I have an old 60gig PS3 that is crashing in games after only a few minutes of playing.
I've Backed up and then restored, rebuilt the database, checked for dust bunnies and made sure the vents are clear (it's in the open now) and formatted the hard disk, all to no avail. All cables are plugged in, blu-ray film playback is fine, but on games the screen completely freezes, although game music will continue to play. The only way to gain functionality again is a complete rewrite
Best Answer
This sounds like the processor and GPU are overheating. The old "fat" PS3 at least had problems with the thermal paste. It was applied mechanically and the result is rather bad. There are countless tutorials on the web that explain how to open your PS3 and clean the old thermal paste in order to apply new. Alternatively you can go to some repair shop and have them do it for you. This should most likely stabilize your system and get it crash free again.