New PS3

It started with overheating. After a few minutes of use, the system would turn off. I'd let it cool, then it'd start all over again. I vacuumed and compressed-aired the vents and whatnot, even took out the hard drive and dusted it. No go. Then, when I went to transfer all of my saves from the sinking ship of a system to the new slim PS3 I ordered, the yellow light came on right after the system turned on. Then it turned off. With my Marvel vs. Capcom 3 disc inside it. Now it was personal.

I'd planned to get a new PS3 for a while now, but this forced me to actually follow through. But first I had to get the disc out. I tried to open the PS3 the old-fashioned way, but I didn't have a flathead small enough to unscrew the screw that lodged the thing together. So I did the next best thing: I went at it with an X-Acto and a big flathead. I pried the top off as (mostly) one section, then popped off the second top. It looked something like this afterward:

Lots of dust on the thing. you can see it pretty clearly on one of the lids. Keep in mind that that picture is the PS3 sans disc drive, which I had already began taking apart. I had to find a tiny cross-head, which I found in my dad's screwdriver set (and yeah, it had the tiny-ass flathead that would've made this process a whole lot more simple), and after a few careful dissections, I found my disc inside.

Was there a more simple solution? You bet. Was it fun to find out what a gutted PS3 looked like? Hell yeah it was. I tossed the whole thing (except the hard drive, which might prove to be useful for something) into the recycling bin. And hey, now I have a new PS3 that'll actually let me use my wireless controllers wirelessly!