Ok, so I've had my 60 gigger since day one, got it, great... works fine. Months go by and slowly but surely my Bluetooth signal cuts out on occasion, no big deal at first but man does it progress and get worse month after month.
A year later my controller is cutting off every 30 minutes and I cannot get it reconnected without a restart (major annoyance), i'm starting to write off the ps3 as useless at this point. Couple months go bye, I try many recommendations to fix the system to no avail, many stupid things, i'll be damned if i'm sending in my backward compatible ps3, no way! I'm gonna figure this shit out!
Finally found out about a secret boot screen where basically the registry can be rebuilt, so I rebuild, reformat and the whole nine yards. Back in the fray, the baby is running like a dream. PS3 gaming for hours, with one disconnect but it reconnected no problem. Play PSone games...brilliant. Play PS2 games...WTF, WTF...... ok here we go again. Restart... Ok PS3 fine, PSone fine, PS2.... 30 minutes of play... disconnect can't reconnect.
Here is the theory: (after much pondering I might add)
When the PS3 boots to a PSone game the controller never losses connection, just watch and you will notice you never have to hit the button to reconnect, yet when PS2 games launch you always have to reconnect.
I noticed that PS2 games connect to a port called (1/1A), I started thinking.... could this possibly be splitting the bluetooth signal somehow? I begin to think that maybe the system considers 2 ports to be specific for PS3/PS2 as PS2 only had 2 ports (they share) and the signal may be getting crossed. I decide to log to port (1C) which I believe to be what would be considered a (multi-tap port) from PS2 standards. NO PROBLEMS. I then decide to play a two player game with my son, me on port (1C) him on (1/1A). All is fine till he quits and I re-register to (1/1A) where after a few minutes I lose signal and cannot reconnect.... Definetely a pattern here!!
My theory is that somehow the connections are interwoven with the bluetooth in the HDD. I (believe) these files can become corrupted and damage the bluetooth signal over time depending on how the system is powered off, therefore leading to complete loss of signals across all.
I know one thing for sure, this is a fixable problem, cause I have fixed it myself, just narrowing it down to exactly how it happens so it doesn't manifest itself again is the hard part, cause it seems to want to do it. I just need to figure out how to stop it (how to power off) but I have figured out this much and I know it's true (this is week two of testing and it has proven 100% so far) cause this is the most progress I have made in the past 6 months all together.
I know you people with connection problems are out there and hopefully this will help, and I can say honestly that I have very VERY little doubt that my theory is very far off, cause I have proven it to myself and seen it myself. There may be exceptions to the rule, but I know I am on to something here and i'm posting this exact message on the playstation boards.
Having a $600 that you cannot play is not cool, gotta say the PS3 is a beast of a machine though and technologically advance on MANY aspects. My favorite console since Dreamcast.
Bluetooth connectivity loss is a wide spread problem for the PS3, believe it. Time to admit it and get it out in the open. This is but one solution to many of the problems with the Bluetooth connectivity, though I believe the problem I have illustrated has been the most costly and widespread one and hard to figure out and has cost the PS3 backwards compatibility with PS2 (something we all hate).