They're (not there) Keyed.

The Blu-Ray drive and motherboard are MARRIED at the factory with a KEY.  If you swap the motherboard, you need the blu-ray drive that came with THAT system.  Since you have a 60GB board, you will be  better off buying a new PS3 Slim, or used PS3 FAT, for what they are going to hit you with, for a hardware BwC motherboard and matching drive, or drive logic board.   The DRIVES must also be the same if you only get a logic-board. 

I can get used PS3s for 249.99 locally, and cheaper on-line.  Since the price drop and slim model, the older models, EXCEPT the 60/20Gb, do not have much resale value.  I still have a 60GB, and they are still selling for over 500.00 in the used game stores.  The Software or NO BwC are selling for 249.99, then they sell a year warranty (which sony offers on NEW) that brings the total to a NEW one anyway.

It is not worth the repair if you can't get a 60GB Motherboard and Matching Blu-Ray drive (or logic board) for well under 200 bucks.

80GB motherboards are going for 105.00 to 169.99 on Ebay with no BR-D logic.
60GB "                                        89.00  to  185.00                                      "

You need the married pair for it to work...

You can't, they're done by machine.  Some chips, maybe, but not the CPU or GPU in a home environment.

Canadane wrote:

Funny, as I've swapped the disk drives without changing the drives board out at all.
I guess their marriage weren't doing so well.

You sir, are a liar.  You cannot buy a PS3 BR-D from another unit, place it in yours, and have it run PS3 games.  They are KEYed to the unit, just like the Xbox360 DVD drives are.  IF you are saying, you simply bought another drive, plugged it in, and it worked, you are a LIAR, and I am not surprised. People say this stuff to make themselves look like they're someone they're not, except a LIAR.

You have to use YOUR blu-ray drive logic board, IN the drive you bought.  You can persist all you want with your colloquial lie, no one will believe you, EVER.

Mick wrote:

the drives are married in batches so he might of got lucky and bought one from the same batch as his

That would also mean that a "batch" of PS3s with their respective BR-Ds have the same KeyVault, and KEY in the drive.  I don't think so, and I will go out and say that's NOT so...  When the CPUs are manufactured, they are all assigned individual keys, like Intel CPUs have individual serial#s embedded in the core.  The BR-Ds are flashed with the Key at the "shop", the JTAG port blown (eFuses), and assembled to the unit.

There is no way that any "BATCH" or "RUN" will have the same keys.  You know how many machines are in a RUN?  Thousands, so that would mean THOUSANDS have the same keys, there is no way Sony is that stupid.  Microsoft wasn't, so you can be assured, with a YEAR behind M$ to look at, they didn't either.