[PS3]The ULTIMATE Guide On Avoiding Freezing + Corrupting Data

Hey guys and gals,

I've seen many posts regarding freezes and corruption and the odd post that says what to do to avoid, many missing out key aspects which could assist in helping avoid the freezes, this guide will go through everything and anything possible to help, its lengthy but worth it, is 10 minutes of your time worth the hours of gameplay? here goes:

Looking after your PS3

1) Common causes of crashing freezing and general bad performance is overheating of your PS3, its important that the "phat" builds especially get lots of space to breathe, if you are keeping it in a cupboard while its on for example - not only will you overheat it and cause many performance issues, you could end up with the infamous YLOD. Keep your PS3 cool and away from any obstructions by giving it at least 4-6 inches of clear radius around its resting position, There is also accessories such as attachable fans to help keep your PS3 nice and cool :)

2) Clearing your vents of dust can also extend your PS3 life, dust will build up over time and help clog up the inside of your PS3, A blast of compressed air can help unclog your PS3 but you can also use a low suction vacuum cleaner and give it a lil clean around the vents, of course do this whilst its turned off and completely disconnected,
)Alternatively, take apart your PS3 and clean out all the dust from the main areas including your fan. WARNING - this will invalidate any warranty and is a pain staking process - ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT AND EXPERIENCED!

3) Avoid the "hard" resets or removing from the power supply, this can really cause some serious damage to your PS3, its just a real good way to break it and cause your HDD to just give up, always exit to main menus via your PS button and turn off your PS3 correctly.
(I know your thinking that sometimes a freeze stops you from doing anything - later on this guide will explain what to do)

4) Get rid of any useless stuff such as old demos, music, videos ect - anything you don't use or take up needless space, if you max out your PS3 disk space performance can be slower, this can lead to your PS3 constantly crashing, you all remember Skyrim past 8k save data? freeze lag freeze . Just keep as much free space as possible :)

5) Using your USB ports including Charging headset + Controller whilst playing, many of you may not have realised that using these whilst playing uses not much, but some of your PS3 processing speed, a good way to test this is to put your headset on charge mid game, you will be hit by a massive lag spike for a few seconds, this is your PS3 taking a little bit of time to change its speed all to charge your appliances!

6) Check for and delete any Corrupt data, this is taking up space and isn't needed simply;
XMB > Game > Game Data Utility > " data you want to delete " > Triangle > Delete
Use this to rid yourself of any unneeded game saves also as stated in number 4!

XBOX USERS To do the same thing systems settings, storage, and then pretty sure you press Y so you bring up device options, then press A on clean system cache and the say yes and it will romove any corrupted files that may be in your hardrive. Clearing the system cache is effectively getting rid of all unwanted data and unused files that may be damaged.

7) your PS3 needs a rest here and there, it likes to be cool and likes to not be played for 17 hours straight, its best to give your PS3 at least a 15 Minute cool time every 4 hours or so, similar to us at work, its good to grab a coffee when your forever dealing with you job!

Following the above steps should ensure a nice healthy PS3 and a lag and freeze free gaming experience, of course it still happens as nothing is ever perfect but hey, better to distance yourself from these problems!
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Avoid Crashing Whilst In Game

1) DO NOT MOD - its simple, if your going to mod you will probably end up corrupting the file, the game has specifications set so that it wont overload the system with data, if you have mage towers firing at 10000 shots per second, your asking for TROUBLE!

2) Avoid Glitches, just how many of you have tried the mana glitch? it may only be something small, but can still have huge drawbacks, glitches are not supposed to be used as it can confuse your PS3, your telling it you did one thing but also did another at the same time, remember its a computer it reads what is put through it as one continues line, break that line and you could face a crash!

3) Do not join games that are at High waves or midway through (like survival) This is due to the Influx of data your ps3 receives when it tries to connect, you imagine the amount of data it tries to load if you try connecting to a game thats been running 2 hours, kill ticker is going crazy and its mid way through survival wave 22. your going to hit lag and problems, try to join smaller games or just enter from the start

4) Make sure you are on the main menu before joining - it allows the autosave to complete its process then free your HDD up to load and save when enetering a new game, Remember this game autosaves thousands upon thousands of time over your hours of playing, give it chance to get the big main ones out the way such as leaving games for the tavern.

5) every 3 hours, reset your PS3, turn it off then turn it back on - this is due to the amount of data thats being stored as you play, the longer you play the more data is stored, similar to your PC/Laptop internet usage, when you DC your internet the bytes received and sent will reset, connect to your internet for a few hours and it will show you that you have received millions and sent millions of bytes, to us this is useless info, to the computer its wasted memory! so by turning off every 3 hours (load up straight after if you wish) you freshen up the PS3 processing and data stores.

6) Until the patch, i would strongly avoid playing more than 2 player on morraggo ect, or playing it OFFLINE, you almost certainly face a crash throughout this level due to the mobs, the size of the map ect, i do not know of many people that have managed to play and avoid a crash, its hard to just not play but, would you rather risk a crash and corruption? 2 players or 2 controllers offline your choice.

7) Before a game enter your options menu and take away a few options that really are not 100% needed, take off damage numbers, lower your saturation rate, turn off music - even the SFX
This will all help keep the game running a little smoother especially during a survival or moraggo run.

8) If you notice that your lagging a heck of a lot through a run, DO NOT PRESS ATTACK! epecially if playing as an Apprentice or huntress, the additional data your PS3 has to process will most like freeze the game almost instantly, try to make it to the end of the round without the need to attack, It also helps if you go stand in a corner facing away from the enemies and defences - this is because the game has no extra visuals to process however it doesnt mean it still wont crash.

9) At the end of each wave, wait at least 15 minutes - 60 Minutes before hitting the next wave, this obviously depends on the run your doing, it allows the infamous kill ticker to catch up and also helps slow down the processing of all the information from the last round, THIS REALLY BENEFITS YOUR GAMEPLAY!

Hopefully following these steps will keep you from freezing out and getting a feared corrupted save!
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Below will now take you through a process of a crash and what to do!

Step 1, give it a few minutes to see if your game will unfreeze, about 1 in 500000 will unfreeze but still be patient,

Step 2 If your game remains frozen then press and hold the ps button on your controller, when the menu pops up, click quit game, turn off your ps3 correctly and restart.

@@@IF STEP 2 DOES NOT WORK THEN FOLLOW THE NEXT STEPS BELOW@@@

Step 3 If your here, then you may be facing a few problems, if your Menu will not pop up no matter how many times you press or hold your PS button its time to reset,
Press the Power button on your PS3, (NOT THE POWER SWITCH ON THE BACK), only press do not hold at this stage. You should hear a bleep or see your green light begin to flash - this will then reset your ps3

If this did not work then instead press the eject button on your PS3 - this is to test if your ps3 is responsive, its very important, the ps3 should bleep fast 3 times, if it does not then follow the next step!

Step 4 Ok if your here, you may be in a lil trouble, this is due to a complete HDD crash and your ps3 is none responsive,

You now have to press then hold the power button ( AGAIN NOT THE BACK) keep this held until the PS3 bleeps or again the green light begins to flash, this can take up to 30 seconds so don't give up on holding it down, if after 30 seconds it didn't respond try again.

This will "Hard" reset your PS3, meaning you forcefully reset it while in theory it was still running, you will hear it power down with a click and a "peeeeew) noise - If your game was saving at that very moment in time - you could have a corrupt save, ( if its turned off then go to Step 6)

IF THIS DID NOT WORK AND YOUR PS3 IS STILL ON FOLLOW THE STEP BELOW

Step 5 If your here - Your about to do something no gamer should ever do, cut the power direct from your PS3, This can causes serious damage to your HDD and should NEVER be done unless you have completely exhausted the above steps!

You need to hit the power button at the back ( slim users hit your plug socket)

DOING THIS CAN BREAK YOUR PS3 COMPLETELY

Once done wait at least 5 minutes to allow all excess power to drain from your PS3 plug it back in and restart.

Step 6 If your here, you faced a "Hard" reset, or a complete cut of power to your PS3

Upon resetting your PS3 you will be greeted with

"The system was not turned off properly the last time it was used.
The file system of the hard disk may be corrupted

This system will restart, check the file system and restore it if it is corrupted. If the file system is corrupted, it may take two to three hours to complete."

Proceed with the wonderful process and await your fate, If you did a hard reset you could have corrupted your save but not the HDD, this means that just the save data will be lost and unfortunately you will have to restart, HOWEVER it may not be corrupted and you can continue playing (make sure you now follow all the prevention tips!)
If you had to cut the power - you could face a corrupted HDD, meaning you fried your PS3 and its time to buy a new one, unless it can recover itself.

If you avoid the HDD dying then you will also still face Corrupted data across all games not just the one, check your data and make sure everything seems normal,

Lastly you could have just hit the corrupt data on DD so time to restart your whole game!

If you are very lucky, you managed to avoid any corruption or HDD death, in which case follow the Guide to avoid any future crashes!

Upon restarting the game you may see something like " the game crashed due to user created content do you wish to disable"
Click no, all this does is take away the ability to play the DLC maps until you restart the game again.

I think were just about done, If there's anything i've missed or any questions you have, fire away and im sure the wonderful community here will give you an answer!

Happy gaming everyone!

THIS IS ONLY A GUIDE, THIS WILL NOT GUARANTEE YOU NO FREEZES BUT WILL CERTAINLY ASSIST IN AVOIDING THEM!

ALREADY CORRUPTED?

Drop an email to [email]lostheroes[[63962,users]].com[/email] for some assistance off trendy,

also visit HERE if you want some help from some amazing guys!

Appreciate the effort you have put in - nice one ;/)

Appreciate the effort you have put in - nice one ;/)

Its good to keep everyone safe and aware :) especially when you love to crash my game ;)

He although I reckon it's the weapons causing the game to crash. Splash damage etc animations.

Correct, much of it is just system overload, such as morraggo and the sheer size, you have all the graphics, sounds, music, animations, so much going on the ps3 thinks meh...SLEEP...

the guide above does have a part to avoid this though :P

Its good to keep everyone safe and aware :) especially when you love to crash my game ;)

Ah now you have enlightened us with your knowledge does that mean we can do other maps now other than the deeper well ;-) you know how scared you were of crashing on any other level ;-).

Ah now you have enlightened us with your knowledge does that mean we can do other maps now other than the deeper well ;-) you know how scared you were of crashing on any other level ;-).

HAHA! any map can crash, depends how long you been playing the game. but morraggo 2 player isnt too bad as your aware. its more players than 2 that causes epic failness!

This definately needs to be stickied - also you can add about third-party coolers that you can buy. Also replacing the thermal paste helps it and if the PS3 vents are blocked, unblock them. May not help that much but playing in a cooler room, e.g. windows open so the room isn't stuffy and the PS3 takes in fresh cool air. Buying compressed air also gets rid of dust.

This definately needs to be stickied - also you can add about third-party coolers that you can buy. Also replacing the thermal paste helps it and if the PS3 vents are blocked, unblock them. May not help that much but playing in a cooler room, e.g. windows open so the room isn't stuffy and the PS3 takes in fresh cool air. Buying compressed air also gets rid of dust.

Sticky would be great, dunno if a mod could sticky this?

With regards to thermal paste, its only recommended if you get YLOD, other than that the rest is great stuff i will add now, i forgot about the lil fan attatchments you can buy! :)

Nice guide but Seems like a lot of precautions along with the freezing itself. The corrupting is a pretty scary idea...

I did throw out every little thing i could think of aha :)
I know that following these steps will help out everyone , although it doesnt gurantee you wont freeze, it certainy decreases the chance of it happening! :)

What about bringing in a different controller when building for moraggo and backing out that character before the start of the combat phase to eliminate the kill count? Does that actually help?

very informative guide! nice

What about bringing in a different controller when building for moraggo and backing out that character before the start of the combat phase to eliminate the kill count? Does that actually help?

I believe this actually does help during gameplay (TESTED)

However at the end of the game when you leave, you can still crash... although the "ticker" isnt there... its still in theory going onto player 2 3 or 4 whichever you used and at the end of the game its still adding so when you leave and it can still crash! (TESTED)

to conclude.... yes it does help... but at the end, wait maybe 10-15 mins... then use the crystal to leave... figers crossed no freeze!

if you do play offline 1 char on insane/hard you tend not to encounter as much problems as online :)

Also not guaranteed but helps, is to turn off your mic before returning to the tavern on Moraggo

oh man who gonna believe this?

My PS3 freezes even when its cold, there is no overheating.

The biggest problem should be to less RAM.

On Survival my PS3 freezes evertime you gonna reach a Wave with more than 10.000 Enemies.

Moraggo freezes also every time since today I wasn't able to beat it, becaus of that freezes.

The only way you could play that game with less problem is to get i on PC

The PS3 Version is just a piece of crap

damn i read thiss too late my data currupted an hour ago :( but thanks for this

I need to stop playing DD until the patch come out. This is what happening to me the last few days, when I start up the PS3 after been sitting for over 8 hours and the DD loading and it got freezes up. Sometime it loaded and when I was in my tavern and equipped my items and it got freezes up too, and every freezes up and I have to hard reset no other way around it. For the last 2 months the only way it freezes up is because of more than 2 players or playing on Morraggo. Lately I dont really like how is it going on at all, I been playing many games and the only game that is like this is Fallout3 and Fallout New Vegas. But the freezes up on DD are like 75% more than the Fallout games. Please do fixed this issue of freezing, if not I have to force to stop play DD, because I dont want to end up buying a new PS3 for all the hard reset.

Thanks Jon

i feel so hardcore, just join an game from my tavern :O

So I have bad news for you online players it's not smart to be playing online games as it will fry your ps3 over time. But I still can not find a straight and honest answer why my ps3 freeze's even when its spotless clean inside and out and 100% dust free and sitting up 6" So it gets plenty of air no air vents blocked no dirty fan or dirty power supply I even have the 350 gb memory and nothing saved in the system as I already did the master restore and have my internet turned off to my ps3 So there no reason for my ps3 to be freezeing up at all but it does anyway. So please can someone give me a plain straight and honest answer without guessing and without b.s. PLEASE?