Compromising your PS3's warranty?

My PS3 recently stopped reading discs. Through some research it is my belief that it is the Blu Ray drive that has failed. I have owned my PS3 for over 2 years now and no longer have the receipt from when I purchased it. A local repair shop claims that ppl bring in their PS3's all the time for similar problems and that their diagnosis/repair generally costs somewhere between $26 and $86 dollars.

My question is this... After 2 years is my warranty up? What would I need to send Sony? Ive already been told its $150 just for Sony to look at it. Is it really worth it to have my PS3 kicked and tossed across the US for probably over $200 dollars (that I dont have) when its all said and done? Or should I try the repair shop that specializes in warranty work with the likes of Best Buy, Sears, etc?

And finally has anyone encountered this problem and resolved it? If so, how?

My PS3 recently stopped reading discs. Through some research it is my belief that it is the Blu Ray drive that has failed. I have owned my PS3 for over 2 years now and no longer have the receipt from when I purchased it. A local repair shop claims that ppl bring in their PS3's all the time for similar problems and that their diagnosis/repair generally costs somewhere between $26 and $86 dollars.

My question is this... After 2 years is my warranty up? What would I need to send Sony? Ive already been told its $150 just for Sony to look at it. Is it really worth it to have my PS3 kicked and tossed across the US for probably over $200 dollars (that I dont have) when its all said and done? Or should I try the repair shop that specializes in warranty work with the likes of Best Buy, Sears, etc?

And finally has anyone encountered this problem and resolved it? If so, how?

newhighscore

Yup, sometimes the smaller companies (or shops) are the best and cheapest solution.

The original warranty is one year, so it would have expired. I have no experience with a specialist, but I sent mine in to Sony. They repaired the blu-ray drive for $150, but it broke less than 5 months later. I sent it in again for another $150 because they only give you a 90 day warranty once it's repaired. Hope you have better luck than I did.

WOW. 5 months later and it took a deuce on you again!? Thats terrible. What are some things that can cause the BD drive to fail? Does playing Blu Rays kill it much like watching DVD's did on the PS2? Or watching AVI's and MPEG's and such? If mines fixable I dont want to go through this again.

Yup, sometimes the smaller companies (or shops) are the best and cheapest solution.

Sekiam

will best buy fix this problem?