So my launch-era 60gb PS3 is finally yellow lighting me. Has anyone had any experience with getting one fixed or refurbished without Sony robbing them of backwards compatibility for PS2 games?
Speaking from daily internal experience, just do the trade in and pull out your PS2. The BC is not worth the cost of maintaining a crumbling device. Shit's like 7 years old, and you're not going to find a non-Sony repair outlet that can do what you want either. They do not make the parts anymore, and the service center is going to just throw your console onto a pile to be fixed eventually with twine and hope and send you a different console done the same way that will function for 3 months to 2 years until it inevitably YLODs again.
Your options are $129 bucks about every year to say you have BC (90 day warranty) or $99 for a 250 GB super slim (1 year warranty).
I know the super slim probably isn't your favorite hardware design, but the only reason there is a non-trade in option at all is because people bitch endlessly about it.
Two separate yellow light situations for friends were both resolved by taking off the outer plastic and blowing out the dust.
This man (could be) speaking the truth. The yellow light that everyone homes in on doesn't actually mean anything. The flashing red light is the ticket, and is the universal Sony way of saying "HELP HELP HELP I DON'T EVEN." True story, if your Sony camcorder or printer fucks up, it will have the same flashing red light. It probably IS the processor for reasons you already know, but it could be the power supply, the GPU, a faulty fan, etc. If you insist upon 3rd party repair, do not leave your machine anywhere where they don't acknowledge that a YLOD has multiple possible causes on the slight chance that it isn't.