I just got Uncharted 3 on release day from a local Kmart store. Having played the first two games and loved them, I was excited about the third game in the series. When I got home and put the disc in, my PS3 tried to read the disc for a few seconds. I saw the clock on the upper right corner change to a spinning disc. After a while, the spinning disc changed to a clock again and nothing happened. There was no game icon under the XMB bar. I tried to eject the disc and put it back in several times. My PS3 just did not recognize the Uncharted 3 disc. At first, I thought my PS3 was broken. I then tried different game and Blu-ray discs, and I did not have problems with them. It was only the Uncharted 3 disc that I was having problems with.
Afterwards, I researched the problem online and found a lot of reports about it. The problems are most likely due to the dual-layer Blu-ray disc used by some games. I have seen reports about God of War 3, Killzone 3 and Uncharted 3. I got a replacement from Kmart the next day, but the replacement did not work either. I contacted Playstation Support, and they suggested I send my PS3 in for service. Since my PS3 was out of warranty, the repair cost could have been costly. Besides, I could still play other games. I did not want to spend that much money for a system that was not really broken.
There are some solutions that I found on the net. I have not tried them all yet. As of now, I still cannot play the game. If you have found a better solution, please share it in the comments section. I’ll update this post with all the possible solutions. There is a possibility that it’s related to the firmware of PS3. The solution could simply be an updated firmware from Sony. However, it does not seem like Sony has acknowledged this issue, and no one knows for sure if there will be a firmware fix for it. Here are the things you can try:
Solution 1:
Place the PS3 right side up in a vertical position.
Solution 2:
Tilt the PS3 at an angle.
Solution 3:
Use a optical drive lens cleaner to clean the lens of Blu-ray drive.
Solution 4:
Enter safe mode and try all the options. Before you try safe mode, plug in an external hard drive and backup your system first. Here is a link about how to enter safe mode and the explanation of all the options.
Solution 5:
Replace the lens of the Blu-ray drive. This is quite complicated and not for the faint of heart. I do not recommend this solution if you have no prior experience dealing with electronics equipment repair. There are a lot of different models of PS3. The instructions you find online are specific to a certain model. Before you try this approach, get the model number of PS3 and use that as a keyword in your Google search. I have tried all the solutions except this one. I am going to wait for a few days, and if there is still no firmware fix from Sony, I am going to try this out. Stay tuned.
[Update: 11/4/2011]
Solution 6:
Open up the PS3 and clean the lens of the Blu-ray drive. This is what worked for me. I was ready to order a replacement lens this morning. To make sure I ordered the right part, I opened up my PS3 and took out the Blu-ray drive. I found that a strand of hair was tangled in the motor and covered part of the lens. I took out the strand of hair and cleaned the lens with optical drive head cleaner. It did not work right after I put the drive back in. I repeated the process several times and watched several YouTube videos to make sure I put everything together correctly. Finally, I got the disc to be recognized by my PS3!
