[thideras]

I know the game is large and it has long loading times, but that isn't what I'm talking about. I picked up this game a few days ago and have about "118 days" into the game, so I'm not very far. I've had the game installed to the hard drive since I've purchased it, which was faster than running it off the disk.

The issue I'm having started earlier today. I went to do a race and it sat at a full bar while loading the track. I let it sit for 4+ minutes and it was still sitting there. I looked at the PS3 and the hard drive light was on solid. I gave it a few more minutes and there was still no movement. I got into the PS3 menu and exited the game. As it was closing it, I heard the cars driving, indicating that it had loaded the game. Great, what awesome timing. The PS3 closed the game and I started it up again. It took 5+ minutes to get to the main menu, 3+ minutes to load the GT Mode menu and over 10 minutes to load a track.

I have not found anyone that has had this issue and it has me completely stumped. I want to find the people that always say "I play consoles because they JUST WORK" and punch them in the face. I can't easily troubleshoot this issue since I don't have anywhere to start!

I initially deleted the cache and let it reload it to the drive, didn't help.
I deleted any game data/saves/demos that I didn't want and reloaded the cache, didn't help.
I've also unplugged the console from the internet, since there were reports that their servers were the source of the slowdown. Didn't help.

The PS3 is not overheating and has never had any issues like this before. I'm stumped. I'm actually in the middle of loading the game so I can make a backup of my data before throwing it through a format of the disk. I'm guess that isn't going to help either. Any ideas before a drop this game and go back to Forza? I have half a mind to just sell this PS3.

[thideras]

I have recorded how long it takes running the 1.05 update with no cache. Even the first time I ran the game, it never took anywhere near this long to load the game.

Here is a link to the video, with THIDERAS COMMENTARY ACTION!

http://thideras.com/videos/Granturismo5_nocache.mp4

Full video was 16:21 from power on to actually starting a race.

0:00 - 0:18 Intro
0:18 - 0:45 Console bootup and disk selection (0:27)
0:45 - 3:10 Loading the main screen (2:25)
3:10 - 7:10 Loading the Career menu (4:00)
7:10 - 9:23 Load and select a car from the garage then back out (2:13)
9:05 - 12:00 Go to A-spec, get to the car selection screen, change cars and start loading a race (2:55)
12:00 - 16:21 Load the race and start the countdown (4:21)

-----

I'm installing the cache to see how that changes the load times. I did have this installed prior to recording this video, but I deleted it to see if that was the issue.

[thideras]

Seems to have magically sped up since I made that video. It still takes a long time, but no where near what it was.

I was waiting 20 minutes between races to load the menu and select the next race. The cars that were not showing their icon are still doing the same thing, but that isn't a huge issue.

[thideras]

Maybe it isn't fixed. It completely stopped rendering the game during a race for around 10 seconds. When playing, the hard drive light is on almost 100% of the time.

EDIT: This is definitely not fixed. Load times are slowly creeping back up.

[rainless]

Originally Posted by thideras

Maybe it isn't fixed. It completely stopped rendering the game during a race for around 10 seconds. When playing, the hard drive light is on almost 100% of the time.

EDIT: This is definitely not fixed. Load times are slowly creeping back up.

Sounds like the system's firmware is the culprit. Use the recovery menu and select option "3".

(Just do a search on how to get into the recovery menu... I don't want to get it wrong.)

It's not the game... and there's nothing technically "wrong" with your system. Either your firmware or your hard drive are just "freaking out" and you need to perform the equivalent of a scandisk/registry cleaner.

[thideras]

Interesting, I'll check it out.

EDIT: Looked it over, seems simple enough. Should I just do the disk check or should I do the "Database rebuild" (OS check) as well?

[sandyduff]

I want to find the people that always say "I play consoles because they JUST WORK" and punch them in the face

Man that made me laugh...

Have you had any luck with this...?

[thideras]

The options have changed since the post I had found for the recovery portion. There was a check disk and a "database rebuild" in the guide, but my recovery console only had "Database rebuild" and it finished within a few minutes. I didn't try it extensively, but it seemed to lower the load times by a little bit.

[sandyduff]

Originally Posted by thideras

The options have changed since the post I had found for the recovery portion. There was a check disk and a "database rebuild" in the guide, but my recovery console only had "Database rebuild" and it finished within a few minutes. I didn't try it extensively, but it seemed to lower the load times by a little bit.

Maybe the hard drive is dying...?

[thideras]

Not sure, but this is a fairly new unit with very little play time on it. It is a very real possibility, though. I could pull it to see the SMART data on the drive.

Good idea.

[Theocnoob]

I agree about the console people who say it just works.

The only computer game I ever got that didn't was back in the stone age (1989) for an Amiga 500 (that's half a megabyte of memory folks!). Ghostbusters. Wouldn't frickin run on my system but it ran on the store's identical system. Same diskettes. I 'd for a looong time over it. This was 1989 so The Ghostbusters were like the shnizt and if you were a kid you really wanted the game to run.

[thideras]

Doing B-spec races while I raid and it is taking long between screens. Still not as bad as it was, but still higher than normal.

I hate the controls and this issue is absolutely killing any inkling of want to play this game.

[madhatter256]

There have been reports on GT5 'killing' PS3 that were on the verge of dying due to overheating, etc.

[thideras]

This is one of the slim versions and is barely getting warm. It has maybe 100 hours on it and it is used in a well ventilated location.

That also does not explain why the hard drive is constantly being used. Once I have the time to figure out how to make a backup of my game save for Gran Turismo, I'm just going to format it.

[sandyduff]

Originally Posted by thideras

This is one of the slim versions and is barely getting warm. It has maybe 100 hours on it and it is used in a well ventilated location.

That also does not explain why the hard drive is constantly being used. Once I have the time to figure out how to make a backup of my game save for Gran Turismo, I'm just going to format it.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-...s3-game-saves/

[thideras]

I tried copying the data, but it is disallowed. There are a ton of threads (on other sites) requesting this feature be added. It was finally added in the 1.05 version, but I think you do it in game. I just haven't had the patience to sit down and look for it.

[sandyduff]

Originally Posted by thideras

I tried copying the data, but it is disallowed. There are a ton of threads (on other sites) requesting this feature be added. It was finally added in the 1.05 version, but I think you do it in game. I just haven't had the patience to sit down and look for it.

Man that sucks... can you not ghost the hard drive...?

[thideras]

Well, I can back it up, I just need to do it in game. I don't know where that is. I'm sure I can find it easy, I just haven't looked. Tomorrow I start packing to move, so I have other stuff on my mind.

[thideras]

After a complete format/restore, the issue seems to have gone away. When loading from the disk, it was about five times faster than from the HDD before the format. I'm currently installing the data to the disk to see if it goes even faster.

[sandyduff]

Originally Posted by thideras

After a complete format/restore, the issue seems to have gone away. When loading from the disk, it was about five times faster than from the HDD before the format. I'm currently installing the data to the disk to see if it goes even faster.

good stuff...