmware Version: 4.90 (build 50747)
Platform ID: Cok14
Product Code: 00 84
Product Sub Code: 00 01
Hardware Config: 00000000FFFFFFFF
Syscon Firmware Version: 0B8E.0000000000000006 (EEPROM: 0000000000000006)

Bringup Count: 672, Shutdown Count: 534
Runtime: 61 Days, 2 Hours, 3 Minutes, 8 Seconds

Error Log
01: A0801001  Fri Dec 22 22:03:35 2023
02: A0801001  Sun Mar 23 19:37:14 2014
03: A0801001  Wed Jan 29 23:14:16 2014
04: A0801004  Sat Jul  6 23:09:30 2013
05: A0801004  Thu May 23 19:42:14 2013
06: A0801001  Fri May 10 16:49:09 2013
07: A0801004  Thu May  9 15:37:31 2013
08: A0801001  Fri Dec 21 19:59:45 2012
09: A0801004  Thu Jan 12 14:33:16 2012
10: A0801001  Sat Jul  2 13:36:09 2011
11: A0801001  Wed Jun 22 18:49:37 2011
12: A0801004  Mon Mar  7 16:19:45 2011
13: A0801004  Sat Dec 25 21:57:09 2010
14: A0801004  Thu Dec  9 22:20:34 2010
15: A0801004  Sat Oct 23 10:46:18 2010
16: A0801001  Sun Sep 19 14:27:51 2010
17: A0801001  Sun Aug 15 21:32:52 2010
18: A0801004  Thu Aug 12 21:53:03 2010
19: A0801004  Sun Mar 21 05:06:09 2010
20: A0801001  Fri Nov 27 16:29:32 2009
21: A0801004  Tue Nov 24 20:38:37 2009
22: A0801004  Mon Sep 14 15:51:24 2009
23: A0801004  Fri Aug 21 14:41:49 2009
24: A0801004  Sun Aug 16 08:07:43 2009
25: A0801004  Tue Aug  4 20:47:50 2009
26: A0801001  Tue Aug  4 10:22:55 2009
27: A0801001  Fri Jul 24 15:19:11 2009
28: A0801004  Wed Jul  1 19:28:24 2009
29: A0801004  Wed Jul  1 18:51:13 2009
30: A0801004  Wed Jun  3 14:17:22 2009
31: A0801004  Thu May  7 14:36:58 2009
32: FFFFFFFF  Tue May  5 18:33:51 2009

Based on this information, which system would you choose?
 
dvnlhnt said:
Unit 1 has the least use time? Am I reading the runtime numbers wrong? I figured unit 3 had the least use time at 61 days runtime.
Click to expand...

Yes, unit 3 has the least total runtime of them all, but it also has almost the same bringup numbers as unit 1 (a more used console, which also indicates that unit 3 was used mostly for short gaming sessions).

Unit 3 also shows that it was not shut down properly, as the bringup count is over 100 times higher than the shut down count (this could mean that this console hangs a lot or it has hardware/power/thermal issues, as evidenced by SYSCON errors 1001 and 1004).
 
Last edited:
GuilloteTesla said:
Yes, unit 3 has the least total runtime of them all, but it also has almost the same bringup numbers as unit 1 (a more used console, which also indicates that unit 3 was used mostly for short gaming sessions).

Unit 3 also shows that it was not shut down properly, as the bringup count is over 100 times higher than the shut down count (this could mean that this console hangs a lot or it has hardware/power/thermal issues, as evidenced by SYSCON errors 1001 and 1004).
Click to expand...


Yea that's interesting because when testing Unit 3 after receiving from console reseller on eBay it had FW 4.4x and almost full HDD media from original owner. When trying to test and use the PS3 tool set web toolkit the console hung at least once and when trying to dump the flash it gave me a memory error. Unit 3 also hung during the CFW install. However, despite this and before this post was made I made it my primary machine as I felt the difference in runtime was to significant to ignore over the other two options. I put a brand new 1 TB SSD and upgraded the FW to Evilnat 4.9 PEX and it hasn't hung or spit out any errors since.

Could such hangs and errors be flash or HDD related?

Also, I've read through the Syscon errors codes for these units to the best of my understanding but I don't quite get what cause the FFFFFFFF error. Could Unit 1 be outputting errors that aren't accurately being recorded due to this? Hopefully someone can elaborate on that error.
 
dvnlhnt said:
Yea that's interesting because when testing Unit 3 after receiving from console reseller on eBay it had FW 4.4x and almost full HDD media from original owner. When trying to test and use the PS3 tool set web toolkit the console hung at least once and when trying to dump the flash it gave me a memory error. Unit 3 also hung during the CFW install. However, despite this and before this post was made I made it my primary machine as I felt the difference in runtime was to significant to ignore over the other two options. I put a brand new 1 TB SSD and upgraded the FW to Evilnat 4.9 PEX and it hasn't hung or spit out any errors since.

Could such hangs and errors be flash or HDD related?
Click to expand...

SSDs are not supported by the PS3. Those drives will bring more issues than benefits. Try getting a bigger, faster HDD if you can.

dvnlhnt said:
Also, I've read through the Syscon errors codes for these units to the best of my understanding but I don't quite get what cause the FFFFFFFF error. Could Unit 1 be outputting errors that aren't accurately being recorded due to this? Hopefully someone can elaborate on that error.
Click to expand...

Lot's of SYSCON FFFFFFFF errors means that the CMOS battery was removed or it has no charge left, so the logs are lost until it's replaced. After that, SYSCON should start logging correctly if I'm not mistaken.
 
GuilloteTesla said:
SSDs are not supported by the PS3. Those drives will bring more issues than benefits. Try getting a bigger, faster HDD if you can.
Click to expand...

This is the first I've heard that an SSD could cause issues. Can you elaborate a bit?

GuilloteTesla said:
Lot's of SYSCON FFFFFFFF errors means that the CMOS battery was removed or it has no charge left, so the logs are lost until it's replaced. After that, SYSCON should start logging correctly if I'm not mistaken.
Click to expand...

On said unit in particular I read this code could be caused by a dead cmos battery so, before I installed cfw I set the date and time via internet and installed a custom theme as I heard custom theme mem was also stored there to test if the battery was dead. However, the time is accurately retained and themes are remembered on this unit. The time was definitely incorrect when I first got and booted the unit. Could the time have just been never correctly set causing the syscon errors to not log correctly?

If so the unit could have similar errors to the other two but would be unidentifiable now. I cant imagine after 200+ days the unit was never turned off improperly. I could boot the unit up and turn it off improperly and dump the syscon logs to see if it has corrected.
 
dvnlhnt said:
This is the first I've heard that an SSD could cause issues. Can you elaborate a bit?
Click to expand...

@Berion et al made a very thorough thread about SSDs on the PS3: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/guide-ssd-for-playstation-3.42499/

In short, the PS3 CoreOS has issues with SSDs on a driver-kernel level (we are not sure), so some component or kernel code does weird things with the filesystem. Afterwards, the console starts acting strange, with filesystem corruption, incompatibility issues, games not working, random hangs, PS2 games not working, among other things.

dvnlhnt said:
On said unit in particular I read this code could be caused by a dead cmos battery so, before I installed cfw I set the date and time via internet and installed a custom theme as I heard custom theme mem was also stored there to test if the battery was dead. However, the time is accurately retained and themes are remembered on this unit. The time was definitely incorrect when I first got and booted the unit. Could the time have just been never correctly set causing the syscon errors to not log correctly?

If so the unit could have similar errors to the other two but would be unidentifiable now. I cant imagine after 200+ days the unit was never turned off improperly. I could boot the unit up and turn it off improperly and dump the syscon logs to see if it has corrected.
Click to expand...

If the CMOS battery has charge, then the previous owner cleared the SYSCON logs (there is a command for that).

If that's the case, we don't have any other way to know the console's boot history.
 
GuilloteTesla said:
@Berion et al made a very thorough thread about SSDs on the PS3: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/guide-ssd-for-playstation-3.42499/
Click to expand...

I was unaware of this post. Man you've been schooling me this entire thread I really appreciate all the info. I slapped in 870 EVO's into these units. I hope they don't display any of these types of issues but will def report if they do. Interestingly the low time unit had a full HDD when testing and upgrading the firmware and as I reported earlier experienced hangs as well.

GuilloteTesla said:
@Berion If the CMOS battery has charge, then the previous owner cleared the SYSCON logs (there is a command for that).

If that's the case, we don't have any other way to know the console's boot history.
Click to expand...

Curious and seemingly shady that the eBay seller of this unit would clear the logs.
 
dvnlhnt said:
I was unaware of this post. Man you've been schooling me this entire thread I really appreciate all the info. I slapped in 870 EVO's into these units. I hope they don't display any of these types of issues but will def report if they do. Interestingly the low time unit had a full HDD when testing and upgrading the firmware and as I reported earlier experienced hangs as well.



Curious and seemingly shady that the eBay seller of this unit would clear the logs.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say that's "shady" the guy cleared the logs, big deal. Shady is manipulating the becount by changing values in the syscon. Either way this is a trick question right? they're all launch model cecha consoles, odds are either tokens or rsx will fail on them eventually.
 
dvnlhnt said:
I was unaware of this post. Man you've been schooling me this entire thread I really appreciate all the info. I slapped in 870 EVO's into these units. I hope they don't display any of these types of issues but will def report if they do. Interestingly the low time unit had a full HDD when testing and upgrading the firmware and as I reported earlier experienced hangs as well.
Click to expand...

You are welcome, mate!. We are here to learn and to help.

That thread is the result of various other threads and dicussions from, what at the moment, seem to be random, unrelated but known PS3 issues that all got the same common factor: SSD.

Regarding your comment about the low time unit, if it hanged on you with an HDD, then the console may have other undiagnosed issue/s. It would be wise to reset SYSCON logs, reformat the HDD and start using it normally, in a controlled environment (same ambient temps, same time windows of gaming sessions, same batch of games of different performance demands).

dvnlhnt said:
Curious and seemingly shady that the eBay seller of this unit would clear the logs.
Click to expand...

It happens more often than you'd think. The magic words for those sellers are "sold as is" and "sold as shown in the images". Most of the sellers don't know or don't care about this kind of things. They clean a console, apply thermal paste, polish and clean the case and controller, format the drive, some quick power on test, add missing cables and package everything. That's all.

The second-hand market is good but it has its shades (like with the PS3 controllers market).
 
luvbuckets said:
I wouldn't say that's "shady" the guy cleared the logs.
Click to expand...

Yea i suppose not necessarily definitively shady as i could see instances of log clearing for troubleshooting purposes as we discuss here and what not. but in this case it seems it was cleared out just before the unit was sold to me without acknowledgement to me, the buyer. It simply calls into question the nature of the act

luvbuckets said:
Odds are either tokens or rsx will fail on them eventually.
Click to expand...

and sure, these models have a high chance of failure but there are still many out there, with relatively high runtime totals. theyre indeed a risk to purchase with what we as a community know about these launch units now. along the same logic fixing and or maintaining these units is more fleshed out than ever. so, one of these crack boxes is gonna last me into the future. if the best choice unit does fail, there another for me to use or part from.

my og cechg01 put up 120+ hrs roasting in an enclosed cabinet before refusing to turn on. two of these units have nearly twice that time on them and still going strong as far as we can tell. I personally always wanted one of these units with the ps2 chip but couldnt afford them when i was younger. imo having to pick a model to go the extra mile with to continue to use its this particular model
 
test imgur link
tkQjewJ
 
I've seen launch models make it to 500+ days. I've also seen some only make 3-5 days. All with 3034 errors. I don't hold much stock in the becount (uptime) once I found out it's easily manipulated.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back
Top